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Needed Changes For the Wild

A- Fire Lemaire.  The game has changed into a much faster, wide open game since his Habs days.  The game has clearly passed him by.

B- SPEND $$ ON WORTHY PLAYERS!!  We are currently how much under the salary cap?

C- Waive Martin Skoula.  He can't skate.  NEVER throws his weight around.  Stands still and looks for the 100 foot pass from his own zone.  The guy sucks!

D- Trade Gaborik ASAP.  He clearly doesn't want to be here.  With Lemaire's system, no one wants to be. 

E- Give Sheppard, Weller, Gillies, and Clutterbuck some much needed AHL time.  THEY DO NOT PRODUCE!! 

I have been a season ticket holder  from day 1.  I can see the disappointment in the fans faces.  All the games may be sold out, but there are more and more empty seats lately.  Let's not become the typical pro sports organization like the others in MN (Wolves are a joke, Vikings are so predictable, Twins are just OK).

Give the State of Hockey what it deserves!!  A much better product.

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I think that it is fairly well agreed upon that Lemaire’s system, as he has always taught it, does not produce champions, but, oh how it could be worse.

The wild have roughly 2.15 million in cap space available. Check this out for any questions cap wise. http://nhlnumbers.com/overview.php?team=MIN&season=0809

I agree that Skoula is not a physical player. But i will tell you what, I dare you to point to a D-man, this year, who has been more steady. A lot of Skoula hate carries over from years past, but I would say it is not deserved this year.

The Gabby situation, to me, is a no win situation. He currently has no value. So, do you move him for a 3rd round pick, or do you keep him until the deadline, and let some of his scoring win some games.

I also have to disagree on your point E. They are role players. They arent asked to score 20-30 goals. They are supposed to play their role. Shepp and gillies are still young, and they need to play to improve. But I am surprised to see you added Clutterbuck. This guy is 100% heart, 0% talent. But he is currently #5 in the league in hits. He is the aggitator the wild havent had.

Gotta love subjectivity, and nice to see new people throw their thoughts out there.

by mbennett on Dec 23, 2008 9:29 PM CST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

While I disagree with everything you’ve said (the only reason I disagree on #2 is because we really don’t have a lot of cap room considering where the cap will be next season, barring the Gaborik decision), I love the fact that you’re here saying it.

The only part that really doesn’t make sense to me is when you combine A and D. I don’t understand why the Fire Lemaire people would then want to trade Gaborik. You even say that Gaborik can’t succeed in Lemaire’s system. Well, if that’s the case, and if Lemaire is done, then Gaborik should flourish in an offensive system, correct?

I was going to disagree with you on Skoula, because his play has been much, much better this season, and I still think it has been better, and he’s been victim of his pairing. However, his goals against while on the ice in 5 on 5 situations per 60 minutes of time on ice is 2.60 vs. 1.83 for Nick Schultz.

I do think those stats are deceiving, considering that Schultz hasn’t looked that good this year and Skoula has looked much better than in years past. It seemed like every time he made a mistake in the past two seasons, it immediately went for an opposition goal, whereas this year, his partner is making errors leading to goals.

I’ll put together a post later this week breaking down some of the numbers on the team thus far.

by nathaneide on Dec 23, 2008 9:49 PM CST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

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