Russo: « L’équipe roulait avant de décider de mettre Dumba au banc… aucun règlement ne gagne depuis… l’équipe choisit des moments étranges pour envoyer des messages. »
Who knows cause/effect, but it’s interesting that #mnwild were rolling along smoothly (12-3-2 in 17 games, points in 7 of 8), they sit Dumba and team has no regulation wins in 11 (3-7-1) since.
Like Addison last night, they pick weird times to send msgs https://t.co/YoziXnsHwU
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) February 16, 2023
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Belcaster
18 Comments
I mean, they won a ton after Reaves was signed, and he only did that huge hit on the Red Wings. I wouldn’t read too much into Dumba being THAT integral to chemistry.
Streaky sport is streaky. The Wild should have done more with what they had when they had the chance, and now not banking consistent points is finally costing them when it matters most.
I’m not a fan of this coaching staff or most of their decisions to bench players. But not sure that this has anything to do with their current funk
I mean they’re unrealistically bad right now in the same way they were unrealistically good when they won 10 out of 11 or whatever it was a couple months ago. Sometimes a few guys are hot and you perform really well, sometimes you have a few slumps lined up and you don’t.
I’m not saying that the team doesn’t have problems to address, they absolutely do, but I am saying that a lot of MN sports fanbases have a tendency to look at a team at their lowest point and say “this is objectively how good this collection of players can be and anything else is a fluke” which is absurd.
You can tell Russo is a fan of the team by takes like this. He feels the pain. I can’t decide if I like that or want a more objective approach to balance my fandom…
Since Christmas the Wild were 6-4 (er, 6-2-2) in 10 games before Dumba’s scratching. Certainly not struggling…but also very much not rolling. The laid an egg at home to St. Louis (and, yes, beat Tampa 5-1 at home in that) but it’s not a « rolling » in the classic sense.
The post title changes the quote in a way that can be misleading. It’s “*they* pick weird times to send messages” in reference to the coaching staff, not the team.
I don’t think the cause and effect really coincide, though I do agree Dean doesn’t know how to manage this team correctly. You can send messages without benching guys. You can try building confidence instead of making players scared of making mistakes.
tbh I feel like deano is losing the team
Russo feels himself a bit too much sometimes. Thinks he’s the authority
It’s pretty hard to draw a direct line between those scratches and the team’s performance since, there’s obviously a lot that plays in to it.
That being said I don’t discount this either. Whether we like it or not, Dumba leads the team in 5 on 5 TOI. His and Brodin’s GA/60 is right there with Spurge/Midd (2.3 vs 2.2.)
It’s common knowledge he’s a key part of the leadership group, we often critique his play but he does bring it every game.
We took that out of the lineup and proceeded to drop not just 1, but **2** big games against playoff caliber teams with him benched. The Florida game in particular was an emotional and heated game, and we had a player who brings that energy on the bench.
Whatever the intended result was, we did not get it.
imma die on this hill Dean is NOT a winning coach. he happened to come in when guys had career years. Then he got fucking exposed in the playoffs. Now what… back to square one.
He’s never won any playoff games in the AHL and now NHL. Billy G needs to look hard at coaching
I think this is more pushing some kinda narrative more than actually anything else. This team looks the same it has all season. Average everything except for a couple guys. And the usual massively under performing Greenway, Dumba being Dumba, Flower streaky as hell, etc etc.
Hot take: The Wild’s downfall with Dumba being scratched was pure coincidence.
Lol yeah that’s definitely the problem with the team….
We can’t score more than 1-2 goals per night. Dumba has nothing to do with that
Fuck Minnesota sports.
the coach makes the roster moves and pulling Addi for Goli only for him to get smoked on a key goal was a bad look
sitting Gus for Fleury (and I love Flower) and him having a terrible game was a bad look
watching both teams last night, the Avs kept it simple…play good defense and when you get in the zone get to the slot and take shots. this team has struggled all season to score and it needs a coach that can COACH these guys up on how to get back on top of their offensive games. Dean doesn’t seem to be able to do any of that which is also a bad look
I always liked the tactic of staying with the lineup and not freaking out by making rash moves but MY LORD the team clearly isn’t playing well and needs another jolt like back in November and the Wild seem to be in the mindset that they are just getting unlucky. THIS IS NOT UNLUCKY ANYMORE!