Worry: Yes. Panic: No

"We’re trying to do everything we can to find the right solution, whether it’s to spark guys or find the right mix. Usually there’s a method to the madness, we’re not just trying to catch lightning in a bottle. We want to make sure that are putting something together that can work, more than just in the short term." -Mike Yeo


For those of who who already are panicking, you can stop reading. I have no time for you.

Over the week, I have separated myself from the blogs and tweets because simply, too many have chosen to hit the panic button on the season. And its hard to simply wrap my head around the fact, that after 10 games, we should be firing Mike Yeo, demoting Mikael Granlund to AHL, and trying to trade Devin Setoguchi.

I believe that Mike Yeo is the right leader for this team. He has won before as an assistant. And in his lone season as the Houston coach, he lead the team to the Calder Cup Final. The guy has always been around winning. And he has a team right now that can and will win.

Mikael Granlund is a rookie folks. He has 9 games under his belt, in the NHL. He registered 21 points (8G, 13A) in 21 games for Houston, and if memory served me right, he did not get off to a fast start there either (But don't hold me to this). He will come around, it just takes a little time. Even Steven Stamkos sat out a few games in his rookie season too.

And despite a horrendous start by Devin Setoguchi, I too am a believer in NOT trading him right now. He has played well this week, despite not scoring a goal yet. But if he can continue playing like this, he will start finding the back of the net. And yes, I am well aware of the many forwards this team is carrying, but is it possible that Yeo is keeping them, so players can step up their game so they dont have to watch the game from upstaits? I would certainly think so. And it is certainly a good problem to have, when you can't decide which forwards to scratch because they all have played well this past week (Granlund was scratched Thursday despite a great game Monday. Mitchell is a scratch tonight despite his stellar performance all week).

Yes, I know that its a shortened season, and we cannot afford to have prolonged slumps like this. But, no, I do not believe that this slump will go on much longer. This team just needs a bounce to go their way. Once they get that bounce and find confidence, they will take off.

Should we be panicking, absolutely not. Should we be worried, yes, a bit.

We can talk about the panic button after 20 games.


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

Wild Trade Powe For Rupp

In a swap of fourth line players today, the Wild sent F Darroll Powe to the New York Rangers in exchange for F Mike Rupp. F Nick Palmieri was also sent to the Rangers in the deal too.

Rupp, 33, has been around the league a bit, playing for 5 different teams (NJ, PHO, CBJ, PIT, NYR) before being acquired by Minnesota today.

Rupp is a big guy, standing at 6'6" and 243 lbs, and gives them a physical presence this team sorely needs. As Russo mentioned today, he has been in 78 career fights. He also is a Stanley Cup winner, with the Devils in 02-03.

The Wild are taking on slightly more salary with Rupp than Powe. Rupp is owed $1.5M this year and next year, whereas Powe was due to make $1.066M this year and next year. Obviously not a huge cap hit, but when you are as close to the ceiling as the Wild are, every dollar counts.

Since there are many videos of Rupp fighting, here is a Rupp goal video

A message is being sent to this team. Play well, or you can hit the road. Devin Setoguchi may not be far behind Powe on his way out the door. But look for this to maybe jump start this lifeless team starting tonight in Phoenix.

Shoot!

(It just happened to be a coincidence that I thought of this video and we are playing the Ducks today)

Tonight, the Wild open up a brief 2 game road trip in Anaheim. And as the team still is trying to find consistent scoring from lines 2-4, they can certainly help themselves by doing one thing: Shoot the puck.

The Wild come into tonight's game with the 4th lowest shots per game average in the league (27.1). They had at least 30 shots in each of their first three games, but since, they have totals of 27, 16, 26, and 25. They have been doing this, despite having one of the higher Time on the Power Play numbers in the league, with 48:33 of total PP time (11th best in the NHL).

But perhaps the most alarming stat out of all of this, is the 3rd period shots, or lack thereof, this team is getting. Through their first three games, they were averaging 11 shots on goal in the third period. But in the 4 game since, they are just averaging 4 (Yep, you read that right, 4) shots on goal in the third period. And miraculously, this team has won 2 of those games, and they have earned 5 out of a possible 8 points.

And during all of this, Zach Parise has fired 30 shots on goal, which ranks 3rd in the NHL, behind scoring leaders Patrick Marleau and Thomas Vanek (Both have 33 SOG).

(This is the part of the post where you cue up Greenlay saying "Every shot is a good shot!")

Now getting back to tonight's matchup, the Wild find themselves playing a Ducks team that comes in with a high goals for (3.2 GPG-8th best in NHL) average, and the same goals against average (3.2-10th worst in NHL). The Ducks have had inconsistent play from Jonas Hiller in the past few years, and they have a more offensive minded defensive core.

So Mike Yeo's pregame message tonight should be pretty plain and simple: Shoot the freaking puck! (He may choose to replace freaking with another word beginning with the letter f)

Even if its like Goldbe...er...I mean Russ Tyler, and he takes a shot from his own blue line (As you can watch in the video at the top), please, shoot the puck! Because sometimes just taking the shot, is better than trying to find the perfect shot.


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

An Awesome GIF and a Thank You

Thanks to our friends at thehockeyguys.net for this glorious gif

Thank you to all my followers this past month. It was the most viewed month in this blog's short history. As a thank you, you can stare at the gif of Parise's shootout goal last night.

Ill be back tomorrow with an actual post, as I still try and fully wrap my head around the last two games.

Again, thank you everyone!


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

Believe In Backstrom

Following last night's 3-1 defeat to Nashville, many fans took to social media, to voice their displeasure with Wild netminder Niklas Backstrom. And while his bad clearing attempt did lead to the game winning goal, the loss was not all his fault.

The highlights of the game on Wild TV does not truly paint the picture as to how well Backstrom played. He was positioned well, and made some stellar saves to keep the score 1-1. If you look at the other 2 goals he allowed, he really had no chance to make saves on them (A blocked shot put the puck on Spaling's stick with an empty net, and a 3 on 1 rush on a power play). Its just that second goal allowed that has everyone up in arms today.

As you can see, Backstrom was huge. He made 23 saves, and gave his team a chance to win the game. That's what you want from your starting goaltender. The fact is, the Wild dominated the first 15 minutes of the game, then went into a deep sleep until Erat's goal. So had Backstrom not brought his best to the rink last night, Nashville easily could of won the game 5-1 or 6-1.

Before everyone cries out for Harding to get the majority of the starts, please, look a little more closely at how Backstrom plays. Because he is a pretty solid goaltender. He just had some bad breaks last night.


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

#hockeyisback

Kings raise their Stanley Cup Banner at 2. Wild drop the puck at 8.

Enjoy your day full of hockey. I know I will.

NHL 2013 Preview: Playoff Predictions

Over this past week, we have looked at the 6 different divisions and picked their standings. Now, its time to pick the 8 teams from each conference that will make it to the playoffs. We will also be picking the conference champions and the Stanley Cup Champions.

1. Pittsburgh Penguins

2. Boston Bruins

3. Washington Capitals

4. New York Rangers

5. Carolina Hurricanes

6. Philadelphia Flyers

7. Buffalo Sabres

8. Tampa Bay Lightning

Eastern Conference Champion: New York Rangers

1. Vancouver Canucks

2. St. Louis Blues

3. San Jose Sharks

4. Los Angeles Kings

5. Chicago Blackhawks

6. Detroit Red Wings

7. Minnesota Wild

8. Edmonton Oilers

Western Conference Champion: Los Angeles Kings

Stanley Cup Final

New York Rangers over Los Angeles Kings in 6 games

Tomorrow, we finally drop the puck. Enjoy the season everyone!

Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

NHL 2013 Preview: Northwest Division

5. Calgary Flames-One would think that with the fifth highest payroll in the league, Calgary would be destined to finish high up in this division, right? Wrong. The reason Calgary has such a high payroll, is they have brought in overrated players and massively overpaid them (Cammalleri-$6M, Bouwmeester-$6.68M, Wideman-$5.25M, Giordano-$4.02M), to prevent fans from thinking they are rebuilding. The fact is, Calgary should be rebuilding. They have a stale offense, overhyped defense, and a goaltender (Kiprusoff) who will eventually run out of gas from starting so many games a season. With all the other teams in this division getting better, Calgary has nowhere to go but last.

4. Colorado Avalanche-Colorado was probably the hardest team in this division to pick. They have some blossoming young stars (Landeskog, Duchene), but still have some question marks on the squad (Defense, goaltending). The Avs top defensive unit consists of Erik Johnson and Jan Hejda (Yikes!), and their #1 goaltender heading into the season is Semyon Varlamov. All these players have shown signs of brilliance, but they also have shown horrible stretches of play. Colorado doesnt get off to the best start in 2013, but they have a strong finish. But it only gets them a fourth place finish.

3. Edmonton Oilers-At long last, Edmonton gets out of the Northwest's basement. They had 11 players playing during the 119 day lockout, including their top line of Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Jordan Eberle (They played on the same line for Oklahoma City, too). Since they have had the #1 pick in the draft for the past decade (Slight exaggeration), Edmonton now has the best crop of young forwards, and now has the best defenseman prospect in all of hockey, when they signed Justin Schultz this summer. The Oilers however, still have a lack of depth at defenseman, and have a big question mark in net, handing over the reigns to Devan Dubnyk while letting Nikolai Khabibulin sit on the bench. Edmonton gets off to a fast start in 2013, but the leaders of the division will catch up and pass them eventually. But the question remains, can Edmonton hold on for a playoff spot?


2. Minnesota Wild-As we saw yesterday, Minnesota made a flurry of moves this offseason, capped off by the July 4th signing of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Even with Suter, the Wild will need increased production from D-Men Jared Spurgeon and Marco Scandella (When he recovers from injury), to stand a chance in this division. Minnesota has tremendous depth in the entire organization, so should someone go down with an injury, they have boatloads of talent to replace them. The Wild may not get off to a fast start, but they recover quickly and take second place in this division, and sneak their way into a playoff spot for the first time since 2008.

1. Vancouver Canucks-Despite injuries to Ryan Kesler and David Booth, this is still the team to beat in the Northwest. Perhaps the greatest strength for Vancouver this year, will be that they will have Corey Schneider and Roberto Luongo sharing time between the pipes (Unless Luongo finally gets moved). Both are #1 goalies, and Vancouver will most definitely use this to their advantage. The Canucks went out and bolstered their blue line, by signing Jason Garrison away from Florida. Garrison gives the Defense a little more offensive punch. Up front Vancouver is still led by the Sedin twins, and they still are the best tandem in the league. Vancouver has to a work a bit more to earn it, but they still take the division.


Check back tomorrow for playoff predictions.




Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

NHL 2013 Preview: Minnesota Wild

Three days from now, the 12th season in the history of the Minnesota Wild, will get under way. And perhaps, this is the most anticipated season in the team's history (Rivaling year one). Today, we look back at the previous year, and look ahead to the upcoming year, and in between, we will break down all the moves this team made during the summer.

Offseason Moves

Coming In: F Zach Parise, D Ryan Suter, F Torrey Mitchell, F Zenon Konopka, F Jake Dowell, D Brian Connelly

Heading Out: F Guillaume Latendresse, F Nick Johnson, F Erik Christensen, D Mike Lundin, F Warren Peters

In case you lived under a rock since the end of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, no moves in hockey were bigger than when the Wild inked Parise and Suter to matching 13 year, $98 million deals. The deal should boost the last place Wild offense, and strengthen the power play, to where they can put up goals with any team in the league. The additions of Mitchell and Konopka strengthen bottom 2 lines, and give the Wild prospects in Houston, more time to get acclimated with professional hockey. The Wild now enter the season with 4 complete lines, and perhaps the best on paper foward line combinations, they have ever had.

Projected Lines

(Stats listed are from the 2011-12 season)

LW-C-RW

(Goals-Assists-Points)

Zach Parise-Mikko Koivu-Dany Heatley

(31-38-69)-(12-32-44)-(24-29-53)

Matt Cullen-Mikael Granlund-Devin Setoguchi

(14-21-35)-(DNP in NHL)-(19-17-36)

Cal Clutterbuck-Kyle Brodziak-Pierre-Marc Bouchard

(15-12-27)-(22-22-44)-(9-13-22)

Darroll Powe-Zenon Konopka-Torrey Mitchell

(6-7-13)-(3-2-5)-(9-10-19)

Reserves: Matt Kassian (2-0-2), Stephane Veilleux (0-2-2), Jake Dowell (2-5-7), Nick Palmieri (4-3-7)

Defenseman

Ryan Suter-Jared Spurgeon

(7-39-46)-(3-20-23)

Clayton Stoner-Tom Gilbert

(1-4-5)-(3-19-22)

Justin Falk-Nate Prosser

(1-8-9)-(1-11-12)

Reserves: Steve Kampfer (2-3-5), Marco Scandella* (3-9-12)
* denotes player is injured

Goalies

(W-L-OT, GAA, SV PCT)

Starter: Niklas Backstrom (19-18-7, 2.43, .919)

Backup: Josh Harding (13-12-4, 2.62, .917)

Reserve: Matt Hackett (3-6-0, 2.38, .922)

Head Coach

Mike Yeo

2nd NHL Season

35-36-11

Players That Need To Step Up

Dany Heatley

Last year, Heatley came over in a trade from San Jose. He played all 82 games and had top line minutes in every one of those games. Problem was, his production was the lowest its ever been in his 10 year NHL career. Now that the Wild added Zach Parise to play opposite Heatley, Heater will need to increase his production to take pressure off Parise and give the Wild a dual threat on their top line.

Devin Setoguchi

Like Heatley, Setoguchi is in his second season in a Wild uniform.  And he too had the worst statistical season of his career in 2011-12. Setoguchi often played on the top line for Minnesota in 2011-12, but this season you can write him in pen on the second line. The Wild need Setoguchi to step up his game to give them a great 2nd scoring line. With puck movers Cullen and Granlund on his line, he will be relied upon to score the goals on that line.

Tom Gilbert

In 08-09, Gilbert had the best year of his career, when he notched 45 points (5G, 40A) for Edmonton. Since then, he has been on a slow decline. Gilbert, was acquired before the trade deadline in 2012, for fan favorite Nick Schultz, and was brought in to be the puck moving defenseman the Wild needed. Now that Ryan Suter is in the fold, Gilbert will be on the second defensive pairing, and the Wild need him to play some big minutes and make some big plays. If he can't, one could see the Wild using one of their compliance buyouts on him in the offseason with young D-Men Brodin and Dumba on the way up.

5 Prospects That Will Impact 2013

Mikael Granlund-F

Obviously, Granlund will be making an impact on the 2013 roster. He will be starting as the second line center in between Cullen and Setoguchi. Granlund is a great talent, as he has great skills and vision to set up and sometimes score goals. The team's top prospect finally signed on with the club this past summer, and will be a huge addition to the squad in 2013. 

Jason Zucker-F

Zucker is not slated to start the season with the big club. But should one of the forwards get injured, look for the Aeros leading scorer to be the first man called up. Zucker has transitioned his game from the WCHA to the AHL quite nicely, putting up similar numbers between the two leagues. He has been a force on Houston's top line, using his speed and great hands to keep his name in the scoresheet.

Matt Dumba-D

The Wild's first round pick in 2012 will get his chance with the club in 2013. An injury to Marco Scandella has helped open the door for Dumba to get some NHL minutes this year. But in all likelihood, Dumba will play a few games with Minnesota before he gets sent back to Red Deer to finish off the season. Dumba is an offensive minded defenseman, scoring 20 goals for Red Deer last year (He has 10 this year). Look for him to fire the puck on net often, when he gets his chance with the Wild this year.

Matt Hackett-G

Hackett made this in last year's Wild Preview. He is still considered a prospect, and he will make an impact at some point this year, so it made sense to put him on this list. Hackett has been the starter for Houston for three years now, and in the final year of Nik Backstrom's contract, the goalie would like to send the front office a message by playing strongly. He will only see time with the Wild this year should Backstrom or Harding go down with an injury. And if he does, the Wild will need him to play very sharply, given the condensed schedule and all.

Jonas Brodin-D

Entering the season, Jonas Brodin is injured, and not playing anywhere. But, in the next couple of weeks he could return to the ice. Brodin is a solid defensive minded defenseman and has ridiculous vision when he is on the ice. He was so much of a rock for Houston's blue line, before going down with injury, that there was/still is talk of him making the Wild roster at some point this year. Its more likely now that Brodin will only get a shot with Minnesota this year in the event of someone getting hurt, but should he get called up, he may not get sent back down.

Where They'll Finish

Check back tomorrow to see where the Wild will finish in the division standings in 2013, and then on Friday to see where they will finish in the conference standings, when we predict the NHL season and playoffs.


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

NHL 2013 Preview: Central Division

5. Columbus Blue Jackets-This is just about the poorest looking hockey team, one has seen in quite some time. Their top line consists of Artim Anisimov, Brandon Dubinsky, and RJ Umberger (Anisimov and Dubinsky came in the return package for Rick Nash). They finally found someone to talk over for Steve Mason as the #1 goalie in Sergei Bobrovsky, but Bobrovsky has not played #1 minutes before. They have a blueline of overrated players (led by James Wisniewski and Jack Johnson), and a coach who couldn't win with better talent on a different team (Former Wild bench boss Todd Richards). Columbus is a lock to finish last in this division, and finish last in all of the NHL.

4. Nashville Predators-Nashville was poised to make a deep playoff run last year. But, all they could do was get past the first round, then bow out to Phoenix in the second round. But despite the loss of Ryan Suter in the offseason, this is still a pretty good team. They rely on defense (Led by Norris finalist Shea Weber) and goaltending (Pekka Rinne enters 2013 as one of the best in hockey between the pipes) to win games. They don't scare you much offensively, so if you can get up past 3 goals a game on them, you have a good chance to win. Nashvilee has a good core, but they lack scoring to be a serious threat to win the division. They will be a team battling for a low playoff seed in late April.

3. Detroit Red Wings-Last year, we Detroit's run of dominating the Central division come to an end. They finished 3rd in the division and were sent home by Nashville in the first round of the playoffs. Then in the offseason, they lost their team leader, Nicklas Lidstrom, to retirement. To replace him, the Wings will have youngster Brendan Smith take the spot on the top Defense line. The Wings are still solid up front, with Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg leading the charge. The defense is now pretty average that Lidstrom is gone, and their attempts to replace him with a high profile name (Ryan Suter, Justin Schultz), failed. Jimmy Howard is sneaky good between the pipes, but Jonas Gustavsson will have to step up his game as the back up after coming over. This is still a playoff team, but they are not anywhere close to being at the top of the West hierarchy, like they used to be.

2. Chicago Blackhawks-Perhaps no team has underachieved more in the last 2 seasons than the Chicago Blackhawks. They barely made the playoffs in 2011, and they were handed a first round playoff exit by Phoenix in 2012. And no player has taken more heat than Patrick Kane (23-43-66 in 2011-12), in the last year, when it comes to underachieving. The Hawks have a weakness at center (Jonathan Toews and Dave Bolland are the only 2 established centers on the team), but can make up for it with their talented wingers. All eyes will be on Corey Crawford, and if he can handle the team's role of being a #1 goaltender. If not, maybe the Hawks go out and get a goalie before the trade deadline. Chicago comes in a distant second to St. Louis in this division. But, can they avoid a third straight first round exit in 2013?

1. St. Louis Blues-In a shortened season like this one, you need two solid goalies on your roster. And look no further than St. Louis, for the best goalie tandem in the league. Last year, Brian Elliott (1.56 GAA in 2011-12) and Jaroslav Halak (1.97 GAA in 2011-12) allowed the fewest goals (155) in the NHL. The Blues rely heavily on defense and goaltending to win, and they are very strong at both areas. Their defense, led by blooming stars Kevin Shattenkirk and Alex Pietrangelo, is young, but exceptionally good. Up front , the Blues have 2 solid forward lines, but lines 3 and 4 need much improvement. After the success of last year (Central Division Champs), this team looks to move further on in the playoffs. Its hard to see that with their lack of depth at forward, but their defense and goaltending gets them the Central crown once again.


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell