2024/2025 NHL/WILD Offseason-Season-Postseason Thread

No lead feels safe against this Vegas team.

And it’s 4-2. My point exactly. And now the most dangerous lead in hockey.

WTF was Bogosian doing on the Hertl goal? Good lord that was brutal… he completely forgot where he was on the ice and what he was doing…

And let the scrums begin. That’s not Vegas’s game at all… love to see it

JoeMX1825 wrote:

WTF was Bogosian doing on the Hertl goal? Good lord that was brutal… he completely forgot where he was on the ice and what he was doing…

3rd pair is having a tough game tonight. Regardless of the outcome tonight I wouldn’t doubt they swap one of them out next game.

Well that was worth staying up for!

Now we gotta break the streak of playoff series where we give up the home ice advantage in games 3&4…

Gotta think Nyquist gets swapped out in game 3 and possibly Buium or Bogo…one looks scared and the other lost out there…

Rossi 10 shifts and 8:56toi tonight and that’s with PP time. Oof.
Keep this series at 5 on 5 as much as possible.

Hell of a game

Top 4 D played a perfect, mistake free game. I take back anything bad I said about Midstrom or Spurg.

I mean this with all due respect but… Johnny Merril where you at?

Russo mentioned Rossi was dealing with injuries the last few weeks. But this looks more like a complete lack of confidence and pace. Rossi and Buium look very similar to me

tswoboda wrote:

I mean this with all due respect but… Johnny Merril where you at?

to replace who? even with as nervous and tentative Buium is playing, he’s still doing his job, Bogosian is an absolute hot mess out there…

I agree Merrill deserves to get a game in, we cant have more of the same from the 3rd pair…

Rossi’s hearing footsteps everytime he touches the puck and is gun shy… pretty typical for playoff rookies…

Are we done worrying about whether KK97 is going to be ready or his old self come playoff time? 5 pts in 2 games is pretty pretty good. That pass to Boldy was absolutely filthy! Nice win boys. We are going to have to take another one on the road I fear because we have NOT been good at home at all this year. Actually, probably the last two years in fact. Definitely not as dominant as years past anyway.

Twins, Wolves and Wild played last night. Bartender asked me how many of them would win. I said 2 of 3. I got one of the two right.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Keep this series at 5 on 5 as much as possible.

No doubt about that!

not a fan of PK Subban’s takes most of the time (he’s just being loud for TV) but his live reaction to the Boldy goal is kinda funny

https://x.com/PKSubban1/status/1914893782597750794

Give Bogo a chance to right the ship by playing with his usual partner Johnny vibes. Need some stability from that third pairing. Let’s go back to them *not* impacting the game.

tswoboda wrote:

Give Bogo a chance to right the ship by playing with his usual partner Johnny vibes. Need some stability from that third pairing.

I think BOGO looks bad because he is playing with an unknown quantity in a rookie. Practice time does not equal playoff hockey time.
I agree, Merrill deserves a shot. Zeev has been OK, but his time will come. Merrill had been playing playing his best hockey at least to my eyes anyway the last 20 or so games. He has gaffs now and then, they all do, but he was definitely playing better recently.

Not trying to give Bogo a pass, he’s definitely been running around. Just think he freaked out a little when they put a 19 year old rookie next to him. He’s trying to do way too much defending and covering for Buium, and it’s not going well. That’s not a knock on Buium either, the pair just isn’t working and Buium isn’t doing anything offensively that forces them to keep him in the lineup. This team needs Bogo on his game if they want to make a run. I don’t think they have another RHD on the roster, not even black aces

Yeah, I agree that they are stuck with keeping Bogosian, it just makes the most sense with how the first 2 games have gone and the lack of PP opportunities…
This also likely means they go back to a 5 forward PP unless they want Faber to add to his already insane TOI or they play it ultra safe and just go with Spurgeon… I would also swap out Nyquist for Hinostroza and see if it brings any type of bump, if not, go back to the rested Nyquist in game 4…

I’d also try one last time to get Rossi going at home and swap him with Gaudreau, I’d also give Gaudreau’s faceoffs to somebody else, he’s just getting schooled on draws…

Hinostroza will be fired up and flying all over the place if he gets time. I think they should slot him in somewhere, probs the 4th.

And give Jonny a chance. Hopefully the time out hasn’t brought him down at all. Typically he bounces right back to his normal self no matter how long he sits out for. That’s all I’m asking for here – just be Jon Merrill, nothing more nothing less please.

Hartman has been great so far. He has taken some cheap shots but he’s not retaliating which is huge. He and Foligno both are playing exactly how we need them to.

I think I made it until it was 4-1…Boldy is the best player on the ice thus far, largely due to playing with KK, that pass was unreal! Hartmann has really stepped up and his shifts tilt the ice quickly, while Rossi is the opposite. Ice turns to mud and the puck doesn’t leave the zone, he needs a night off or a talk with Mark Grace about busting out of a slump because he looks lost.

Look who Rossi has been playing with. They’re not giving him much of a chance 5-5.

The only thing I’ll say about Rossi is that we said the exact same things about Boldy’s first playoff series 2 or 3 years ago? “he looks lost out there” “he’s invisible”. Playoffs are a whole other level up from the regular season, MOST playoff rookies struggle adapting to their first post season experience until its too late in the series and they get bounced, its an unfortunate growing pain for young players…There are exceptions to this for sure (Faber being the most recent) Rossi isn’t one of them…

He’s too valuable to sit (he’s our 2nd leading scorer this season) so you just gotta hope he figures it out soon (Vegas is a tough matchup physically for him being a smaller player, but that’s the NHL, I think he would be playing better against a more skilled focus team like Edmonton or Colorado)…He’s still even +/- and won 7 of 11 draws in the series so he’s not hurting the team playing…

I heard a stat on the telecast last night that the Wild are undefeated and something like 32-0 (please correct me) when leading after 2 periods? That’s crazy!

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I heard a stat on the telecast last night that the Wild are undefeated and something like 32-0 (please correct me) when leading after 2 periods? That’s crazy!

Correct! And Vegas has never come back from 3 goals down in any playoff game. So we just gotta get 3 goals in the first, hold the lead in the second, then shutdown the 3rd! In a perfect world anyways.

IceNEyes1986 wrote:

So we just gotta get 3 goals in the first, hold the lead in the second, then shutdown the 3rd! In a perfect world anyways.

3 goal lead is the worst lead in hockey.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I heard a stat on the telecast last night that the Wild are undefeated and something like 32-0 (please correct me) when leading after 2 periods? That’s crazy!

Joe Nelson’s article in Bring Me The News said during the regular season the Wild were 29-0 when leading after 2 periods. Last night made it 30-0. Remarkable stat.

Charlie W wrote:

Look who Rossi has been playing with. They’re not giving him much of a chance 5-5.

Always comes back to this excuse for Rossi. Hartman had those same linemates last game.

I think Rossi’s confidence is completely gone. He looks like a beaten dog. Agree they need to get him going, but how?

tswoboda wrote:

I think Rossi’s confidence is completely gone. He looks like a beaten dog. Agree they need to get him going, but how?

Mark Grace solved this riddle, he needs a slump buster. Nordeast at bar close should get him right.

I think Rossi is just breaking down maybe. IDK. He was one of the most consistent forwards for much of the year, hadnt missed a single game and I think its wearing on him. Obviously everyone is dealing with something. Hartman has been flying around since he came back, but the key there is he got rest and a fire lit under him since being suspended.
I am really starting to think Rossi may not have a fit on this roster going forward. It will really remain to be seen when we see Yurov. Rossi needs to be in top 6 and I just dont see him being able to do that. I really want him too because I like the kid a lot, but, if we can upgrade someone for KK and whoever is paired with him over using Ek or someone else on roster there that would be huge.

IceNEyes1986 wrote:

So we just gotta get 3 goals in the first, hold the lead in the second, then shutdown the 3rd!

BigWerm wrote:

Mark Grace solved this riddle, he needs a slump buster. Nordeast at bar close should get him right.

Some absolutely brilliant ideas from the great hockey minds of IDO here. Does anyone have John Hynes’s number? Maybe just send him a link to the thread

tswoboda wrote:

Agree they need to get him going, but how?

Why not try swapping him with Gaudreau for game 3? What has Freddy done in the 2 games? Hynes needs to sit Marco down and explain this might be his final opportunity to get more minutes, if Marco doesn’t respond by playing better, then you put him back on the 4th line, but at least you tried to jumpstart a kid who scored 60 points in 82 games.

We can’t keep relying only on Kirill and Boldy to score, Marco needs to produce, try to set him up for success, playing with Trenin and Brazeau is just giving up on him…I originally wanted him back with Kirill and Zuccy, but that idea is now gone given how well Kirill and Boldy have played together…

I haven’t been paying attention to Ek the first two games (other than the 1 good chance he had in game 1) I really haven’t heard his name called much, but I also haven’t heard Eichels so maybe they’ve been cancelling each other out a bit?