Faxes from Uncle Dale

Tag: Devan Dubnyk

  • Your Friends And Neighbors – ’17-’18 NHL Team Previews: A Division-Less Boudreau Is No Boudreau At All

    Your Friends And Neighbors – ’17-’18 NHL Team Previews: A Division-Less Boudreau Is No Boudreau At All

    The Wild suck so hard that they’re the only team Bruce Boudreau hasn’t coached to a division title when he’s had a full season behind the bench. And really, if you don’t get that basically meaningless bauble out of our favorite Haagen-Dazs slathered bocce ball, then what’s the point at all? You’re still going to get a coach with both hands around his own throat in the playoffs but not to get to raise a silly banner aloft. Well, the Wild probably aren’t going to win the division this year, and they’re probably not going to get out of it in the playoffs. It’s almost if Brucey is now just in an abyss of meaninglessness. Which is how most people feel about the state of Minnesota.

    Minnesota Wild

    ’16-’17 Record: 49-25-8  106 points (2nd in Central, out in 1st round to STL)

    Team Stats 5v5: 49.3 CF% (20th)  50.5 SF% (14th)  52.6 SCF% (3rd)  9.2 SH% (1st)  .925 SV% (11th)

    Special Teams: 20.9 PP% (9th) 82.9 PK% (8th)

    (more…)

  • Trying To Find A Balance – Wild vs. Hawks Preview, Daylight Savings Spring Ahead

     vs 

    Game Time: 11:30AM CDT
    TV/Radio: NBC, TVA-S, WGN-AM 720
    Makes No Sense At All: Hockey Wilderness

    Late season, weekend matinee games suck out loud regardless of the two teams involved. The thought process behind having them is clear, with both college and pro football shuttered for their respective seasons, and baseball yet to move north from Arizona and Florida, there is a void that can be filled by the Winter Tenants for viewership when there’s really only Law & Order: SVU reruns on elsewhere. But the vast majority of hockey games are played at night, and professional hockey players, like all athletes, enjoy their ya-ha time after a game and generally keep later hours. There is always at least a 24 hour break going into them so it’s not totally cutting into physical recuperation the way Thursday Night Football does, but circadian rhythms are still fucked with, and now past the deadline there are many teams who are just playing out the string. Couple that with the overall quality of the league due to a flat salary cap, and it’s left an absolute dogshit product on the ice on par with Thursday Night Football by any absolute or relative measure. And on top of that Daylight Savings just kicked in, so now two teams who at least on paper who are still jockeying for the top spot in the Central and the West, are effectively facing off at 10:30AM local time, all for the sake of courting viewers that the NHL is never going to grab. Nice work everyone.

    (more…)

  • Minimum Wage Is A Gateway Drug – Hawks at Wild Preview, Night Sweats

     at 

    Game Time: 7:00PM CST
    TV/Radio: NBCSN, TVA-S, SportsNet, WGN-AM 720
    Makes No Sense At All: Hockey Wilderness

    And so it is now here, the most important regular season game in the history of the sport…at least until the next one. The Wild are still playing .900 hockey and have three games in hand on the Hawks, and a regulation win tonight should effectively salt the division away for them, and there’s nothing more that Bruce Boudreau likes than the taste of salted divisions. And the entire hockey world, such as it is, will be watching, as this is the only game on the docket tonight.

    (more…)

  • Left Of The Dial – Wild 3, Hawks 2

    Box Score
    Natural Stat Trick

    January 15th, 2017: the day that everyone had to accept the Minnesota Wild and their dipshit coach as their new overlords. Of course, with the Hawks blowing a two goal lead at home to a team that played the night before, they certainly deserved to lose, even to this team.

    (more…)

  • These Aren’t The Droids You’re Looking For: Wild at Hawks Preview/Bonfire

     vs. 

    RECORDS: Wild 27-9-5  Hawks 27-13-5

    PUCK DROP: 6pm

    TV: NBCSN

    ANIMALS STRIKING CURIOUS POSES: Hockey Wilderness, Gone Puck Wild

    PROJECTED LINEUPS

    ADJUSTED TEAM CORSI %: Wild – 49.8 (18th)  Hawks – 49.8 (17th)

    ADJUSTED TEAM xGF%: Wild – 54.2 (2nd)  Hawks – 47.2 (26th)

    POWER PLAY %: Wild – 19.5 (13th)  Hawks – 18.8 (14th)

    PENALTY KILL %: Wild – 84.6 (6th)  Hawks – 76.3 (28th)

    Repeat this to yourself, because it’s important: There are no big games in January.

    We’re sure the Wild are using this as some sort of exam. The Hawks have been doing this contender thing long enough to know that it doesn’t matter. However, after getting their ass rubbed in the moonshine by the Capitals, the Hawks probably don’t want that to snowball into anything worrisome. So they won’t be completely disinterested tonight, or at least you’d hope not.

    (more…)

  • Fugue State – Wild 2, Hawks 2 (Wild Win Scattergories)

    Fugue State – Wild 2, Hawks 2 (Wild Win Scattergories)

    Box Score
    Game Summary
    War On Ice

    It’s Trevor Van Riemsdyk’s world, we’re all just living in it.

    (more…)

  • Stuck In The Middle – Wild vs Hawks Preview, Tree Lighting

    wildthings vs evil empire

    Game Time: 7:00PM Central
    TV/Radio: CSN, NBCSN (National), WGN-AM 720
    Labour Issues In The Toy Department: Hockey Wilderness

    As the broadcast will assuredly punish the listening audience with 7 million reminders of by puck drop, the first game back at home after a road trip is always a TRAP GAME. And it’s even moreso of one by some moronic logic because the Wild have lost 6 of 7 coming into tonight. Or it could just be that they’re just perpetually mediocre.

    (more…)

  • You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having – Hawks at Wild Preview, Mail Merge

    evil empire at wildthings

    Game Time: 7:00PM Central
    TV/Radio: CSN, WGN-AM 720
    Commit This To Memory: Hockey Wilderness

    Before beginning the preview in earnest, first a public service announcement for Halloween weekend.

    Under no circumstance is going out in black face acceptable. Yes, it’s 2015 and it’s fucking preposterous that these statements have to be made, but such is the state of affairs. And it’s a particularly gross trend among hockey players. It is your responsibility as a human being to tell anyone even thinking of doing this that it’s a bad, at best colossally ignorant idea. Do not be like these assholes.

    hawksblackface

    raffi torres

    tyler bozak

    (more…)

  • Kick Your Door Down – Game 4 – Hawks at Wild Preview, Pregame Thread, Asphalt Resealing

    oldschool vs wildthings

    Game Time: 8:30PM Central
    TV/Radio: NBCSN, SportsNet (Anglo), TVA2 (Franco), WGN-AM 720
    Blood Makes The Blade Holy: Hockey Wilderness

    Mark it 2-9 in road Game 3’s now. On Tuesday night the Hawks won their first road game three since 2010 in the second round against Vancouver, and even in that series it was to take a 2-1 series lead. And now for the first time in the Renaissance Era the Hawks have the opportunity to end a series unblemished on opposition ice.

    (more…)

  • Fortune Teller

    Fortune Teller

    Editor’s Note: This ran in last night’s print edition.

    Now in year seven of the Joel Quenneville era of Blackhawks Renaissance, the Hawks actually find themselves in slightly uncharted territory. Not only is this the first time that they have been past the first round for three straight years in the post-expansion era, but the Hawks are trying to eliminate the same team three straight years for the first time ever, with their most recent opportunity having been thwarted by  Alex Burrows and Chris Campoli.

    (more…)