We are so @#$%ed!

Here's some comforting excerpts from Russo's blog.

Russo

Quote :

After GM Chuck Fletcher informed the media that Cal Clutterbuck will be out a matter of “weeks” with a sprained ankle, that Pierre-Marc Bouchard is still out indefinitely with a concussion and that Petr Sykora is doubtful Wednesday against Anaheim with a sore groin, I sat down and watched practice.

In a 5-minute span, Martin Havlat crashed into the boards, Mikko Koivu crashed into the goal and Benoit Poiliot crashed into a teammate. At the end, Jaime Sifers’ skate hit a rut and he crashed backwards onto the ice.

All four are OK, but the scenes were pretty much par for the course for what’s been going on with the Wild since the start of training camp, when players began dropping like flies. Now the team’s 1-3, sitting 15th in the conference — granted very early in the season though.

But now Clutterbuck’s going to potentially be out weeks. He’ll have an MRI when the swelling subsides to determine the extent of the sprained ankle, but there’s a chance it’s a high ankle sprain, which is often a 6-to-8 week injury — at least.

Bouchard saw famed neurologist Dr. James Kelly over the weekend. And while the Wild doesn’t yet have Dr. Kelly’s report, it doesn’t look good. Fletcher said the Wild plans on letting Bouchard rest for a good while to get him right.

For a team with not a lot of skill, it’s not good that one of the Wild’s most skilled forwards will be gone for awhile. And now, the team’s most physical forward will be out for awhile.

Quote :

Fletcher has been getting a lot of phone calls from GM’s in the last few days. That often happens when other GM’s read that you’re suffering injury after injury.

I know Fletcher’s talking, but I don’t see much help coming. Here’s the problem. What does he have to trade that isn’t Mikko Koivu or Brent Burns or somebody like that?

Plus, how do you trade draft picks? There’s very little skill in Houston. The reason why is the Wild hasn’t drafted much skill to put in Houston.

So while Fletcher can probably trade draft picks for players, how do you justify that when you need to somehow use those picks to hopefully add skill to this organization. In other words, if you trade your draft picks like yesteryear’s Wild, how do you ever catch up?

Fletcher just doesn’t have a lot of options that I see. I know I’ve harped on this before during some very critical columns last season of the previous regime, but I’ve watched a lot of hockey in the last few weeks. The Wild are so far behind other organizations right now in terms of bright young talent on the roster and in the system, it is downright frightening.

Years of being competitive (not picking high enough), years of trading draft picks, years of sub-par draft picks and years of letting free agents walk away for nothing has left this organization in a terrible position.

FUCK YOU RISEBROUGH!!!

Quote :

The Wild desperately needs James Sheppard and Benoit Poulot now to step up, snag the available ice time and prove their worth. This is their opportunity. They must grab it now, or the Wild’s in deep trouble.

Relying on Shep and Dorkfish to step up and prove their worth? Yeah, good luck with that.

Russo is become a grade A drama king.

There's no point talking about anything besides the new system and the status of the injuries. Everything else, including who is injured, is minor in comparison.

Shepp played well so far, so i think he can step up, and Pouliot showed some good play last game, i think both are capable of stepping up now they need to do it. and yes

I think this is when you bite the bullet, you offer guys like Belanger and Nolan and Johnnson if you have no interest/unable to sign him call the year a bust and just try not to reek too bad then again its only 4 games

FUCK YOU RISEBROUGH YOU PIECE OF SHIT

Yep, we look promising looking at the standings.

I hope Fletcher won't panic. He should call up some kids. It's not like we are gonna win SC this year. And he might find replacements for the old guys.

I am less concerned with who is injured and more concerned with who we called up. Hilbert and Smith? Whoopy. Sykora and Butch hurt us being out, but I am not too concerned about Clutterbuck. We have more pressing concerns than who can go out there and check some people and make the other team angry.

mplspug wrote:

I am less concerned with who is injured and more concerned with who we called up. Hilbert and Smith? Whoopy. Sykora and Butch hurt us being out, but I am not too concerned about Clutterbuck. We have more pressing concerns than who can go out there and check some people and make the other team angry.

Who else were they supposed to call up? Danny Irmen? Petr Kalus? Craig Weller?
Hilbert and Smith were brought in for this exact reason. Gillies needs seasoning and the other 20 year olds(Almond and McMillan) are longshots and YEARS away from getting a realistic NHL look.
No quality prospects in Houston aside from Gillies, who needs seasoning, might as well continue the trend...FUCK YOU RISEBROUGH

DR read this an just started to chuckle to himself.

"HA! WE GOT EM AGAIN!"

lolwat wrote:

mplspug wrote:

I am less concerned with who is injured and more concerned with who we called up. Hilbert and Smith? Whoopy. Sykora and Butch hurt us being out, but I am not too concerned about Clutterbuck. We have more pressing concerns than who can go out there and check some people and make the other team angry.

Who else were they supposed to call up? Danny Irmen? Petr Kalus? Craig Weller?
Hilbert and Smith were brought in for this exact reason. Gillies needs seasoning and the other 20 year olds(Almond and McMillan) are longshots and YEARS away from getting a realistic NHL look.
No quality prospects in Houston aside from Gillies, who needs seasoning, might as well continue the trend...FUCK YOU RISEBROUGH

I guess I should have been a little clearer. I didn't mean to imply that these guys were the wrong guys to call up, but instead that this was the best we could do.

I do disagree on Gillies. These guys aren't getting called up for the rest of the season "cross fingers", so it is not like 4-8 weeks up here would ruin him. But it sounds like he's dealing with his own injury and hasn't played any recent games. It'd be silly to biting him up under those circumstances.

lolwat wrote:

mplspug wrote:

I am less concerned with who is injured and more concerned with who we called up. Hilbert and Smith? Whoopy. Sykora and Butch hurt us being out, but I am not too concerned about Clutterbuck. We have more pressing concerns than who can go out there and check some people and make the other team angry.

Who else were they supposed to call up? Danny Irmen? Petr Kalus? Craig Weller?
Hilbert and Smith were brought in for this exact reason. Gillies needs seasoning and the other 20 year olds(Almond and McMillan) are longshots and YEARS away from getting a realistic NHL look.
No quality prospects in Houston aside from Gillies, who needs seasoning, might as well continue the trend...FUCK YOU RISEBROUGH

I would rather see a combination of those three over hilbert and smith. They all hit and play a fairly tough game, if we are going to suck, might as well punish the other team physically IMO

timotheuzi wrote:

lolwat wrote:

mplspug wrote:

I am less concerned with who is injured and more concerned with who we called up. Hilbert and Smith? Whoopy. Sykora and Butch hurt us being out, but I am not too concerned about Clutterbuck. We have more pressing concerns than who can go out there and check some people and make the other team angry.

Who else were they supposed to call up? Danny Irmen? Petr Kalus? Craig Weller?
Hilbert and Smith were brought in for this exact reason. Gillies needs seasoning and the other 20 year olds(Almond and McMillan) are longshots and YEARS away from getting a realistic NHL look.
No quality prospects in Houston aside from Gillies, who needs seasoning, might as well continue the trend...FUCK YOU RISEBROUGH

I would rather see a combination of those three over hilbert and smith. They all hit and play a fairly tough game, if we are going to suck, might as well punish the other team physically IMO

Hilbert is more of an NHL talent than any of them, and Nathan Smith played a dozen or so games for the cup champs last year, clearly he knows how to take a 4th line NHL shift as well. Richards and CF do not want to suck, so they brought up the most qualified 4th liners they had.

It's too early to panic. Aside from the injuries, let's see how we look in December...err, not our best month historically speaking but on paper we're better than years past. BTW...missed you guys and had to join.

Jagged Ice wrote:

It's too early to panic. Aside from the injuries, let's see how we look in December...err, not our best month historically speaking but on paper we're better than years past. BTW...missed you guys and had to join.

hello, my name is sieden marin, you offered me a ridiculous trade in the WMB league, christ puncher... prepare to die



welcome anyway

timotheuzi wrote:

Jagged Ice wrote:

It's too early to panic. Aside from the injuries, let's see how we look in December...err, not our best month historically speaking but on paper we're better than years past. BTW...missed you guys and had to join.

hello, my name is sieden marin, you offered me a ridiculous trade in the WMB league, christ puncher... prepare to die



welcome anyway

Yeah I know and every once in awhile I find a sucker who bites. Don't take it personally.

if someone fell for that deal they need to be perma-banned from the league

no hard feelings just giving you shit, i know that when we face each other i will crush your team....

timotheuzi wrote:

if someone fell for that deal they need to be perma-banned from the league

no hard feelings just giving you shit, i know that when we face each other i will crush your team....

Well we'll see about that as I'm pretty deep there cowboy. I do give credit when credit is due and you do have a sweet team. How you managed to get Lecavalier, Kopitar and Nash is pretty decent 1, 2 and 3.

and I took Steve Mason before Kopitar, I myself was amazed. you are going down to china town bud

having that 19th pick helps lol

Yeah, you guys will be slugging it out for that final playoff spot while I sit atop the division. My biggest problem is when Fleury and Quick have starts on the same night. Talk about dilemmas.

Then again I got 1-4 Datsyuk, Pronger, H. Sedin and Burrows. I can't bitch about that and after about round 7 I left and auto draft gave me Craig Anderson (Av's) as a 2nd goalie.

I don't put much stock in defense-men, we will see how that pans out. I got all up and coming defense late rounds... doughty was a steal

mplspug wrote:

Yeah, you guys will be slugging it out for that final playoff spot while I sit atop the division. My biggest problem is when Fleury and Quick have starts on the same night. Talk about dilemmas.

meh

edit: I think I just jinxed my team. But, if I survive my own jinx, I can only be stronger for it

Meh

I think I planned on taking Anderson too with that next pick after you grabbed him. I am pissed because I drafted Babcock, who would have been a good defenseman, only to learn he was going to Russia or Europe to play. Wasted pick, although at that point, looking at the results, there wasn't much left. I got him with the 20th pick of the 10th round.

I got lucky with Anderson on the auto draft. I would have never picked him up as win/loss is a category and prior to the season Colorado was projected to lose every game. That and I knew little about Budaj's backup.

One thing back on topic...

I was sitting around thinking tonight, which is typically a dangerous thing because I naturally gravitate towards thinking about hockey and the Wild.

I don't think Leipold will let this roster suck enough to get a high enough draft pick to matter.

After we didn't make the play-offs last year, he made the changes. He could have continued down the path of DR, knowing that he would have to find a different coach, but that wasn't going to work at all.

This year, if the Wild don't have their shit together by the middle or end of November, I fully expect this conversation to happen;

Leipold: Chuck, can you come into my office?
Fletcher: Sure boss.
Leipold: I know you did great in the signings of Havlat, Sykora and Zanon, but we have a problem.
Fletcher: I agree.
Leipold: I gave you permission to spend nearly all of the money, but the rookie coach isn't working out.
Fletcher: Whew. I thought you were going to say rookie GM.
Leipold: No, son. The coach can't get his message across to the players. Frankly, I am not sure what that message is, really. Do you want the D to pinch? Do you want the D to be responsible? How can they be both? Add onto this that young Richards can't master the second period line change, you know what we need to do.
Fletcher: I hear Laviolette is still available, want me to give him a call boss?
Leipold: Yes, son. And if that doesn't work, we are going to be having a *different* conversation...

Oh, and DR can go to hell.

Laviolette was my first choice for the record.