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Mats Zuccarello rips his team 'we play defense like we're a f***ing junior team'

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Joshua Deeds
October 16, 2022  (4:06 PM)
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The Minnesota Wild are coming off a year of contention, this after they exited in the first round of the playoffs against the St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference. The roster makeup has changed drastically since then.

Bill Guerin traded Cam Talbot for Filip Gustavsson, moved Dmitry Kulikov and Jon Merrill is out on IR, to start. The team is lacking in the depth they once had it feels like despite Jacob Middleton being a positive off last season.

Which explains why Mats Zuccarello is so angry with the Wild's defensive play last night, as they set up the team to fail against the Los Angeles Kings.

Through the first two games, the Wild have given up 14 goals to the Los Angeles Kings and the New York Rangers. Two good hockey teams that should be making the playoffs this year, but Minnesota has been caught on its back foot, giving up the first few goals of the game almost immediately and then just trying to push back enough to make it a reasonable game.

What happened to Evason's team?

«You can't expect to win games when you let in 14 goals in two games. Sometimes we play defense like we're a fucking junior team. It's the whole team. We've got to sharpen up,» Zuccarello said after the loss on Saturday.

The lackluster free agency the Wild had is beginning to cripple the ranks of a once ferocious team to play against.

The question is, was letting Talbot walk to sign a bunch of low-level depth in July the right answer? We're seeing the results now.

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