April 9, 20188 yr Author Looking forward to what should be the start of an intense border battle rivalry, for years to come.Experience certainly favours the Wild, and a very good 100 point season is nothing to sneeze at.Depth favours the Jets, especially with the Wild losing Suter. That's a lot of minutes and situations to off load onto anyone else.If Dubnyk gets hot or if Hellebyuck can't translate his regular season to the playoffs, it's anyone's series.Can't wait. I think the Jets win, but really it comes down to the goaltending. And I think both teams enter the series unsure about what they're going to get.
April 9, 20188 yr Not sure I'm buying this playoff experience argument that I keep hearing.It's the same game, same rules (OT aside), same rink.These guys are all pros, they're playing for their livelihood, so there is always pressure.How'd the playoff experience advantage work out for the Patriots in the Super Bowl?True enough, I find it to be a bit of a false narrative myself. Having said that, veteran teams can sometimes stay more even keeled. It will be more of a challenge for Maurice to keep his young players sticking to the game plan and not getting impatient in close games.
April 9, 20188 yr One would think the agony of defeat would be a motivator for the more veteran team. The Wild have boatloads of that.
April 9, 20188 yr I think the Jets win, but really it comes down to the goaltending. And I think both teams enter the series unsure about what they're going to get. I guess, but those just seem like manufactured story lines. I don't think either team doubts their goaltending and there is every reason to believe both will be at the top of their game. Hellebuyck is a near Vezina candidate, I don't think that will suddenly reverse itself.
April 9, 20188 yr Author I guess, but those just seem like manufactured story lines. I don't think either team doubts their goaltending and there is every reason to believe both will be at the top of their game. Hellebuyck is a near Vezina candidate, I don't think that will suddenly reverse itself. Well, most storylines are manufactured, including your examples. We could just boil it down to "whoever scores more goals than the other team" if we want to avoid that. Hellebuyck has never done this before, he's in uncharted waters. Dubnyk has gone pumpkin on us a few times in the playoffs. It wouldn't shock me at all if both were sub-par this year.
April 9, 20188 yr Well, most storylines are manufactured, including your examples. We could just boil it down to "whoever scores more goals than the other team" if we want to avoid that. Hellebuyck has never done this before, he's in uncharted waters. Dubnyk has gone pumpkin on us a few times in the playoffs. It wouldn't shock me at all if both were sub-par this year.Well, there are a lot of story lines that aren't manufactured, but I'm not getting into a statistical and a matchup analysis between the two teams. The Jets being a deeper team isn't a manufactired story line, they simply are. Who's played more playoff games and what impact that has on the series is just subjective crap. Honestly I was throwing the Wild a bone when mentioning that they have the edge in experience. Nothing else comes to mind. . But yeah, playoff hockey........anything can happen.
April 10, 20188 yr Author Jets are definitely deeper and more physical. It was my least favorite matchup for the Wild to draw. That is a ridiculously good team. Edited April 10, 20188 yr by TheLeviathan
April 10, 20188 yr The way this team has been playing, to include the thrashing it just gave the Sharks to finish the season, they can hang with anyone. Some wrote this team off really early in the season, shouldn't do it again so early in the playoffs. Upsets happen all the time. Edited April 10, 20188 yr by jimmer
April 10, 20188 yr I think a lot of people will be surprised at the end of the first round with how the Wild don't get blown out of the water. They're actually a very deep team up front as well and have played extremely well (minus a few games) since the end of November.
April 10, 20188 yr The ‘experts’ at ESPN (note: i thought all the experts had been purged from ESPN in the past 12 months, despite the inexplicable onboarding of Wysh who’s working there for god knows why) have unanimously picked the Jets in the first round. Gotta say, that seems a little strong.
April 11, 20188 yr The ‘experts’ at ESPN (note: i thought all the experts had been purged from ESPN in the past 12 months, despite the inexplicable onboarding of Wysh who’s working there for god knows why) have unanimously picked the Jets in the first round. Gotta say, that seems a little strong.Sounds about right to me......
April 14, 20188 yr The Wild are now 3-14 in their last 17 postseason games.Slightly better than the Twins postseason win percentage since 2002. Not good.
April 14, 20188 yr I don't pay much attention to hockey until the playoffs, so I am a very casual fan. Last year, the Wild had the home ice vs. St. Louis and outshot the Blues by similar margins to what Winnipeg is outshooting the Wild to this point. I think the unofficial line was that St. Louis used a rope-a-dope strategy against the superior team. Are the Wild trying to do the same? From what I (again a very casual fan) can see, the Wild haven't been dominated territorially and in shots on goal like this all season.
April 14, 20188 yr I don't pay much attention to hockey until the playoffs, so I am a very casual fan. Last year, the Wild had the home ice vs. St. Louis and outshot the Blues by similar margins to what Winnipeg is outshooting the Wild to this point. I think the unofficial line was that St. Louis used a rope-a-dope strategy against the superior team. Are the Wild trying to do the same? From what I (again a very casual fan) can see, the Wild haven't been dominated territorially and in shots on goal like this all season.That might have been their plan in game 1.Game 2 they were just utterly dominated by Winnipeg. They didn't look like they belonged on the same ice.
April 15, 20188 yr Author I think that is the plan, but you still need to have some form of offensive pressure at the same time. They've had next to none both games. And the physicality angle has been worse than I feared.
April 17, 20188 yr The injuries to the Wild team this season are truly unbelievable. All big time players are getting injured. Parise and Granlund to start the season, Nino and Coyle for a few weeks each with a broken fibula, Brodin, Spurgeon, Suter.....
April 17, 20188 yr Ugh, that's a tough one for the Wild. Don't like to see that, especially to a guy like Parise. That's going to be tough mentally on the team, not only missing his skill but creates a big leadership void as well.
April 17, 20188 yr Ugh, that's a tough one for the Wild. Don't like to see that, especially to a guy like Parise. That's going to be tough mentally on the team, not only missing his skill but creates a big leadership void as well.No doubt. I think this is the dagger for Minnesota. Gonna be tough to stretch this series to 6 games now.
April 18, 20188 yr Parise has been their best player the last 3 weeks of the regular season, and the playoffs (not counting goalie).I don't know what specifically you are basing that opinion on, but I don't think you'll find any company.
April 18, 20188 yr Parise has been their best player the last 3 weeks of the regular season, and the playoffs (not counting goalie).I don't know what specifically you are basing that opinion on, but I don't think you'll find any company.That’s just, like, my opinion, man.
April 21, 20188 yr And this is the team that Fletcher has built from scratch. There should be no excuses.Unfortunately, I fear there will be. They'll use injuries as an excuse, like every other team is immune to injuries. Or the officials were against us. Last year they just got unlucky, ran into a hot goalie, etc. Year before that, the Hawks are just better, poor us.Year before that, bad puck luck, puck went in off a stanchion, we just can't get a break. Thirty years from now I'll be an old man, and I'll still be hearing how the Wild just can't catch a break, how Fletcher is actually great because we make the playoffs every year. Of course they won't mention that more than half of the teams in the league make the playoffs! Like that's some amazing accomplishment.
April 21, 20188 yr Author Time to shake up the roster. Parise and Suter are untradeable so I think the following players are locks next year: Zucker-Staal-GranlundParise-KoivuKunin-Erickson Ek-GreenwayFoligno Suter-SpurgeonDumbaSeeler That means Brodin, Coyle, Nino, Ennis should all be trade chips. Am I missing anything?
April 21, 20188 yr Time to shake up the roster. Parise and Suter are untradeable so I think the following players are locks next year: Zucker-Staal-GranlundParise-KoivuKunin-Erickson Ek-GreenwayFoligno Suter-SpurgeonDumbaSeeler That means Brodin, Coyle, Nino, Ennis should all be trade chips. Am I missing anything?Finding a goalie who can handle playoff hockey. Dubs is a regular season player and disappears every post season.
April 21, 20188 yr Author Finding a goalie who can handle playoff hockey. Dubs is a regular season player and disappears every post season. I thought he had an excellent Game 1 and 2. But yeah...then playoff Dubs again.
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