Dan Wallace: Wild Look to Rebound: Playoff Tuneup Continues In LA

As I said in yesterdays game thread, last nights game is the epitome of why this team is not ready to make a legit cup run. Can't just play strong for 2 periods and then get dominated in the 3rd. And they were thoroughly dominated.

I can't disagree with ya Gump. But I was pretty much feeling that they weren't Cup contenders all season. I will not be surprise on a 1st Rd exit again this year. There is just too much that needs to be changed, player-wise, for them to be taken as serious Cup contenders.

On another note, the Suter injury really sounds pretty bad. The idea that if he was playing most any other sport, he career would be in jeopardy. And I still think this might really hamper him going forward. Yes, skates do kind of hold ankles, but what about his off-ice training? I know a lot of players do a lot of running and agility drills to get into the shape they want to be. How much is that going to be affected?

And I am guessing as much as nobody wants to talk about it, could this actually help the Wild in the long run? Say Suter is NOT able to come back from this injury, say there is just too much damage done and that things will never be right for Suter again? Could the Wild park him on LTIR and gain that cap space back for his career? I know this is a subject that nobody even wants to consider (and I agree, I really don't want to talk about it either), as no one wants to see a player's career ending because of an injury. I just don't see the Wild going anywhere this season worth while, so I am looking at scenarios for upcoming seasons.

Wow. Just really hard to get behind this team right now. Not placing all the blame on Stalock, but I honestly would like to look into a new back up next season. I just do not like his style of play. His aggressive style of playing the puck I believe puts himself out of position for what should be relatively easy saves.


Other than that, this team defensively is just hot and cold. They looked okay at times last night but at other times looked overwhelmed much like they did in the 3rd period of the Anaheim game. I'm starting to see now why Murphy was available, he's been absolutely terrible the last few games.


I just have little to no faith in them defensively.

I dont' want to jump to conclusions too quickly, but the Greenway kid is not impressing me in the least. All we heard about was how big this kid is. Well so far he doesn't play big at all. I dont' expect him to be lighting people up every shift, but he doesn't seem to use his size to his advantage in the least.