It's been quite an interesting experience right now being a Minnesota Wild fan or being one of the Minnesota Wild players themselves. This season has been far from picture perfect. This season for the Minnesota Wild has been quite the rollercoaster.
This rollercoaster had started in September when Ryan Suter's dad had passed away due to a heart attack, during training camp, Ryan's, dad who is Bob Suter who was on the Miracle on Ice team during the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, so the season had a rough start on Suter who finds himself playing with a heavy heart this season. Ryan Suter is not the only one who finds himself playing with a heavy heart this season. Zach Parise who has been dealing with his father's battle with type five lung cancer for the past year or so. J.P. Parise who lost his battle with the cancer early in this month leaving Zach to play with a heavy heart too.
Not only deaths have been putting a cramp in the Wild's stride, it has been also sickness and the mumps. The mumps have decided to be bouncing around in the NHL this year causing players to miss out during games. The Minnesota Wild happened to be one of them. Having at least five players being effected with it: Jonas Brodlin, Ryan Suter, Marco Scandella, Keith Ballard and Christian Folin. Hopefully the mumps finally gone out of the NHL and no one has to deal with them anymore.
Injuries also have been a big factor to the team going through some really low slumps. Darcy Kuemper, one of the strong goaltenders of the Wild is out with a lower back injury (Kuemper got his minor lower-back injury in practice).
There has been issues with the Wild's goalies since the season started in September. The Wild started out with two goalies due to with one dealing with a foot injury, leading Kuemper and Niklas Backstrom to split their time between the pipes for the Wild so far this season. Now with Darcy Kuemper being out with a back injury for awhile and now working back to full strength before he can come back to play up to his potential. So the Wild has been dealing with some defense and also goalie issues lately during the awful slump they found themselves in. So they decided to get a third goalie recently to make this situation turn around.
During this down in the rollercoaster that we now find ourselves in during the season has been stressful on the team and head coach Mike Yeo, rightfully too. Ryan Suter has been feeling the pull too. Suter ended up elbowing Steve Downie of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the face. It wasn't intentional, Suter is not a rough player. Ryan Suter is not known for rough plays or holding the most penalty minutes for the Minnesota Wild. Suter did not receive a penalty in the game for the elbowing of Downie so it ended up going to NHL court which lead to Ryan Suter getting his first suspension. Suter found himself setting out the last two games of play.
But things have actually turned around for the Wild as of late, last Thursday the Wild ended up winning against the Buffalo Sabres (7-0) and then Saturday's game against the Arizona Coyotes (3-1). Which is really nice to see!
In my opinion the Minnesota Wild needs to be what they have been doing, I feel like they are finding their stride again. I do not believe it is all about firing the head coach, or trading players in and out of the AHL. I am glad that they got an extra goalie, in my opinion it's good to have more than two goalies during the whole season. There are reason why teams are allowed to have three goalies, injuries and other stuff happens to one, you will always have two goalies as back-up.
Ryan Suter has been having a rough season it looks like. He will get through it just fine, when life right now is throwing him lemons it looks like he is making himself lemonade with what he's got. I have a feeling Ryan will fight his way through it, he is a tough guy and he will be fine.
I hope the Minnesota do continue on their winning streak. They probably are out of the play-offs this year. But next season I can see big things happening for them. They had a rough season this year, next year can be their outbreak season and hopefully they can win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history next year. We will just have to wait and see how this all plays out.
This rollercoaster had started in September when Ryan Suter's dad had passed away due to a heart attack, during training camp, Ryan's, dad who is Bob Suter who was on the Miracle on Ice team during the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, so the season had a rough start on Suter who finds himself playing with a heavy heart this season. Ryan Suter is not the only one who finds himself playing with a heavy heart this season. Zach Parise who has been dealing with his father's battle with type five lung cancer for the past year or so. J.P. Parise who lost his battle with the cancer early in this month leaving Zach to play with a heavy heart too.
Not only deaths have been putting a cramp in the Wild's stride, it has been also sickness and the mumps. The mumps have decided to be bouncing around in the NHL this year causing players to miss out during games. The Minnesota Wild happened to be one of them. Having at least five players being effected with it: Jonas Brodlin, Ryan Suter, Marco Scandella, Keith Ballard and Christian Folin. Hopefully the mumps finally gone out of the NHL and no one has to deal with them anymore.
Injuries also have been a big factor to the team going through some really low slumps. Darcy Kuemper, one of the strong goaltenders of the Wild is out with a lower back injury (Kuemper got his minor lower-back injury in practice).
There has been issues with the Wild's goalies since the season started in September. The Wild started out with two goalies due to with one dealing with a foot injury, leading Kuemper and Niklas Backstrom to split their time between the pipes for the Wild so far this season. Now with Darcy Kuemper being out with a back injury for awhile and now working back to full strength before he can come back to play up to his potential. So the Wild has been dealing with some defense and also goalie issues lately during the awful slump they found themselves in. So they decided to get a third goalie recently to make this situation turn around.
During this down in the rollercoaster that we now find ourselves in during the season has been stressful on the team and head coach Mike Yeo, rightfully too. Ryan Suter has been feeling the pull too. Suter ended up elbowing Steve Downie of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the face. It wasn't intentional, Suter is not a rough player. Ryan Suter is not known for rough plays or holding the most penalty minutes for the Minnesota Wild. Suter did not receive a penalty in the game for the elbowing of Downie so it ended up going to NHL court which lead to Ryan Suter getting his first suspension. Suter found himself setting out the last two games of play.
"It’s awful. This whole year has just been terrible in every way possible. With our [Zach Parise's and his] dads, the sicknesses, the way the team is playing, it’s not good right now. The good thing could be that we have a lot of year left to change that. Today was a good practice. We tried to re-set. We’re trying to build traction any way we can. I think that’s all we can do right now." - Ryan Suter reflecting on this season.There also has been talks about firing Mike Yeo, the head coach. This is one of the many solutions that have been brought up many times in the last month or so during the losing streak by many different fans and sports news personalities throughout the media and the internet.
But things have actually turned around for the Wild as of late, last Thursday the Wild ended up winning against the Buffalo Sabres (7-0) and then Saturday's game against the Arizona Coyotes (3-1). Which is really nice to see!
Kyle Brodziak and Erik Haula celebrate during
the Wild's win against the Buffalo Sabers
In my opinion the Minnesota Wild needs to be what they have been doing, I feel like they are finding their stride again. I do not believe it is all about firing the head coach, or trading players in and out of the AHL. I am glad that they got an extra goalie, in my opinion it's good to have more than two goalies during the whole season. There are reason why teams are allowed to have three goalies, injuries and other stuff happens to one, you will always have two goalies as back-up.
Ryan Suter has been having a rough season it looks like. He will get through it just fine, when life right now is throwing him lemons it looks like he is making himself lemonade with what he's got. I have a feeling Ryan will fight his way through it, he is a tough guy and he will be fine.
I hope the Minnesota do continue on their winning streak. They probably are out of the play-offs this year. But next season I can see big things happening for them. They had a rough season this year, next year can be their outbreak season and hopefully they can win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history next year. We will just have to wait and see how this all plays out.
