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BRUTAL Pre-Season Opener for Wild. It Can Only Get Better, Right? Right!?!?

September 18, 2013, 11:49 AM ET [24 Comments]
Brad Ratgen
Minnesota Wild Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Ok folks. Last night? That. Was. BRUTAL.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know it was pre-season and all. I’ll even give them the benefit of the doubt since it was the Wild’s first pre-season game of the year. But, it felt like I was at one of their intra-squad scrimmages or at an AHL pre-season game between the Springfield Falcons (Columbus’ AHL team) and the Iowa Wild (Minnesota’s AHL team).

Granted, there were only 7 guys sure to be on the Wild’s opening night roster (Ballard, Coyle, Scandella, Mitchell, Brodziak, Cooke and Backstrom) and the rest were guys fighting for spots on the opening night roster (Zucker, Dowell, Niederreiter, Steckel, Prosser, Dumba and Granlund) or guys sure not to make the opening night roster (Blum, Veilleux, McMillan, Connelly, Fontaine and Kuemper).

First, the only guy in the bottom group that did anything somewhat impressive for me is Kuemper. He stopped all 7 shots he faced after coming in just past the half way mark of the game. Then again, Columbus already had a comfortable lead that they were protecting.

In the bubble group, Zucker was underwhelming and eventually injured in the 2nd period; Dowell had a pretty decent fight with Cody Bass that went longer than average; Niederreiter impressed me with his size and drive to the net which resulted in the lone Wild goal; Steckel won 75% of his face-offs (6 of 8) so he lived up to his billing as a face-off specialist; Prosser I thought was solid and was neither plus nor minus on the night; Dumba, while having the most shots (4) was still underwhelming for me given all the hype surrounding him and was minus-1 on the night; Granlund skated well, through some weight around in the hitting department and was instrumental on the lone Wild goal as the guy behind the net feeding it out front to Coyle for a shot and Nino’s rebound, backhand shelf goal, not to mention winning 50% of his face-offs (9 of 18).

As for the top 7, already on the team group, Backstrom was not very good in his rebound control, but his defense didn’t help him out in this area either (3 goals on 10 shots; YIKES!); I didn’t notice Ballard and Scandella too much which is usually a good sign for defensemen (they were both minus-1 on the night); Coyle was underwhelming at center with 1 shot in the 2nd period, 38% on face-offs (6 of 16) and even in the plus/minus category (I really hope he gets put back to wing to be a power forward); I didn’t notice Mitchell much who had 1 shot in the 1st period and was even on the plus/minus. Brodziak was decent in face-offs going 71% (12 for 17), had 1 shot in the 1st period and was minus-1 on the night; and I noticed Matt Cooke trying to create throughout the night while letting up on some checks I would have expected him or his predecessor, Cal Clutterbuck, to have taken thus giving credence to his “I’m trying to clean up my act” cause.

The Wild’s lone goal came on the power play, but all 3 goals against were at even strength. All in all, a really bad performance and not a whole lot of effort shown out there. Even my 5 year old daughter commented to my wife after we got home that “the Wild didn’t look like they knew what they were doing out there tonight”. Granted, it’s coming from a 5 year old, but still. Not once throughout the night did anyone sitting around us say or comment on that so I find it sort of unique that even she can pick up on that during the times she wasn’t looking in the stands trying to find Nordy which I’m sure was more fun than watching the slop on the ice.

So, it can only get better from here, right? I sure hope so, but I’m afraid it might actually continue into the regular season as my friend, Timo Seppa, editor-in-chief of Hockey Prospectus (hockeyprospectus.com) just informed me that they have the Wild picked to finish 29th this season based on advanced stats, corsii ratings, etc.

All in all, Granlund made a big stride forward which I hope continues so Coyle can go back to being a power forward winger. Hopefully, his progress continues and everyone just keeps getting better.

Lastly, where were all the Wild fans last night? There were A LOT of open seats. It felt like the 3rd place game for the AA Boys’ State Hockey Tournament in there last night. Seeing the hybrid icing in effect was cool and long overdue in my opinion. The fans that were there started booing the Wild after their first power play when they didn’t get a shot on net, much less get the puck out of their own zone. At one point, Backstrom got run by Hansen and not one Wild player got in Hansen’s face about it. Not one! Oh, and let's not forget, Columbus had a split squad as they were also playing at home last night against Buffalo.

There you go. An over-analyzed pre-season game. Thoughts?
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