This going to be a mobile blog which I rarely do but I have been crazy busy recently with my career gig that it has caused some lapses here which I apologize for.
We are doing our #WildWednesday Jeff Dubay Show from O'Garas tonight Snelling Avenue and Selby Avenue 7pm so if you get the opportunity we love talking hockey with people and are very excited to invade an Irish Pub with our show this evening!
It sounds as if Minnesota Wild Head Coach Mike Yeo will be forced to mix up his lines tonight in Calgary due to an injury that will keep Winger Thomas Vanek out of the lineup. I wrote in a tweet after the loss to Vancouver that although Mikko Koivu with Zach Parise and Jason Pominville is the safe zone option for the Wild's bench boss, that line along with Mikael Granlund centering Vanek and Justin Fontaine were invisible against the Canucks.
I really view that Granlund line w/Vanek&Fontaine as being too small and too finesse. The Canucks punished them all night which rendered them pretty worthless. the best line by far was The 3rd centered by Charlie Coyle with Nino Niederreiter and Jordan Schroeder!
The insistence that Stephane "STEVE" Veilluex be in the lineup is #YeoKnowsBest at its finest. He was good on PK two games ago but he literally adds nothing else and is a wasted opportunity for a guy like Brent Sutter or Tyler Graovac to play with Erik Haula and Kyle Brodziak.
I loved the fire and aggressiveness shown by Matthew Dumba at the end there during the mad scramble to tie it in Vancouver. I think this kid can be so special when he is pushing the play and empowered! We saw a glimpse there, hopefully his role becomes more specialized to allow him to get more chances to press his offensive gifts into action!
Just My Take, Tony Dean