The Wild outperformed my expectations in the series, but that didn’t change the outcome. We ought to call this a Billy G Playoff Run. Drag ass into R1, win a key road game to just blip the throttle on the fan’s hope. Then lose 2 in a row at home to crash out.
The good news. Gus was awesome, first and foremost. Also, the Wild did not get manhandled in this series as they did in the past. They are so much more physically able to compete.
And some secondary scoring came alive. Hartman basically saved his career with an excellent performance. Jojo and Foligno were solid as well.
The Wild jammed up Vegas in the neutral zone on the PK very effectively. Without this, we’d have had a PK disaster on our hands.
And we didn’t suffer any key injuries. Is the Wilds medical staff back on track?
The bad news. The Wild continue to make average goalies look great at key times.
There’s nothing that can be done about it, but the Wild are again plagued by no-calls as the NHL refs are again allowed to use a different rulebook in the playoffs.
Spurgeon is showing his age and now his size disadvantage is really showing as well.
And finally, the good/bad news combo deal. The Billy G Excuses Era is over. Eff your 5 year plan Billy Boy. You’ve got a year and the clock is ticking. Sign KK and pull off some major FA acquisitions or it’s bye bye Billy.
