Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Doom
What happened to Kuemper?
He started the season red hot and he's been a great goalie throughout the system coming up.
He's been hot garbage since his decline, is the defense hanging him out to dry?
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The defense has not been good. But Kuemper's head is off, too. Mike Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune points out that Kuemper's poor play started bang on after he passed his games threshold that triggered waiver exposure. Coincidence? Perhaps. Kuemper's a big kid (6-5). But he's getting beat from far out almost every game. He's giving up rebounds. And he seems to get rattled when he lets in one goal. All that indicates that he is fighting through some kind of mental yips right now, which happens.
As I said before, the team had him slated in with the AHL team for this season. Part of that was two immovable one-way deals in Harding and Backstrom. Part of that was Kuemper still could be sent down without being exposed to waivers (as of the start of the season). He only has 55 NHL starts to his record so far, so he's young.
The Wild's problem is that they now cannot get him to the AHL (waivers) to help him work it out.
The Wild's goaltending situation is extremely ugly right now.