Anything I have to say as the resident game warden will be this color.
Well, this is the end of the 82 game pre-season. Next week is when it really matters.
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PREGAME COMMENTS:
No injuries today and I'll be happy. A win would just be a bonus.
I've officially decided I want to play Nashville, so I hope we win this one.
Possible scenarios (correct me if I'm wrong, my brain hurts now so maybe just ignore this post, I could very well be ********)
Based on regulation wins/losses
1: CHI win + ANA win + MIN win = MIN 1st wild card @ 7th seed (STL round 1)
2: CHI win + ANA win + MIN loss = Min 1st wild card @ 7th seed (STL round 1)
3: CHI loss + ANA win + MIN win = MIN 3rd in Central @ 4th seed (vs. NSH round 1)
4: CHI loss + ANA loss + MIN loss = MIN 1st wild card @ 7th seed (vs. ANA round 1)
I don't think it matters who we play, this team can beat anyone. However, a Blues beatdown today might rattle my confidence going into the series. Yes Nashville would be nice, but we'll most likely have to go through the Blues eventually anyways so **** it. This new playoff format is stupid.
I don't care who we get in the playoffs. You have to beat very good teams and be at your very best to win a cup anyway. The regular season means nothing. You can argue who the Wild matchup better with all day but anything can happen in the playoffs. Just get through the game healthy. Whoever we get, we get.
Whatever happens, happens. I feel this team can beat anyone regardless of who it is. Now ask me two years ago if I would want to play the blues, and I would cower with my tail between my legs. It's time that teams start fearing us for once.
I'm blacked out of this game on GameCenter because "NBC is showing it." But when I turn on NBC, I get a meaningless game between two eliminated California teams.
Apparently I can get it on NBC's website, but I'd like to, y'know, watch on my television and not my laptop. When I pay for both GameCenter and cable, I don't think that's a lot to ****ing ask.
They really need to get their heads out of their *****.
Ummmm....why am I getting the Sharks/Kings game on NBC?
I think they mentioned the Wild and Blues were 10 minutes away from starting. Not sure why, game time for both teams was listed for 2PM
What the ****?! It's showing the Sharks/Kings game on my NBCSN. I'm in South Minneapolis..
If we don't get to watch this for some reason I'm going to be really disappointed.
Sounds like the Wild game is starting 10 min late, so everyone gets the California game for the first few minutes. Everyone off the West Coast will switch when the puck drops in St. Louis.
Michael Russo
@Russostrib
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Per @liam_mchugh, NBC will start everyone on LA-SJ but will switch to #mnwild when it starts. So CHILL and stop tweeting me
2:14 PM - 11 Apr 2015
Check out those Kings jerseys.
Man those Kings jerseys are a special kind of ugly.
Hurry up and start the game. I don't wanna watch two dead teams, even if the Sharks are my 2nd favorite west team.
Has there been a stadium-series jersey that wasn't awful?
FIRST PERIOD COMMENTS:
Finally
We get Doc! OH WHAT CHAOS!
No Ott today?
GOOD.
Suter, Mikko, Fontaine scratched?
The Blues are resting Backes and Oshie so it balances out. ....and Pie and Shatts, too.
The LA jerseys ugly? I thought they are super awesome. Very elegant. My brother and I came to the conclusion that the Kings were filmed in black and white and superimposed on a color background.
"Gronlund" is back! Over/under on how many times Doc mangles his name tonight?
Of course Doc is going to say Granlund's name more than anyone else's.
LOL is Doc serious with this Gronlund stuff? I mean he did it once before, but I thought he'd change the way he pronounces it?
so they knock gronlund into their own goalie, then get mad at about it
#hockeylogic
Don't announcers get a roster sheet with pronunciations? I'm more annoyed then I should be at Doc saying "Gronlund"
Shoot da puck Vanek. Sheesh.
I'm just waiting for him to call him Michael.
So bad that they can't pronounce the names. They get paid loads of money so they could do a tiny bit of homework on English pronunciation. It's not like Granny just joined our team either.
I didn't know this was a Blackhawks game. ?????????????
Dubs got his workout this period. That one shot was a doozy.
The Blues sure play boring hockey
Ottawa's story is great. They were going to have a top 5 pick a couple months ago.
Wild v Blues. Let's talk about the eastern conference.
Leastern Conference Bias.
Not a typo.
Just a friendly reminder that we wouldn't have to worry about the Hawks game tonight if the Wild wouldn't have had an epic 3rd period meltdown against the Rangers a couple months ago.
This game right now.....
It's like that but both guys are playing without their Knights and are on Muscle Relaxers. Reply to previous comment/photo.
Holy **** they're mentioning Zucker in the same graphic as Ovechkin.
Subtly hinting that Zucker will be a future 50 goal scorer. Reply to previous comment.
And that he should be put on a higher line and get dem minutes! Reply to previous comment.
SECOND PERIOD COMMENTS:
Well this one is obviously not being played at 100%.
Probably watch more of the Masters than this.
Feels like I'm watching this game at 75% speed.
Pierre loves Scandella...I love Pierre.
Yeah, not a dive, just lost an edge. Horrible call.
Refs are sleep walking.....horrible call.
Powerless play.
Then again, with Suter and Koivu out....
Horrible call, but I guess we'll take it?
WTF was that?! How do you not score on that?
Zucker - Future first Vegas-born Rocket Richard winner confirmed?
Haaaa. Good to be on the good side of a bad call for once, I guess.
Meh, I'm okay with not scoring there. Was a very bogus penalty.
Makeup call incoming.
god those blues uniforms are ugly... could be so nice too
What??? Reply to previous comment.
What the hell? They're gorgeous. The best thing about their organization if you ask me. Another comment about the ugly Blues sweaters.
I think their jerseys are really meh. Straight out of the 90s.
Dominating all game, go down 1-0. Seems pretty typical.
Dubnyk blinked first.
stewart is awesome
Tarasenko is gonna kill us in a series.
Nino's controller got disconnected
So I think I have this right? Assuming this result holds, we play the Blues if the Ducks win in regulation. Any other result of the Ducks game and we play them. Close.
God Vanek is such a lazy back checker.
I bet Darcy plays the 3rd. No sense risking Dubnyk's health
There we go Scandy!
If this result holds and the Ducks win in Reg/OT, we play the Blues. If this result holds and the Ducks win in SO, we play the Ducks. And, we have a winner!
SCANDY!!!!!!
Scandy! Thank you for shooting the damn puck!
Oh for ****s sake.
lol, effort level = 0
Well, screw this game.
Oh no. We suck again!
Controller batteries keep dying on the back check
If anyone doesn't get the controller comments, google ovechkin controller unplugged.
No wonder Blues fans think we're an easy first round opponent.
I do hope this is the last time I have to see Prosser in a Wild sweater
I don't think we have idea just how much Koivu is carrying that 2nd line. We are witnessing now with these games.
Can we just put Suter/Spurgeon/Koivu back in right now?
Steen making some crazy good passes.
Okay which jokester gave Stewart the ole sock tape on the skate blade trick? Honeymoon over??
THIRD PERIOD COMMENTS:
****in delay of game penalty.
The Blues are the worst first round match up for us. We may have won 2 games vs them but in both games they were the ones that controlled the majority of the play.
I would rather play anyone other than the Blues.
Aaaaaaand that's game.
Two goals direct result of Prosser, also sounds about right.
Prosser should never suit up for the Wild ever again.
That's what a power play looks like
I can't wait till Prosser is gone. Never should have come back.
Prosser had such a strong middle of the season. And now he's back to being Prosser.
Even though this game is basically an exhibition, I still hate losing to end the season.
And to think, Prosser could have been scoring goals for us while playing for St. Louis
Prosser's most skilled goal of the season.
So much for the dream of playing the Preds.
Yup. So who do y'all vote for? Anaheim or St. Louis. Still think I'd rather play Anaheim, but not by much. Reply to the previous comment.
I've always been more partial to Anaheim. We haven't seen them much lately, so we have no idea how a series would go between us.
St. Louis on the other hand, scares me much more than Anaheim.
I'm shocked at the score and I'm unable to watch the game. How many regulars are the Wild resting? I mean they just beat the Blues 4-1 or 4-2 two weeks ago!
Should be 2 Blues penalties.
I'd rather play anyone in the playoffs from both conferences before the Blues.
The Blues are the worst match up by far.
I swear, if Chicago loses to Colorado tonight in regulation, we're gonna look pretty stupid for sitting half of our top 4 D.
Well at least the ending to this game should be interesting.
We're playing the Blues in round one. No way does the Ducks lose to the Yotes tonight.
I know this is an exhibition game, but what sucks is that it does give the Blues a little more jump knowing they handled us well in the last game. Yeah, we're sitting guys, but so are they. Would have been nice to walk away with some confidence and extra punch.
And now the Blues are trying to send a final message by being physical.
6 on 3.
Come on you've got a 5 on 3 +empty net and you're just standing there.
Our powerplay is gonna get us bounced from the playoffs.
Just absolutely inexcuseable.
And there's one goal.
Probably way too late.
Couldn't score on a 6 on 3, so we just go ahead and score on a 5 on 4.
THIS TEAM MY GOODNESS WHAT CHAOS
POST GAME COMMENTS:
Well we just handed third place to Chicago.
Should not have rested both Suter and Spurgeon.
Should absolutely not have played Prosser. He's the Blues first star of the game right there. ****ing moron defender.
Hopefully the 6-on-3 failure is message enough to the coaching staff that the PP needs serious work (because, you know, the rest of the season doesn't seem to have been enough).
How do you not score with literally twice the number of skaters as the other team?
It will...just like last year. You can't beat teams in the playoffs without a decent PP. Exhibition game or not....standing still for a 6 on 3 is pathetic....but typical.
6 on 3, no goal.
Must be Suters and Koivus fault.
Pominville continues to be absolutely brutal.. I feel bad for Parise and Granlund.
So playoff starts Wednesday or Thursday. Practice better be focused on the Xcel Energy Powerplay powerplay powerplay powerplay powerplay powerplay
At this point, there's almost no point in practicing the PP. How much have they practiced it this year to have it fail at the most needed times? Practicing won't do ****. They need a personnel change in the offseason.
Power plagued
The Kings won the Cup with 15.1% PP last year, lower than the Wild this year.
I understand the idea that keeping guys healthy is the most important thing, but I really, really disagree with they way they approached this game. Sitting half the team, and the guys who are out there are afraid to throw a hit or even backcheck? Getting absolutely trounced by the team you're very likely going to have to turn around and face in the first round in a few days?
That's not the way you get your game going before the playoffs. Really disappointed they all seemed to be OK with just limping across the finish line like that.
Only two silver linings:
- Granlund looked the most confident he has in awhile.
- If we face Anaheim in the first round I'm totally flying down.
Are they aware of the fact that we sat 5 of our regulars? It would appear that they don't.
I keep saying it, just forget special teams, roll regular lines during a pp.
The PP is inexcusable. No attempt at a different strategy and very little personel tinkering. Bruno and yeo must be held accountable.......although the players have to take some blame no?
Its waaaay to slow and deliberate. They seem terrified to lose control...?? What dam good is control if your just playing catch with it.......pommers alone has negated uncountable amounts of chances fue to the fact that hes apparently blind this year.
Its just a joke......it WILL be our demise yiu can bank on that!
Who did the Wild rest?
Suter, Koivu, Spurgeon, Schroeder, Fontaine, Carter.
Damn! That's a LOT! With those guys back it's almost like an entirely new team. I am very confident the Wild can beat the Blues. Just 2 weeks ago the Wild outplayed the Blues in St.Louis.
You know the Blues are one of the biggest CHOKE jobs in the playoffs in NHL history? They have never won a Cup, not been to one since the 60s, and haven't even won a 2nd round game in 13 years!
To be fair, the Blues also scratched Oshie, Backes, Shattenkirk, and a couple others, I believe. Wait a minute; it seems that someone is aware...... Also, reply to who the Wild sat.
We did not outplay the Blues in St. Louis. We were dominated for much of the game despite the score. Reply to Damn! comment above.
Blue, Ducks, don't really care to be honest, here's the way I look at it and maybe most will think its small minded or simplistic but If we can get past the an outstanding Avalanche team, take a dominate Blackhawks team to 6 games and now have another year of experience under our belt and a hot goaltender (plus a couple of added players) then I believe we sure as ***** have a good chance to beat anyone in the first round this year. period. end of discussion in my humble opinion
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And there you have it. It would seem that Prosser is not a popular guy in Minnesota.
I wish the playoffs started Monday, but the couple of extra days rest might be nice. I was just happy to see us play the way we did considering who wasn't even dressed.
