After the Fall: Wild post-mortem (Part I)

Well, the Minnesota Wild season is over. Has been for about two weeks now. Do we dare look back, and at least try to smile, after a season when a goaltender managed to single-handedly turn Chicken(bleep) into Chicken salad, only to get crushed like a pan pizza, against the Chicago Blackhawks? Let's go...

The Wild in 2014-15 is the tale of two seasons; pre-January 14, and January 15 and afterwards.

Before January 14, you had numerous blowouts against the Wild, including the last two games before the arrival of the season's savior; the numerous injuries; two illnesses ravaging the team; and the 12th-worst record in the NHL's Western Conference following a 7-2 drubbing at Consol Energy Center vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins on Jan. 13, a game which I witnessed in person. And, left early (the second time I ever did that, by the way.)

There is reason for optimism. A legit first line, two decent centers, a vastly improved defense, and for the first time in four seasons, decent goaltending. But there is also cause for alarm, as well.

Players thinking the goal is 9 yards wide, instead of six feet. Certain players thinking the opposition blue line is the equivalent of the Demilitarized Zone. Poor aim (or, none at all) while shooting. (Or, being so afraid to score, as to not bother shooting at all, even when a wide-open net is directly in front of them).

The defense is not immune, either. Too much ice time by one (or two) defensemen dragging the team down in the playoffs. Too many turnovers (especially late in home games).

The goaltending quandry is about to take an upward turn, as Josh Harding 's contract expires, Niklas Backstrom is due to be bought out (Backstrom has one year left on his contract), which leaves only the 'new' goalie -- Devan Dubnyk, who has indicated he wishes to return -- to be signed during the next 35 days (or so). Remember, July 1 is NHL Free agency day.

So, the season had two parts: pre-Devan, and after-trade.

Part I: Started well enough, won four of the first six games prior to the first sign of trouble, the classic third-period collapse vs. the NY Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 27, when the Wild blew a 3-1 3rd period lead and lost 5-4 in regulation.

Following that, three wins, and then a 3-game road trip (at Ottawa, Montreal and New Jersey) in which the Wild scored a measly two -- 2 -- goals, while giving up 10 at the same time.

After that, an up-and-down November, punctuated by the Thanksgiving Eve turkey served up to the Wild fans by the LA Kings -- a 4-0 drubbing, one which sent the faithful out of the 'X,' booing the team lustily as they went into the night.

And then...there was the 2014-15 Holiday season. Free points for everyone playing the Wild, except one poor unfortunate team (Toronto). An absolutely abysmal 2-7-4 record from December 15 to January 13. Five times when the 'defensively-minded' Wild gave up five or more goals, including two games where they gave up SEVEN goals (fortunately, neither game was in St. Paul, so all Wild fans had to do is turn off the TV set).

And then, there was Part II: An immediate 8-0-1 record after Dubnyk arrived in Buffalo early in the morning on Jan. 15. The best record in the entire NHL after Jan. 15th. Optimism reigned supreme, as pessimism was shown the door, and the Wild caught no less than 5 teams to claim the No. 1 wild-card spot in the upcoming Stanley Cup Playoffs. The season was saved, after all.

And then, being the only wild-card team to make it past the first round of the playoffs. Granted, the second round showed that the Wild still have a ways to go as a unit, but that the foundation is, indeed, there for the future. All it needs is yet another round of unloading overpaid underachievers, and that the youth of this franchise may actually be in position, to take this franchise where Wild fans want it to go.

Finally.

Things to be thankful for...and, not so much...

Five things to be thankful for this Minnesota Wild season...and a couple that we're having second thoughts about...

Let us try and be thankful for what NHL hockey fans in Minnesota have right now. Because, it could be much, much worse...

1. The play of Zach Parise is certainly worth the price of admission, if you're a Wild fan. He actually gets it, that it's the play EVERY night that determines how a team does. Practices the same way as he plays. Overcomes adversity like few the game has seen in a long, long time.

2. Ryan Suter has actually become a better player with less overall time on ice this season. Until recently, when 3 of the top 4 defensemen went out with injury and/or illness at the same time, Suter was on his way to less time on ice on a game-by-game basis. And, he was becoming a better defenseman for it. But, help is on the way, as his 'little buddy', Jonas Brodin, seems to have overcome the mumps and may be back for duty this weekend, vs. St. Louis on Saturday night.

3. The offense that is coming from the second line, with Nino Niederreiter as the team's leading scorer, is a welcome relief for what could have been a really stagnant line otherwise. Nino, indeed, knows how to put the 'biscuit in the basket'. Now, if he could only get Charlie Coyle going again...

4. Marco Scandella's maturation and development is a sight to behold. The No. 3 defenseman for the Wild right now, the fact that he is moving the puck and not just playing steady defense right now, speaks volumes as to his versatility and development. Scandella's play has inspired others to do the same, also.

5. The two-headed goalie tandem is back. Niklas Backstrom rolled over the Florida Panthers like a storm front Monday night; the only goal scored was a disputed high-stick call. Darcy Kuemper came back from a disastrous game on Nov. 16 vs. Winnipeg, to shut down the Philadelphia Flyers in Philly on Thursday night.

OK. That was the good stuff. Now, the bad stuff:

1. The power play is as abysmal as ever. If ever there was an option for not accepting a penalty against your opponent, the Wild could use that option about now. A wretched 1-for the season power play on the road does not make for happy coaches, players, or fans. Which leads me to Item No. 2...

2. Thomas Vanek. This isn't snakebit, folks. The snake would die of embarrassment if he bit Vanek, whose steadfast refusal to skate, hit or (especially) shoot the puck makes his $6.5M contract even a bigger albatross for Wild management than the two contracts that were vanquished from the books (Dany Heatley, Robert Parrish) and the one who got away (Clayton Stoner) who were cleared out to sign the ex-Gopher. Vanek thinks that every goal he scores should be a tip-in from in front of the net. Sadly, not every goal will be that way. But, don't tell Vanek that.

I'd rather have Jason Zucker and Erik Haula on the power play than Vanek, which makes the last 1:17 of Saturday night's 2-1 loss at Tampa even more puzzling. The coaching staff knows how little Vanek produces, yet they still put him out there. Anyone else would have been more productive.

Oh, yes, we'll still see Vanek out there, trying to cherry-pick at the red line, unable to help out on defense or the power play. And, he's into the Wild for about $19 million more the next three seasons. Happy, happy, joy, joy.

Let's see what happens the next five games, with four of the five teams in last season's playoffs. Then we'll be past the quarter mark, and four of the next five games at home. Let's all see what happens.

Together.

More Borscht, Comrade Kuemper?

Taking dangerous paths in a negotiation, and angering Minnesota Wild GM Chuck Fletcher, is not the way for 24-year-old, third-year-pro goalies to endear themselves to an organization. Or its' fans.

You think that Darcy Kuemper's representation would have figured that out by now. Fletcher knows that there are a lot of goalies out there, goalies that would jump at the chance to play one year (if that) in the AHL, in order to get a shot at an NHL job next summer. Or, sooner, given the health histories of both Niklas Backstrom and Josh Harding.

But, Kuemper's representation has been adamant on getting Kuemper an NHL salary for playing in the AHL. Frankly, Kuemper probably wouldn't be spending the holidays in Des Moines; but with the Wild up against the salary cap, Fletcher is trying to save every dollar of cap room possible. With Kuemper on a one-way (NHL salary only, regardless of where he plays) contract, the Wild wastes salary cap room every day that Kuemper is down 'on the farm'. With a two-way contract, Kuemper gets a lower (maybe 1/3rd of his NHL salary) rate of pay, but at least he plays here.

And, did I say, that this two-way is for this coming season only? The second year, under Fletcher's offer, was at the NHL rate, regardless of where he plays. So, we are only talking about ONE SEASON.

Kuemper's agent, Jeff Helperl, has threatened to take his client's talents to the KHL, where 'he can play every day', as his agent has been quoted locally as saying. Oh, he'd play every day, alright. But if he gets injured (as goalies frequently do: remember last season's two concussions, Darcy?), good luck getting decent medical care 6-9,000 miles away from home. Not to mention the travel arrangements (ask the widows of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv tragedy). And the food (Russian). And the bleak, Russian winter existence.

Kuemper's home town of Saskatoon would look like Nirvana, compared to some of the stops on the KHL's circuit. The fact that Kuemper at worst is a year away from a full-time NHL gig, you would think, would be more than enough to keep him in the organization which, up to this point, has nurtured him and developed him to the point where he is a serviciable NHL goaltender.

Fletcher is perceived as playing hardball by Kuemper's camp. Hardly. These are the rules that both sides have agreed (through the CBA) to live by. The fact that the Wild did not negotiale earlier (at least publically) is partly their own fault; but, due to the continuing shedding of the dead weight on the Wild roster (Dany Heatley, Clayton Stoner), the roster is in flux virtually right up to the home opener Oct. 9 vs. Colorado. With that as a background, Kuemper is now the single biggest roster problem on the Wild, now that Nino Niederreiter has agreed to a 3-year, $8M contract.

So, the question is now this: What does Kuemper do? Does he tell Helperl to accept Fletcher's offer, and report to camp this coming week? Or, does he pack his bags, get a Russian visa, and head out for the Wild, Wild East?

Which Admirals team do you want to see in October, Darcy? Milwaukee? Or Vladivostok?

It's your choice, Darcy Kuemper.

'The Six-Pack of Suck', Volume VII: Six that got away (literally)

I know, Minnesota Wild faithful. I'm looking at the glass and saying it's half-empty. But, in the words of the bard himself, William Shakespeare, 'Those who do not remember from history, are thereby doomed to repeat it.'

And so it goes for the seventh edition of 'The Six-Pack of Suck', six games that really should have gone the Wild's way, but the hockey gods (along with some really bad defense from the local six,) conspired to think otherwise. The lack of offense didn't help things, especially in the crucial holiday period, where visions of sugarplums danced in their heads, instead of visions of victories.

Oh, well...here we go...

1. October 5, 2013. Anaheim 4 at Minnesota 3 (OT). In this, Anaheim's only regular-season appearance in St. Paul, the Wild managed to lose in the last five seconds of the OT period after Mathieu Perrault (who the Ducks had just acquired from Washington) went in on Niklas Backstrom, and just like in the (supposedly) upcoming shootout, five-holed Minnesota's opening-season starter after both Marco Scandella and Jared Spurgeon failed to stop the Anaheim rush. Not even the lack of Teemu Selanne (held out by Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau, as the next night Selanne would be feted in Winnpeg, where Selanne started his career) held back the Ducks, who started their season on a 3-game road trip.

2. November 27, 2013. Phoenix 3 at Minnesota 1. The Thanksgiving season has traditionally not been a good one for the Wild, and 2013's Thanksgiving Eve game was yet another served-up turkey, as the Wild basically stopped skating against the hungrier Coyotes. Zach Parise had been injured the previous game in St. Louis, taking a shot off his left instep; Mikael Granlund joined him on the IR after the first shift of the game, when he took a head shot and gained a concussion. This really started the Wild's downward spiral, which lasted most of the next six weeks.

3. November 29, 2013. Colorado 3 at Minnesota 1. 'Black Friday' took on a whole new meaning for the Wild, as the hottest team in the NHL in the first 60 days of the season -- the Avs -- rolled into the 'X' and basically laid down the law, as old Wild nemesis J. S. Giguere moved onto an easy victory, as the Wild went 2-2 on Black Friday in the last 4 full seasons. Matt Duchene, Nathan McKinnon, and an empty-net goal made sure the Wild would have rather gone shopping, than play hockey.

4. December 29, 2013. NY Islanders 5 at Minnesota 4. The Wild jumped out to a 3-goal lead on the Islanders, then sat back and watched as Cal Clutterbuck, Kyle Okposo (two goals) and Thomas Vanek (two assists) brought the Isles all the way back, in this Sunday night stinker. Wasted in this snooze-fest was Mikko Koivu's two-assist night and Nino Niederreiter's goal and assist. The Isles would win their third straight in a eight-win-in-nine-game stretch, to propel themselves onto the cusp of the Eastern Conference playoff race. The Wild, at this point, lost their fifth straight, and the future of Mike Yeo as Wild head coach was in jeopardy after this one.

5. January 14, 2014. Ottawa 3 at Minnesota 0. Following the Islanders game (listed above), the Wild went out and won five of the first six in 2014, and then were soundly brought back to Mother Earth, by a Senators' squad in a game which was exciting as watching paint dry. The Wild only managed three shots on goal in the first period, allowing Ottawa goalie Robin Lehner a virtual night off as the Sens went home victorious. 'We weren't moving our feet', said Mike Yeo after the game. No kidding, Mike.

6. March 11, 2014. Edmonton 4 at Minnesota 3 (SO). In the midst of a four-game homestand, with every point crucial in the Western Conference playoff race, one would think that a three-goal lead after 16 minutes would be a good thing for the home team, right? Think again, as the Oilers came back to tie the game, then win it in the shootout as the Oilers went 3-for-4 in the deciding session, sending Darcy Kuemper and the Wild off with an in-your-face, four round shootout loss. Despite Edmonton drawing a penalty with :09 left in regulation, the Wild fumbled, bumbled and blew a 2-goal lead in the last 8:54 of regulation time. Ugly loss, especially after blowing the big lead.

So, there it is. Six games, 10 points blown, and all home games! If the Wild want more noise and more fans in the seats, they cannot come up with games like these against inferior quality opponents. Only two of the six opponents listed even made the Stanley Cup Playoffs; and, no thanks to this group of lousy games, the Wild were relegated to wild-card status. If the Wild wish to take their coming of age seriously, they cannot have games like this affect their season. Two points are two points, regardless of when you get them. November points are just as good as March points.

I really hope the Wild gets the point when it comes to letting inferior teams off the hook. Next season, you can't do that. Just play better. Every night.

Decompression...and remorse...after a Wild playoff run

By Wild Road Tripper

Well, folks. Even I finally have to admit it.

It's Over.

The Minnesota Wild season is over. Shoulda been a Game 7 last night, at the United Center in Chicago. But, alas, such was not to be. The fact of the matter turned out to be, though, that good teams generate their own puck luck. And, the talented, uber-successful Chicago Blackhawks are that good. They generated the luck to get that OT goal in Game 6, to end the Wild's season after two rounds.

But what about the season that just ended? What about the 2013-14 campaign, one that came to the precipice of utter disaster, following a Dec. 29 Sunday night disaster at home against the lowly New York Islanders, where the Wild came out, and utterly stunk out the Xcel Energy Center?

But that's for another time, another column. (Don't worry, I'll still provide the 'Six-Pack of Suck' in a few weeks. Need to get over our playoff run first.)

But think back and remember fondly what the Wild did accomplish this seaosn:

1. Going thru goaltenders faster than commercial jets go thru tires. Seven different goaltenders started at least one game for the Wild this past season. Seven. Had you told me that was going to happen last October, I'd have said you need your head examined. But, alas, that's exactly what happened. Thru Niklas Backstrom's 'core muscle' injury, Josh Harding's battle with Multiple Sclerosis, Darcy Kuemper's 'Bells of St. Mary's' routine, both in the regular season and in Game 5 in Denver; the emergence (and demi-lucidity) of Ilya Bryzgalov; John Curry's twirling to a win in the stretch drive, just to name a few.

2. They won and thrived, despite Dany Heatley's lack of contribution as he muddled his way thru the last season of his $7.5M contract; Kyle Brodziak reverting to form after his 'contract drive' of late last season; and so much lack of contrbution from virtually every other player on the roster at one time or another. The fact is that the Wild won at times in spite of themselves, as much as their efforts had any effect on the outcomes.

3. The emergence of so many of the young guns that GM Chuck Fletcher has assembled over the past 4 years. Mikael Granlund, Jared Spurgeon, Charlie Coyle, Eric Haula, Justin Fontaine, just to name a few. And you have Matt Dumba and Christian Folin waiting in the wings, as well as Raphael Bussieres, the injured Jason Zucker, and so many other talent 'in the larder', as it were, that the Wild are now in a position of strength, where they can afford to trade for top talent, and actually have players that other teams want, for one of the few times in franchise history.

4. I tweeted just before the first Wild home playoff game (Game 3, vs. Colorado) that the Wild need to give the fans something to cheer for, and they will cheer. Loudly. And, they did. I was among them, for all six home playoff games. Yes, the Wild wish you could get this kind of response on a mid-January night vs. Edmonton, Calgary, or Carolina, but with 41 home games in the regular season (and 2 or 3 pre-season games), you're just not going to get that response every night. Meanwhile, the fact that the Wild can fill the building as they have, despite stretches like the holiday period of 2013, is a continuing testament to the faithfulness of the fanbase.

5. The national media finally admitted that the Wild are not the only NHL team playing 'the trap' anymore. Begrudgingly, the Wild have earned the respect of the national hockey media (E. J. Hradek, and Sirius XM NHL Radio notwithstanding) thru their two-round playoff run. The fact of the matter is that the Wild franchise is finally coming of age...again. The only other team from the '99-00 class of teams that has gone beyond the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, more than once, is still only one: the Minnesota Wild.

So, with all that behind us, Wild fans turn to the future. And it's a very bright future, indeed. With all the talent assembled, and the position of where the Wild is as an organization, the future is where the Wild are at. You still have a little dead weight on the team (Brodziak, Stoner) to get rid of; some of the rest of it (Heatley, Matt Moulson, Prosser) will become UFA's by themselves. Other than at the goaltender position, you got to like where the Wild are at, talent-wise.

Mike Yeo's future as the head coach of this franchise was assured by their playoff run; I would, however, do some kind of an audit on your training and medical staffs, as there were too many injuries, at too many of the wrong times, by too many of the wrong players. Some of it was, yes, game-related; but a lot of it were developing injuries, over time, while the medical staff waited for the inevitable to occur. A little more proactive effort is what's needed, IMO, to stem the tide of injuries.

Next up: NHL Draft, June 27-28, at 'The Rock' in Newark. Go for it, Chuck Fletcher.

Meaty, meaty, meaty, meaty...

Wild start 16 game-in-30-day marathon tonight vs. Jets: Another goalie in their future?

Venerable Minneapolis Star-Tribune beat writer Michael Russo likes to use the term, 'meaty', when the Minnesota Wild face a particularly tough stretch of their schedule. Now, he's used it for years, and normally, he's pretty much spot on when he's used it.

So, in that respect, the next 30 days are, indeed, four weeks of 'meaty' games for the Wild, as they delve headlong back into Western Conference play after mostly feasting on the weaker Eastern Conference for the last 2 1/2 weeks.

And, they do so, at least for the time being, without one key cog in their lineup; goaltender Niklas Backstrom, whose concussion is the aftermath of Toronto's Nazem Kadri going Hanson brothers on Backstrom during the first period of Wednesday's 3-2 Wild victory, over the otherwise hapless Maple Leafs at Xcel Energy Center. (Nice forearm shiv there, Nazem. I see Colton Orr has taught you well.)

The fact is that as long as Josh Harding can hold up physically, the Wild should at least stay in most games in the next month; after all, they have the fourth best record in the Central division, which has proven to be the NHL's toughest, up to this point. But what recourse do the Wild have should Harding go down again, like he has each of the last two seasons?

They have to sign another goaltender, and soon. They cannot depend on their Iowa Wild tandem (Johan Gustafsson, Darcy Kuemper) to play full-time backup; the revolving door on I-35 between Des Moines and St. Paul can only go so fast. The name most mentioned is ex-Wild (and Canadiens, Avalanche, Capitals, Panthers) keeper Jose Theodore, who reportedly is working out near his South Florida home.

With four back-to-backs in the next four weeks (including two in a nine-day stretch), two home and away, two with both games away, the Wild's schedule gets ridiculously tough going into the next few weeks. Three games vs. Central co-leader Colorado, two games vs. Winnipeg, two vs. San Jose, and single games against Montreal, Ottawa, St. Louis, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Chicago, Columbus, Anaheim, Vancouver, and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

This is a schedule that would decimate most clubs, especially when 10 of the 16 games are away from St. Paul, where the Wild have become the most dominant team in the NHL. The only home blemish in regulation time is the 'Monday Night Massacre', the Oct. 28 nationally-televised 5-1 drubbing by the Chicago Blackhawks, the game after the Wild went into Chicago's United Center and routed the 'Hawks 5-2 two nights earlier.

It will be a real test for the Wild to go from a speed game (vs. Colorado), to an almost brutal game vs. Philadelphia, back to a speed game vs. Chicago, to a control game vs. Columbus, and so on. Different teams will present different challenges for the Wild, be it P.K. Subban, Eric Karlsson, David Backes and T.J. Oshie, Mike Smith, or 'Jumbo Joe' (Thornton) and 'Little Joe' (Pavelski) with San Jose.

As versatile as the Wild have had to become so far, they bettter start honing their game. Very much so, and quickly. As the Western Conference is prepping to leave the Wild in their dust, the Wild need to amass a large number of victories in this next 16 games -- in my opinion, nothing less than 11-5-0  (22 points) will do -- which means they need to win all their home games during this stretch, and be at least .500 on the road.

Should the Wild still be in contention by the Christmas three-day holiday break, four of the first five games after the break will be in the 'friendly confines' of the 'X' -- and a good way to start the New Year.

But, until that time, the schedule is, indeed, 'meaty'. So enjoy the banquet, Wild fans. Or at least try to.

What Hath Wild Wrought: After one week...

After one week,of the regular season, we know this about the 2013-2014 Wild:

1. They start slow. The Wild definitely need to pick up the pace, before the opponent does. Both LA and Anaheim found that by getting the first goal (or, goals), they could put the Wild behind the proverbial '8-ball' for the rest of the evening. The first ten minutes of the game are as important as the last 10 minutes of the game. Wish some on the roster would remember this.

2. Haven't we seen this before? Two seasons ago, the Wild started the season with a great power play offense, scoring nearly at will when given the man advantage. Of course, the flip side of the coin that season turned out to be a dearth of goals on the power play later in that season. The Wild have scored power play goals in both games played so far (two vs. Anaheim, one vs. LA). They have shown they can score at 5-on-4; now, can they score more at even strength, 5-on-5?

3. OT/Shootout: new season, same old problems. As we have all witnessed the last three days, the same old bugaboos for the Wild that have plagued them since the departure of Jacques Lemaire have reared their ugly heads once again; namely, the inability of this team to figure out how to win in extra time. Thursday, the fact that the game went to a shootout played right into the hands of the LA Kings, as the entire NHL knows that Niklas Backstrom is the NHL's worst goalie in extra time. On Saturday night, the Ducks' Mathieu Perrault made Backstrom look like a midget goalie, floating a backhander thru Backstrom's five-hole as time ran out. Now, maybe that was a blessing in disguise, as now maybe Josh Harding will start in Nashville on Tuesday night, as the Wild play the new divisional rival Preds for the first time under the new divisional format. And speaking of which...

4. You really don't have time to straighten it out. Six of your next 11 games (including the next 3 in a row) are against divisional opponents. If the Wild continue to falter as they have, they definitely will be on the outside, looking in towards those teams they let slip away from them in October as the season progresses. You can work as hard as hell in practice, but it's in the games where you need to improve. You need to start winning. In regulation time.

Yes, I realize that this is a long season, and that it's only 2 games in. But, with the compressed schedule due to the Sochi Olympics, you really don't have the time to stop and rework what is, in order to reclaim points lost due to inattentiveness, and a goaltender who is a world-beater for 60 minutes, then becomes Egg Beaters for the extra 5. I know that this goes against the grain for goalies; 'You're shattering their confidence', and so on, but at some point, you have to try something different, if the rest of your team cannot get the job done in regulation time. The inattentiveness? You need Sigmund Freud himself to explain why the last 10 seconds of OT becomes a tropical vacation for some guys. And, as for the goaltending in OT/SO?

Put in the other guy when OT starts. For the good of all your goalies. Don't let the team waste 60 minutes (or somewhat less) of effort, by staying with a goalie that can't stop a beach ball in extra time.

Fix what you can. Now. Before the snowball starts downhill and you can't stop it. For another last week of the season looms larger every day as this season unfolds.

'Six-Pack of Suck': The Light edition

Honestly. We couldn't do this even though we are still disappointed that the Minnesota Wild didn't do more against the Blackhawks in the first round of the playoffs. But, since everyone else is putting the season away, I thought I might as well do the same.

But, we also have to be somewhat fair. The Wild only played 48 regular-season (and 5 post-season) games. About 60% of the regular season schedule. So, with less of a pool of games to choose from, there are less games to really say 'God, they sucked that night.' And so, with all that as a backdrop, here is the 'light' edition of the Six-Pack of Suck, or three games the Wild really wished later they had won:

1. February 14, 2013. Colorado 4, Minnesota 3 (SO). In front of a raucous, Valentine's Day crowd of 18,822 at Xcel Energy Center, the Avs came back right after Mikko Koivu put the Wild ahead with just eight minutes remaining in regulation. On the next shift, Colorado's Matt Duchene tied it up as the Wild once again tried to lay back and cruise to a win. Not so, as the Avs went 2-for-2 against Niklas Backstrom to win it in the extra session. The Wild would go on to win 4 of the next 5, but really, Valentine's Day would have been that much better with a 'W' by the home squad.

2. April 21, 2013. Calgary 4, Minnesota 1. The last week of the regular season started with this God-awful showing by the Wild, who managed to bumble and stumble their way to losing at home to a Calgary team, which was 2/3rds Flames and 1/3rd Abbotsford Heat players, pushing the Wild's April loss streak at home to a sickening 5 straight games.

The Wild just couldn't get the deal done, as they threw away their chance to clinch a playoff spot (and also play either St. Louis or San Jose in the first round, as opposed to Anaheim or Chicago) with this lack of finish in this game.

Despite outshooting the Flames 35-24 for the game as a whole, the Flames outshot the Wild 12-10 in the crucial 3rd period, as the Flames scored twice against Backstrom in the last 7:20 (one an empty net goal) as the Wild slunk away into the night.

The Wild ended the night three points ahead of the ninth-place Dallas Stars, a team which gutted its' roster three weeks earler at the trade deadline, as their April record waned to a wretched 3-7-1.

3. April 26, 2013. Edmonton 6, Minnesota 1. 'Fan Appreciation Night' at the 'X' turned into 'Fan Apprehension Night', after only 27 seconds in this one, where by that time, there was a Zenon Konopka fight, an Edmonton goal, and a Wild team in really desperate straits.

And it would only go downhill from there. I was so 'appreciated' by the half-way mark of this game, I walked out and did not see either of Nail Yakupov's two goals (on consecutive shifts, by the way). I wasn't alone, as the place was half-empty by the time Koivu scored in the 3rd, to break up Nikolai Khabibulin's shutout.

The only thing I could 'appreciate' about this game is that I could go to bed on time, as I was home well before the final horn sounded to end this turkey of a contest. The Oilers were going nowhere, and if not for the Wild's game the next day at Colorado, neither were the Wild going anywhere.

Jeff Rimer, the play-by-play man for the Columbus Blue Jackets, surmised that the Jackets would have been a better opponent for the Blackhawks than were the Wild. We can argue that forever, but I don't think that anyone could have stopped the Blackhawks in the first round, save for the Hawks themselves.

Bring on the post-season, folks. Time to remodel the roster.

Too close for comfort...and a prediction

With regular season behind them, Wild, Blackhawks get set to face each other in Round One of 2013 NHL Playoffs

By Wild Road Tripper

That was close. Too close.

The Minnesota Wild, who almost backed all the way out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, did manage to right the ship of state in time to save their season Saturday night at Pepsi Center, defeating the Colorado Avalanche 3-1 to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. As thousands of fans watched in angst at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, where the Blue Jackets thought that their 3-1 win, over the Nashville Predators, would just be enough to qualify for their second playoff run in the franchise's history, the Wild managed to just squeak in as the No. 8 seed in the NHL's Western Conference.

The Wild will begin their best-of-7 series with the Chicago Blackhawks on either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on the whims of the NBC Sports Network, who controls what games are placed in what order by the League contractually. NBCSN -- which used to be known as Versus -- would like to keep the League's stars (Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, the Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings) on their network as much as possible.

And, there is the question in the Eastern Conference of who will play whom, as there is one game to be played today -- the postponed Ottawa at Boston game, which was originally scheduled for April 15th, the date of the Boston Marathon bomb attacks. This game needs to be played, in order to determine playoff positioning for 3 of the 4 Eastern Conference series.

Until that game is played, none of the dates/times for any of the series will probably be announced, so it will be anywhere up to mid-late evening before the times might be known.

As the two teams prepare to enter the playoffs -- the pressure-filled, hyper-intense world of hockey beyond the end of the regular season -- the fact of the matter is clear: The Wild are the second-biggest underdog in the NHL playoffs. Only the New York Islanders -- who will end up facing the Pittsburgh Penguins, should Ottawa lose in OT or the shootout tonight in Boston -- would probably be a larger underdog.

Regardless of when the Wild-Blackhawks series starts, the best thing for the Wild to do is simplify your game. No more Clayton Stoner cross-ice passes to be intercepted by Marian Hossa. No Justin Falk missed checks leading to Patrick Kane odd-man rushes on goal. No more Tom Gilbert passes to the empty quarter of the offensive zone, only to be intercepted and shot down the ice, killing yet another chance. Don't expect Pierre-Marc Bouchard to Spin-o-Rama his way to a Stanley Cup. Or much from Zenon Konopka, Mike Rupp, or Torrey Mitchell, but for Mitchell, for the fact he has to play on the same line (Wild's 4th) with the other two.

Chicago's strength is that their four lines are better than yours, matched up line-for-line (1st vs. 1st, 2nd vs. 2nd, 3rd vs. 3rd, and 4th vs. 4th). Their defense is better than yours (especially the bottom three), and their goaltending has improved dramatically, as opposed to Wild workhorse Niklas Backstrom, who has played in 82% of the Wild's season.

The Wild will make this an interesting series, and may just sneak a win out of the United Center. Maybe. But then, under the pressure of the home crowd, with 20,000 people at Xcel Energy Center (they will try for this number of tickets sold, for each game in this series) screaming 'SHOOT' every time the power play stalls and become a pass-fest, the Wild will eventually wilt under the relentless attack of the Blackhawks. What the Hawks are, is what the Wild wants to achieve. They just aren't there...yet. But, they're getting there. At least the Wild are, finally, on their way.

PREDICTION: Hawks in 6.

Don't look now, North America; Wild are in 1st

Yes, it's fleeting, but it's still the truth as shortened schedule passes half-way mark

Sorry, North America, but we really hate to break this news to all of you:

The Minnesota Wild are in third place in the NHL's Western Conference, and lead the Northwest Division this Monday morning. Now, granted, it might not be that way for long, but for now, the Wild have the most wins of any team in the division, and that tie-breaker (with Vancouver) means the Wild are No. 1. For now.

With a 7-2-1 record in their last 10 games, the Wild have pretty much proven the naysayers wrong, despite the overwhelming feeling about the offseason signings of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter by the Wild. Yes, it's taken time, and a lot of Wild fan angst, but it looks like the Wild may -- MAY -- have just possibly found themselves in time to salvage the season and possibly break away from a lot of the 9-team middle-of-Conference pack that currently exists in the West. The Wild may also have a hand in the deciding of the Pacific Division as well; they have 10 games remaining against the Pacific, starting with Tuesday night's season-series finale with the current Pacific Division leaders, the Anaheim Ducks.

In fact, Anaheim will be only the second team in the conference the Wild will finish with (Nashville the other) before the Wild go on their next road trip, a 3-game trek to Colorado, Vancouver and Detroit, starting with the game Saturday afternoon in Denver. On the other hand, the Wild have yet to face either of the other two California teams, the San Jose Sharks and the defending Stanley Cup champion LA Kings. In fact, on the NHL Trade Deadline day (April 3) the Wild will conveinently be in San Jose, so if Wild GM Chuck Fletcher makes a move, any player that can be moved can be easily dispatched to whatever point on the NHL compass the trade winds take them.

But, between now and then, there's 11 games (6 home, 5 road) to be played, another nearly 1/4 of the season. So there's time for players to play themselves into, or out of, the day-to-day lineup. Or, should the so choose, all the way off the roster. But the fact is starting to stare at all 30 NHL teams, that the last chance to dump salary (of potential UFA's to be), or get anything of value for players whose welcome has worn thin (or totally out) is coming upon them like a bad storm across the prairie.

Especially this season, this shortened season, this last season before divisional re-alignment, the Trade Deadline day should, in my honest opinion, yield a few surprises along with a couple of shocker moves; the number of medium-level free agents-to-be almost demands that some blockbuster trades happen.

The Wild need to dump salary. They would like to do so and actually get something in return. The franchise is finally getting out of the Risebrough era, albeit slower than most Wild fans would like them to; this summer should finally close the books on the DR reign of the Wild. Now, some of that will be tough (how do you give up on Niklas Backstrom, for example, the way he has played for most of the season so far?) and some of it will be easy (Pierre-Marc Bouchard), and some others will be tough to swallow for some (if Matt Cullen is moved, as example) but the fact is that the Wild are positioned to get younger, bigger and even more talented than they are now. And most followers agree, that this is already the most talented Wild roster in their history.

So what to do? This team needs to make the playoffs -- THIS season -- in order to show Minnesota hockey fans progress towards the success that this market has for so long craved. Even if the end result this season is a one-series 'one-and-done', even that would be considered progress. Then, and only then, would this season be worth it for Wild fans.

Back to earth...sort of...

February rough start vs. Anaheim believed no reason to panic; Coyle gets his shot at Wild roster

It hasn't been the best of times for the Minnesota Wild lately.

After the Anaheim Ducks did what they normally do to the Wild at Honda Center -- namely, beat them into submission, then turn those mistakes caused by the opposition into goals -- the Wild arrived into Phoenix early Saturday looking at a few days in the Arizona desert, with only practice staring them in the face.

And, according to most observers, including the coaching staff, practice is what they really NEED right now. As the 4-3-1 Wild prepare to face the 3-4-2 Phoenix Coyotes -- soon to be the NHL's version of Nomads, if what is being said around the game is to be believed -- on Monday night at Jobing.com Arena in near-bankrupt Glendale, they have help coming to replace the injured Matt Cullen, who crashed (with help) into the boards on Friday night.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the real reason they traded Brent Burns in 2011. Charlie Coyle, welcome to Minnesota. Coyle, who lit up the QMJHL in the half-season he was there after he left Boston College, was called up by the Wild on Saturday afternoon following their off-day practice, to replace the injured Cullen in the line-up for Monday night's tilt. Coyle, who has 14 goals, 10 assists for AHL Houston this season, is called a 'power forward' by the Wild, and his 6-foot-2, 222-lb frame has been called the prototypical size for that position.

Coyle was included with Devin Setoguchi in the NHL Draft night trade in 2011, when the draft was at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Traded for defenseman Burns, who has been in-and-out of the Sharks' lineup since then, Coyle is in his first full season as a pro, and has played 44 games for the Aeros this season.

Power forward, you say?

The position of power forward -- the guy who is not afraid to mix it up in front of the net, to create as much havoc as possible, in order to get nice juicy rebounds and deflections -- is somewhat a novel concept for the Wild. But, it hasn't been like it hasn't been tried before.

Andrew Brunette, slow as he was, is probably the best example of a power forward the Wild has ever had on their roster. Guillaume Latendresse was supposed to be that next version of that, but his concussion problems last season, and his contract status did not allow that to succeed. Zach Parise has some of that in him, but the fact is, he's better than that (we've already seen it). Others that you could put in that category are LA's Dustin Brown, Anaheim's Ryan Getzlaf, St. Louis' David Backes, Boston's Milan Lucic, Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin, and when healthy, Ryan Kesler of Vancouver.

The combination is one that is tough to get, and one that is even tougher to keep up, as the number of players that who have tried to play the position and have failed are many. Teams that have a good power forward are normally teams that go relatively far in the playoffs. And that is where the Wild want to be on the evening of April 27th. Going relatively far. In the playoffs.

Next 5 games: Key Stretch?

Are the next 5 games a key stretch of the season? With three of those five games on the road -- where the Wild only have one point after three games so far -- the next nine days will tell much about the Wild's real chances to not only make the playoffs, but to gain home ice advantage in the first round.

Two games vs. Vancouver (home and away), and games at Phoenix, at Calgary, and the second (of two) games vs. Nashville at the 'X' round out the next five games on the schedule. Do the Wild have a chance to put some points in their column before the season gets too out of hand? Or will the combination of their brutal travel schedule and the shortened season get the better of the roster?

Will Chuck Fletcher have to pull the trigger on a trade, in order to infuse more offense into what has been an underperforming bottom 2/3rds of the roster? Can the roster even respond without a trade being made? And what would be the best trade to make? Do you look towards the future and effectively 'salary dump' UFA's to be before the April 4 trade deadline? Or is 'the future is now' the prevailing view at 317 Washington St., St. Paul, MN? Do you keep the two primary future UFA's (Cullen and Pierre-Marc Bouchard) or do you move them? Does UFA-to-be goalie Niklas Backstrom remain to see the playoffs, should the Wild make it into the post-season? Or do you 'let it ride', like a shaky poker bet, past the trade deadline?

Like the rest of us fans, I just wait and see what will develop. And worry, like some of you do.

Another game, another loss, another injured Wild player

Well, after Saturday night's latest Minnesota Wild loss, the number of Wild walking wounded now ruled out of the rest of this season-from-hell, is now up to five (Bouchard, Latendresse, Falk, Spurgeon, and now Matt Cullen, who had his right index finger broken, by a Christian Ehrhoff shot) and with five of the team's seven remaining games at home, the question has to be asked: Was the schedule as much a part of the team's problems this season as the concussions, groin problems and general poor play in December, January, February and March? Or was it the failure of the 'Director of Player Safety'?

The fact that the months of November, December and January were very much road-heavy months for the Wild, exasperated an already tenuous situation for the team's paper-thin lineup of talent. After the back-to-back nights of December 13 and 14, when Bouchard was re-concussed by Zack Bogosian of Winnipeg, and Chicago's Viktor Stahlberg rang the bell of Latendresse, respectively, Wild fans knew this team was going nowhere but down, from the lofty first-place heights they had been in, just a few days before.

The fact that without two of their top 6 forwards in the lineup, the offense was going to stall. But no one knew it was going to stall this bad. Then there was the shoulder injury to Mikko (Kaptain) Koivu, the groin troubles of both goaltenders (Niklas Backstrom and Josh Harding), and you had a recipe for trouble. And, you already had tapped the Houston Aeros affiliate for all the talent that they could afford to send.

But nothing prepared Wild fans for the next two months following the All-Star Game, when the Wild were turned into the NHL's version of Alfred, the butler from 'Batman', -- 'At your service, sirs'.

Disasterous loss after disasterous loss. Beating the Wild was almost becoming comical. From the Nashville disaster on January 31, when the Wild blew a 4-1 lead at home in under 13 minutes, through the embarrassing 3-1 home loss to a Columbus team in 'fire sale' mode on February 11, through a embarrassing 7-1 loss to Colorado on March 6 (thank God, that game at least was in Denver), and onto another come-from-ahead loss to lowly Carolina on St. Patrick's Day. That Saturday, as the party raged on outside the 'X', the funeral was being held inside the arena.

And now, in two successive nights, two more add to the list of Wild walking wounded. Don't forget that on Thursday night, Calgary's Alex Tanguay gets away with an elbow shot to Jared Spurgeon, effectively ending the season for the defenseman some call 'the Minnow', for his small size. Surely, Wild fans thought, the NHL would look at this for some supplemental discipline. Right?

Uh, No.

Seems that the Wild don't matter to NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan. 'Sheriff Shanny', as he has been known, turns a blind eye to discipline when it comes to matters involving the Minnesota Wild. They aren't even worth his attention, even when the rules are clearly broken and players are getting concussed needlessly. Shanahan's official title is 'Director of Player Safety'. But, excuse me, if we fans point out that his title means for ALL players, not just those of teams going to this season's playoffs. Shanhan is as hypocritical as his predecessor, Colin Campbell, ever was or could have been. Player safety should be pretty straightforward; either the player involved was concussed, or he was not. If he was, and it was the direct result of an elbow (Tanguay's), then supplemental discipline should be assessed. Simple.

But Wild fans are already accustomed to the NHL not doing anything about incidents involving the Wild. Nothing was done about Bogosian when he ran Bouchard; nothing was done about the beatings in the crease both goalies were taking; nothing will be done about the Tanguay elbow.

Player safety? Contradiction in terms, if you ask me.

Shootout Dilemma: play a losing hand, or play to win?

I know goalies, (by their nature of BEING goalies), are fragile creatures. That's a given.

But the Minnesota Wild cannot continue to work like hell for 65 minutes, then stand by on the bench and watch, as Niklas Backstrom consistenly loses games in the shootout.

Michael Russo had some stats on this today in the S-T: as we already know, Backstrom is the WORST SHOOTOUT GOALIE in the entire NHL. Backstrom is an embarrassing 15-28 lifetime, with a .563 save percentage. This season, he is 3-4, and opponents have scored on 12 of 22 shot attempts, for a miserable .450 save percentage.

To work as hard as the Wild did last night vs. the Dallas Stars, and have all that effort come down to that galling stat, is ridiculous.

I'm sorry, but radical problems (such as losing shootouts and standings points) require radical solutions. I know this would hurt the psyche of possibly the entire team, but it also might just serve as the ultimate wake-up call, if once -- just once -- Josh Harding replaced Backstrom for the shootout. Harding could start on the bike (to get warmed up without getting too far away from the bench,) a few minutes before the end of regulation. That would also send a signal to the rest of the team, to get their act together -- NOW -- or else. If the game did indeed go to the shootout, Harding could come out like the Knight in shining armor, after the ice was dry scraped for the shootout.

Yes, I know we are dealing with emotions and fragile psyches, but as I said earlier, to consistenly know that you have a better chance to LOSE the game if you go to the shootout, than to WIN the game in the shootout, has got to play on the entire squad as well. And, with the fragileness of which the Wild psyche has been since the disasterous game at MTS Centre in Winnipeg Dec. 13, the last thing the Wild need is to not be rewarded for their efforts, because their goaltending cannot survive play in the shootout.


Of course, there is another way to get around all this: win in regulation. Don't allow the other team to even get to the shootout. Then you wouldn't have to worry about your No. 1 goalie being a shootout sieve.

Limping along at the top

(Revised and updated, with status of Wild injured)

Sorry, Vancouver Canucks fans. Your team still isn't in first this morning.

Despite injuries which have taken more than 120 man-games away (as of Saturday night's game vs. the NY Islanders), the Minnesota Wild still have managed to limp along in first place in the entire NHL.

Despite losing four of their top six forwards (Mikko Koivu, Devin Setoguchi, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Guillaume Latendresse) to various and sundry ailments (leg, knee, face and concussion, respectively), the Wild continue to earn points, despite a week where the hockey gods did not exactly smile good fortune on them.

In the last game of a 5-game road trip, the Wild finally played a game in their own time zone, losing to the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 at MTS Centre, in front of 14,904 Jets fanatics (and about 100 Wild fans, spread out thru the arena, including this blogger). In that game, Casey Wellman, filling in for the ailing Setoguchi, was slashed in the second period by Winnipeg's Zach Bogosian, another injury that was totally missed by the game officials (no penalty was assessed on the play). Then, with 1:06 left in the 3rd period, Bogosian tried to obliterate Bouchard by running him into the dasher separating the boards from the glass as Minnesota was pressing for the tying goal in the Winnipeg end. Bogosian was assessed a 5-minute major and a game misconduct for the act, but no supplemental discipling was assessed later, while Bouchard was left to bleed all the way back to Minnesota.

Wednesday, the Wild came back twice from 2-0 and 3-2 deficits to take the Chicago Blackhawks to (and thru) overtime and into the shootout, where Patrick Kane out-deked Niklas Backstrom to win the game for the Hawks. In that game, Koivu injured his leg late in the third period, right as he scored the tying goal to send the game into overtime. Latendresse also suffered post-concussion syndrome symptoms, after a hit on Chicago's Viktor Stalberg midway thru the first period. Latendresse has since been put on injured reserve.

Saturday night, vs. the lowly Islanders, the patchwork lineup that the Wild presented at the 'X' was decidedly 'Houston-heavy', as no less than four Aeros call-ups permeated the roster. Unfortunately, the four call-ups and Backstrom were the only reasons the Wild were still in the game after two lacklustre periods, and a booing off the ice by the faithful at the end of the second period.

Newly-minted Wild-killer Al Montoya was easily stopping everything loosely thrown at him, as there was no sustained effort by the Wild offense to press the attack in the Islanders zone. The fact that the Islanders are the worst team in the East, did not stop the Wild from playing down to their level thru the first 35 minutes of the game. That the Wild got a point out of this snoozer of a contest, is as much the work of Backstrom, as anything any forward or defenseman did.

And now, the Wild take to the road for their third (of 4 this season) western Canadian trip, the only one where they travel to all three cities (Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, respectively), in as bad a condition physically as they have been in for years. The Canucks just finished a five-game Eastern road trip where they went 3-1-1, including wins at Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. Calgary is on a 3-game winless streak (not including Sunday's game at Chicago) of its' own, while the Oilers are 1-5 in their last six games (not including Monday night's home game vs. Detroit).

Koivu and Bouchard will both travel with the team on this trip; Koivu may not play in Vancouver, but is expected back vs. the Flames. Setoguchi may begin practicing while the team is on the road trip.  Bouchard is day-to-day. Latendresse will be sidelined for a while with his PCS problems.

What does all this mean? There may be -- MAY be -- light at the end of the injury tunnel. As the team goes into the holiday break, the schedule will actually turn and FAVOR the Wild, as the long western road trips will have been put behind them; in fact, only 6 games in the New Year will start after 7:30 PM (and after January 7, no games will start later than 8:00 PM Central Time). The injuries will subside (hopefully) and the Mike Yeo-inspired system, ingrained into this group of players, will propel them towards a playoff spot.

Hang on, Wild fans. Better times are indeed ahead. Patience is indeed a virtue.

Wild Wild West: NHL media can't deal with Minnesota, ignores them on radio, TV

While still promoting Caps, Flyers, Rangers and Penguins, NHL, accompanying media all but totally ignore Minnesota Wild 2011 season success story

By Wild Road Tripper

Hey, Minnesota! You have a team that's in first place this morning. One small problem, however:

They don't wear purple, and they sure as hell aren't asking begging for threatening to leave for Los Angeles if they don't get wanting a $1 Billion stadium.

Your Minnesota Wild are in first place in the NHL's Western Conference today. They are one point (as of Sunday morning, Dec. 4) out of first place in the entire National Hockey League. And this is with a talent level which most NHL pundits say are all smoke and mirrors.

Yet, watch NHL-produced programming. Watch 'NHL: On The Fly', the nightly show produced and shown on the NHL Network. Watch 'Hockey Night in Canada'. Watch any NHL-produced program. What do you see?

Sidney Crosby. Sidney Crosby, and Ovechkin. Ovie, and Brandon Dubinsky. Dubinsky, and Scott Hartnell. All Pens, all the time. All Rangers. Caps ad nauseum. And the NBC Sports Channel (soon-to-be-formerly-called Versus) may as well be 'the national channel of your Philadelphia Flyers.'

Yes, the VERSUS schedule has featured the Wild, but only to feature the stars of the opposing team (Tampa Bay, Chicago, San Jose, Washington) or just to fill a time slot (Colorado in January and March, Anaheim in February, LA in February). Not one game against any Western Conference opponent that would actually feature the Wild's up-and-coming stars, as opposed to the likes of Sid The Kid, Vinny 'I got shut out in Minnesota' Lecavalier, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Joe Thornton, Ovie, et. al.

Even when the league's TV outlets do get around to showing the Wild, it's only as supposed 'cannon fodder' for teams such as Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Chicago, San Jose, and Washington, or to fill a late time slot (such as two games in Colorado, and two home games in February against the two Southern California teams) with something that would be palatable to (very few) US hockey fans.

Not even on the NHL's radio outlets do they get any respect. The Wild frequently get trashed on HNIC radio on SIRIUS and get dissed daily on XM's 'NHL Home Ice' channel. They are routinely dismissed as 'the team that still plays the Trap', years after Jacques Lemaire left the organization, after which they move on to such exciting subjects, as what STK had for breakfast, or the latest (false) Bobby Ryan trade-to-Toronto rumor. When they do run out of real NHL news, they may get to the Wild, only after their latest regurgitation of James Reimer's save percentage, Patrick Kaleta's face-off stats, and after a rambling, 15-to-20-minute phone interview with the latest Ranger to get lost en route to their Rye, NY practice complex. Just don't say a word about Niklas Backstrom or Josh Harding, though. That team is playing way-y-y-y over their heads. Never utter a word about Matt Cullen's season, or the kiddie-corps defense in Minnesota. But, we'll be back, right after this Andrei Markov update, live from his surgical suite...

Wild fans will know when this team has been 'accepted' by the NHL media. Just keep winning, guys. Just keep winning, and angering the likes of the uber-Wild-haters, such as E. J. Hradek of NHL Network, and the Denver Post's Adrian Dater. Just keep winning, guys. Because, they all hate you. They hate the fact that the Wild are winning. They hate the fact that statistics don't lie, and that the Wild are at the top of the Western Conference. Sorry, but the Sedins are no longer the be-all-end-all in the Northwest Division.

Maybe, someday, even Gary Bettman will actually like the Wild. (Nah. I doubt that will ever happen.)

The 'Six-Pack of Suck', Volume III: Go East, Young Men

Six games which determined Minnesota Wild's 2010-2011 season had same recurring theme

By Wild Road Tripper

Well, we've all survived the first week without the local NHL franchise playing. Which means, of course, that some will immediately want the franchise to move to some sunny Southern market. Or, failing that, to Hamilton, Ontario. Of course, some fans would come back with 'you can HAVE them, they were THAT bad,' or some derivative of that.

But, in effect, it was the story of three seasons; the first was from the pre-season (I include that, as it set the pattern; just wait for it) to early December; the second from a fortuitous Western road swing in mid-December thru the end of February; and the third, as we all saw for ourselves, was indeed the 'March to Hell', from a disastrous night on Long Island to the end of what was a very disturbing stretch drive.

With that, let's delve into the worst of the worst...the six worst games of the year:

6. October 7, 2010. Hartwall Areena, Helsinki, Finland. Carolina 4, Minnesota 3. What a way to start the season, rolling over against the Hurricanes in the season opener in Europe and dying, as the 'Canes scored 3 times in the second period, and made it stand up, as the Wild just flat out couldn't get anything going, just like their 1-5 pre-season record (0-5 against NHL teams) would indicate. Although the Wild did get a goal with 3:21 remaining to keep it close, it just wasn't to be, as the Wild would show time and again throughout the season ahead.

5. November 12, 2011. BankAtlantic Center, Sunrise, Fla. Florida 2, Minnesota 1. Another game where the Wild's lack of offensive punch cost them as the Panthers scored twice in less than one minute in the first period...then made it stand up, as the Wild just couldn't get anything going in the last two periods. This haplessness against the Panthers came on the heels of a 5-1 drubbing, at the hands of the Thrashers the night before in Atlanta, before next to no one attending, at Philips Arena.

4. December 16, 2010. Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul. Ottawa 3, Minnesota 1. A game featuring what would be two of the NHL's ten worst teams almost a year to the day after the Wild's team equipment truck caught fire after an acetylene torch started burning hockey gear inside the van in Ottawa. After this stinker, some wished that the favor could have been returned. Or, at least, repeated. With the Sens' fathers in the stands, Ottawa scored twice on the power play (one of which was the result of a too many men on the ice penalty, which negated a Wild goal as well) then made it stand up against the hapless Wild's lack of offensive punch.

3. March 2, 2011. Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, L.I., N.Y. Islanders 4, Minnesota 1. This game will forever be known, as the game when everyone found out the Wild juggernaut of the previous three months had been irreparably broken, and unable to be salvaged in time for the playoffs. In what was the Wild's most embarrassing road game of the season, the Wild managed to give up three goals in a 10:04 stretch of the first and second periods, which spelled the end of the night for Niklas Backstrom, who was pulled just 41 seconds into the second period after giving up the three goals on just 19 shots. Of course, the Wild did not score until it was way-y-y too late, getting their lone goal in the third period, after all was said and done.

2. March 20, 2011. Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, Montreal 8, Minnesota 1. Any time you give up a 'snowman' in one game you KNOW you've got a Six-Pack candidate. If this game didn't convince the Wild fan base to start planning their spring season without playoff hockey, I really don't know what would. The fact that this season had deteriorated to this point, shows how low the Wild had gone down the 'March to Hell' road. With well over 1,000 Montreal fans in the stands, the Habs proceeded to slice and dice the Wild more completely than one of Mr. Popeil's inventions. Only the awarding of a penalty shot to Mikko Koivu saved the Wild from the additional embarrassment of a shutout, but since by that point the score was 7-0, what more embarrassment could you have possibly heaped on this bunch of slugs anyhow?

1. March 22, 2011. Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul. Toronto 3, Minnesota 0. You would think that the Wild would have had enough professionalism to at least play decently against one of the really bad teams of the East, as the Maple Leafs shut out the Wild, as the Wild still were reeling after the previous game's blowout. With again well over 1,000 visiting fans in the stands, by the end of the game they were the only ones cheering as the Wild managed to lose their seventh straight game and eighth in their last nine. But this time, the Wild fans were so disgusted, booing didn't even help. Apathy reigned, both on the ice and off, as nothing the team did to improve the roster helped.

So, there it is folks. Six games, all vs. the Eastern Conference, that defined (and, debunked) the Wild's season. Twelve points gift-wrapped and served up by the Wild as their season waned on.

But wait! There were six other games, games which didn't live up (or, down) to the standards of the 'Six-Pack', but were still notable as to their suck-ability. These six games didn't make the cut:

12. November 11, 2010. Philips Arena, Atlanta. Thrashers 5, Wild 1. 'Blueland' did the 'Dirty Bird' as the Wild couldn't keep up with the younger, speedier Thrashers. No one saw it, though, as the NFL Falcons were playing the Baltimore Ravens next door, at the Georgia Dome, at the exact same time.

11. November 24, 2010. Xcel Energy Center. Flyers 6, Wild 1. The best team at the time in the East came in and stuffed the Wild, in a real turkey of a Thanksgiving Eve game. When Jody Shelley scores against you, you KNOW it has been a long, long night.

10. December 31, 2010. Xcel Energy Center. Predators 4, Wild 1. New Year's Eve. Full house. Amped-up crowd. Flat home team. No offense. Frustrating way to start the New Year.

9. March 10, 2011. Bridgestone Arena, Nashville. Predators 4, Wild 0. Realistically, the beginning of the end for the Wild's playoff chances.

8. March 11, 2011. American Airlines Arena, Dallas. Stars 4, Wild 0. Realistically, the end of the end for the Wild's playoff chances.

7. March 19, 2011. Xcel Energy Center. Blue Jackets 5, Wild 4 (OT). With 33 seconds left in OT, Brent Burns gives up the puck on an errant pass in his own zone, teeing it up for the Jackets' Antoine Vermette to score, giving away points and continuing the Wild tailspin in the precursor to the Montreal blowout the next afternoon, in what was the worst stretch of hockey in Wild history.

'...'cuz Two out of Three ain't bad...'

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- The refrain line from the Meat Loaf single kind of summarizes the week for the Minnesota Wild, doesn't it?

With two wins in their first three post-All-Star games, the Wild find themselves still on the precipice of falling out of playoff contention...or falling into as high as 5th place in the NHL's Western Conference.

It all depends on your point of view, I guess.

As the Wild trudge thru the mire that is the February schedule, the lack of scoring by the Wild in Saturday's game here in the desert, against the formerly-hapless Phoenix Coyotes, a game where one mistake (an early third-period turnover by Martin Havlat), an illness (Jared Spurgeon was scratched, account being sick), combined with the continued inability of Cam Barker to be anything other than a human stalagmite, allowed ex-Vancouver Canuck Taylor Pyatt to score the game's only goal. The miscues in front of the Wild net wiped out yet another stand-on-his-head performance by Niklas Backstrom, who stopped 40 of the 41 shots sent his way by a Coyotes team who, quite frankly, saw this game as an opportunity to get back into the Western Conference race, having lost three in a row prior to last night.

So the Wild move on to a stretch where they now play 5 of the next 7 at home, a place which has not exactly been the 'friendly confines' for the Wild this season. With a less-than-scintillating 12-11-2 home record at Xcel Energy Center, should this team wish to qualify for the post-season, they need to get that number of wins up -- in regulation time, no overtimes, no shootouts (like last Tuesday's game vs. LA) -- and quickly, because the next three weeks will determine the Wild's fate for this season, as well as probably next season also, due to the number of impending free agents the team has, after this season ends.

Three weeks from tomorrow -- Feb. 28th -- is the NHL Trade Deadline, as teams try to pick up that missing 'piece of the puzzle' in order to bolster their rosters for the playoff push. My question, despite what Wild GM Chuck Fletcher says, is still the same one I've had for most of the regular season:

Will the Wild be buyers at the trade deadline? Or, will they be sellers?

As even though the Wild will get some of their 'walking wounded' off of injured reserve (most notably Guillaume Latendresse, out since late October, and Marek Zidlicky, out since Dec. 29) they will have some assets which they could actually get something for, even though that 'something' may just be draft picks. The fact of the matter is, for the first time in years, younger players are pushing established members of the roster for spots. And, that really IS a good thing, because then there is hope that the team will be that much better overall.

But for now, we fans just wait. And hope that this team can actually do something. We hope that this team can actually be consistent in their efforts and in their overall play.

In short, for the rest of this season, we don't need games like last night's disaster in the desert anymore.

On the Road: Shamu and 'the Minnow'

On the road with WRT in Chicago for our seventh annual trip to the United Center, as giant whale and small defenseman combine as Wild beat Hawks

As Minnesota Wild road trips go, it was probably the easiest one around. Our seventh annual road trip to Chicago's United Center, as both the Wild and the Chicago Blackhawks played the last game prior to the NHL All-Star break.

We start at MSP Airport's Terminal 2 (nee-Humphrey Terminal) where we were about to board our Southwest Airlines flight to Chicago Midway Airport. The flight was no where near full (a rarity for Southwest), where even their 'DING' application never features the Twin Cities, when they call for last-minute fare specials.

As we begin to line up (by number; remember, Southwest boards by group and boarding number, not by row and seat) I look over and see our 737-700 aircraft, and it is none other than the Sea World-sponsored 'Shamu' aircraft, one of a phalanx of special planes in Southwest's over-600 aircraft fleet, painted for a specific attraction or state. Inside, 1/3rd of the overhead luggage bins feature a very large and famous whale, on the outside of the bin.

Our flight takes off nearly 20 minutes late (late arrival from Chicago) but some deft traffic control gets us into the gate (B-1, next to all the goodies) only 5 minutes late at 2:10 PM. Walking thru the airport en route to the Orange Line 'L' train to the Chicago Loop, we (wife and I) are feeling good about everything...but the game itself. We are hoping for the game not to get blown out by the high-flying (at least until this season) Hawks, who are also in the fight for the last four playoff spots in the Western Conference.

My wife has an idea to get some real, honest-to-God Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, and then meet us at our North Michigan Avenue hotel. So, I agree to go on to the hotel, with not only my bag, but hers as well, hers being lighter than mine due to no netbook, no C-PAP machine (I use it in order to sleep), and very little clothing (I think I had more than she did).

I check in, go up to our 20th-floor room, and barely get in the door when I'm asked by my wife to come down and get the pizza, while she goes a couple doors over to get beverages at a local Walgreens store (and before you ask; yes, CVS Pharmacy is right across the street).

We stay at this hotel (which she stayed at earlier in the fall when she took relatives to Chicago) because she wants to, the price was right ($81/night) and the fact that I need to do something to change my Chicago luck. (We've seen two losses in the last three games at the United Center).

And, across the street, is none other than the Blackhawks team store! (A definite plus.) A quick trip across the street yields two T-shirts, one long sleeve, with all four Blackhawk logos in team history; and the other one short sleeve, named 'the Failed Nine', with the logos of the nine NHL franchises which have folded in the modern era (that's post-World-War-II, for you young whipper-snappers out there in the blogosphere).

Anyhow, after my foray across the street, we get to game time, and the CTA #19 United Center Express bus. Now, despite the bus sign saying 'Go Bulls', we board and eventually we pick up a fairly good load (and one drunk asshole, who we let off at Wacker Drive). The bus seems to take forever, as the streets are, of course, full as it is the tail end of the afternoon rush hour. We get off in front of the cavernous arena and enter at 6:45 PM, 45 minutes before first puck drop.

We find our club-level seats, next to the TV camera pavilion, and see that no less than 6 cameras are working this nationally-cablecast game (Versus, TSN2) while the Hawks' fans are in full party mode as they settle in for the evening. At least, until the national anthem is sung. Then, the Hawks' fans go absolutely crazy, as Jim Corneilson belts out a wonderful rendition, nearly drowned out by the cheers of 21,247 UC patrons as his mother, an 88-year-old WAC member from WWII, stood next to her son. She had never heard her son sing the song, which he has become famous in the hockey world for, before last night.

After that, how could the young and still speedy Hawks not come out like gangbusters? But, after Martin Havlat's laser-shot goal opened the scoring, the Wild managed to survive the rest of a first period where Corey Crawford, Hawks' goaltender, looked like he had the night off, and was watching a game played on a half-rink. Two goals scored in the first (by Patrick Sharp and Troy Brower) by the Hawks and the Wild fans in the arena were wondering what was coming next.

What was coming next was 'the Minnow'... and no, we're not talking about the ship featured in the 60's TV series, 'Gilligan's Island', either. We are talking about the Wild's diminutive blue line find, Jared Spurgeon, he of the continuing to impress Wild brass, into a full-time NHL job. Currently playing for the injured Marco Scandella, it will be a very tough decision to send this kid back to AHL Houston, when the somewhat banged-up Wild returns to full health later next month. Spurgeon played against the speedy Hawks like an old vet, not taking chances with the puck, skating it out of the defensive zone when necessary, clogging lanes, you name it, he did it.

With the defensive side holding its' own (and Niklas Backstrom turning in another stand-on-his-head performance: the save on Brower in the first, after Backstrom was forced to slide across the crease on his belly in order to reach the puck, is a 'must-see') it was time for the offense to assert itself, much to the dismay of the big UC crowd, as Chuck Kobasew first found twine out of a Spurgeon shot (Spurgeon's first NHL point, BTW) and then with 3:47 left in the stanza, Antti Miettinen deflected Andrew Brunette's wrister from the boards, to make it 3-2 for 'the good guys', as White Sox announcer Ken 'Hawk' Harrelson would say.

The third period was a lot like the second, as the Wild took the game to the Hawks, especially after Pierre-Marc Bouchard's wrap-around goal made the score 4-2, up to the end, save for one spot when a Jonathan Towes shot was blown dead when referee Stephane Auger, with whom the Wild have had a few run-ins with previously, lost sight of the puck. Since the referee lost sight of the puck, it is NOT, by definition, a reviewable decision by the Toronto 'war room', the decision stood, despite a vehemous protest by Hawks coach Joel Quenneville, and the game played out, to the Wild's good fortune.

Post-game, we make our way thru the sullen crowd to a line of four CTA 'big bend' buses, ready to take passengers back into the Loop. One big difference than normal, though; normally, there is a steady line of people waiting to get on the buses in order to get onto trains going home. Not last night. A lot of them bailed out on the Hawks after Bouchard's goal, leaving the rest of the crowd to see the finish, of what was a very competitive hockey game. We board, find seats, and watch as the usual crush-load of Hawks fans get aboard. This is a very quiet bus (for once) as we make our way past Oprah's Harpo Studios, down Washington and towards the railroad stations, Ogilvie and Union, and the Loop.

We get dropped off directly across the street from our hotel, and we end the night, happy and feeling that it was definitely well worth the effort, to go to the Windy City for a night of really good puck. All in all, it was an effort well worth doing, even though the trip home was uneventful (despite an absolutely full flight). I wish all trips were like this.

Maybe the next one (Feb. 5, at Phoenix) will be as successful. Who knows...?

A moment, while we inject some reality into your Wild playoff run...

(Updated 1-10-2011 with updated second game total after Dallas game.)

Fans of the Minnesota Wild have enjoyed the first week of 2011 immensely. Four games in the New Year, four wins (three in regulation, all on the road), eight points, and the Wild have finally managed to pull themselves off the scrap heap of the NHL's Western Conference.

To what do we attribute this largesse? The system instilled by the coaching staff, led by second-year head Coach Todd Richards? Better talent obtained by GM Chuck Fletcher? Better play inspired by the likes of Mikko Koivu, Martin Havlat, Cal Clutterbuck and the now-injured Marek Zidlicky?

The fact of the matter is that all of it contributes to the sudden surge in Wild success. But so does one more important item...one overlooked except in hindsight after games have been played:

The old facet that 'It's not who you play, it's when you play them', comes into play after the games have been played.

Would the Wild have been better off playing the New Jersey Devils right after their NHL Premiere experience in Finland? Or in January, after the Devils' ship of state took on so much water it looked more like the Andria Doria than a hockey team ready to win games?

Are the Wild better off that three of the four games against the Phoenix Coyotes have already been played?

Were the Boston Bruins looking ahead to their game Saturday night in Montreal, when they played the Wild Thursday night at TD Garden?

We know the Wild caught a major break against the Pittsburgh Penguins, when Sidney Crosby got his clock cleaned not once, but twice, in the week leading up to last night's 4-0 Wild win, the second worst game in the STK era for the Pens versus the Wild. Crosby did not play last night as he was diagnosed with concussion symptoms after the second bell-ringing, which took place in their Wednesday night 8-1 drubbing of Tampa Bay.

When the Wild catch a team at or near full strength, especially in St. Paul, they have frequently had their lunch handed to them, as in New Year's Eve's 4-1 drubbing against a Nashville Predators team at full strength; a Detroit Red Wings team which came in on Boxing Day, and in Grinch-like fashion, wrested a 4-1 win from the Wild in a game so bad, the fifth-largest crowd in Wild history booed the team off the ice after the second period; an Ottawa Senators team who came in to St. Paul and used two power-play goals to earn a 3-1 comeback win, their fifth straight against the Wild; the Coyotes' first visit into the 'X', as lifeless a loss (4-2) as you could get; and the two straight home blowouts in November, the easy (for them) 5-2 NY Rangers win, and the 6-1 Philadelphia Flyers drubbing, two of the worst home games in Wild history.

Now, this afternoon, the Dallas Stars, another team which the Wild have precious little success with (9-7-2 all time in St. Paul, and an absolutely hid-e-ous 3-11-4 in 'Big D') play in a 5:00 PM start, Dallas having rested on Saturday, while the Wild were in Pittsburgh. The Stars have three players (Karlis Skrastins and Minnesotans Matt Niskanen (Virginia), Toby Petersen (Minneapolis) ) on the injured list, as do the Wild (Guillaume Latendresse, Niklas Backstrom, Zidlicky) so what does that portend?

The 1-6-3 record of the Wild this season, in the second game of back-to-backs, should speak volumes. The fact that Dallas rested yesterday, while the Wild flew back from Western PA, should speak volumes. The fact that Backstrom, the Wild's No. 1 goaltender, is possibly facing more hip surgery, maybe putting him out for the rest of the season, should speak volumes. The fact that the West is so tight (the Wild will be within two points of the Stars in the West if they win in regulation time today) should speak volumes, also.

What it speaks volumes OF, however, is subject to debate, specualtion, and of course, blogging!

Time for a Change?

Something -- nee, anything -- needs to be done if the Minnesota Wild are to salvage anything from the 2010-2011 season.

After getting shelled for 5 or more goals in three of their last four games, two of which were at home, the time has come for the Wild management to do something about this team's malaises. The days of taking whole periods of games off has to stop. And, it has to stop NOW.

Yes. different players (most notably Nick Schultz and Captain Mikko Koivu) have taken the 'fall on the sword' for recent team bad performances. But, it's not just one or two players that take whole periods off. It's the whole damn TEAM that is taking periods off.

This cannot be allowed to continue. The fact of the matter is that if the Wild are serious in an attempt to even qualify for the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs, they need to right the ship of state NOW, or else face a long, cold winter of discontent -- something, quite frankly, that this franchise has never really faced before. Unless they get going, and soon, the only post-season activity that will be hockey-related at the 'X', will be the 2011 NHL Entry Draft June 24 & 25.

Should this poor performance continue, it will make four seasons since the Wild will have qualified for the post-season. The statistics (yes, I know, lies, damn lies, and statistics; but these don't lie, people) speak for themselves:

• The Wild are being outshot 117-54 in the second period of the last nine games (going back to the game in Atlanta, Nov. 11), and 79-24 in the second period of the last five games alone. In fact, the Wild rank 30th -- that's right, dead last -- in shots on goal overall this season. And this for a team which is supposed to have a 'new and improved' offense, under Head Coach Todd Richards.
• Niklas Backstrom, who was held out of the Nashville victory on Friday, should start thinking of getting a lawyer, and suing his defense for non-support. His goals-against average has ballooned from 1.90 to 2.66 in his last three starts, all of which 'featured' the Wild giving up five, six, and seven goals, against the NY Rangers, Philadelphia and Colorado, respectively. Should the Wild start Jose Theodore in their next game (against Calgary on Monday night, in the Saddledome), Backstrom would start against the Phoenix Coyotes at home, on Wednesday night, against a Coyotes team which has scored 4 or more goals in 5 of their last 8 games, winning 7 of those last 8 games, including a sweep of all three Western Canadian teams (Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver) on the road last week (something the Wild have never achieved, by the way).
• The next seven games for the Wild (five of which are, thankfully, on the road...I don't feel as guilty shutting the TV off and going to bed, as leaving a home game early) are against Calgary (twice, home and away), Phoenix (same, home and away) and at Dallas, LA Kings and Anaheim. The fact is that the Wild, as they are playing now, stand a better-than-even chance of losing at least 5 of those 7 games, and realistically could find themselves out of the playoff race in the Western Conference before Dec. 19, the start of the NHL's Christmas holiday roster freeze.

The Wild are also hamstrung with three players on injured reserve (Josh Harding, Guillaume Latendresse, Pierre-Marc Bouchard) for which GM Chuck Fletcher stubbornly refuses to request Long-Term Injured Reserve (LTIR) status to get cap relief, to bring in another player who may actually help this club turn its' fortunes around, whether it be via trade, free-agent signing (Owen Nolan is still out there, as example) or otherwise. Now, whether he is trying to 'save' his cap space, so he has more to use later on or whatever, the fact remains that there may not be a 'LATER', if he doesn't do something about turning the fortunes of the club NOW.

The Wild are in free fall, and everyone -- from Owner Craig Leipold, to the most casual fan -- knows it. Will anything be done before they hit rock bottom? The people who DO have all the answers, aren't saying. And the paying public? Those who are 'stakeholders' in this franchise? We're not pleased. And if we aren't pleased, we won't come to games anymore. We'll stop helping pay the bills.

For as fans, the best response to apathetic play, is our own apathy.