Wild Notes and Randomness

This won’t be so much of a blog as it will be a series of notes because, I’ll be honest, I’m slammed busy right now. 

BUT… 

I’m not so busy that I can’t bring my readership my ramblings about your favorite team and mine, the Minnesota Wild. 

Before I start, however, I just want to get all of my shameless plugging out of the way right up front.  If you are visiting Wild Nation and have NOT yet been to our host/sister site, Hockey Primetime, get over there right now.  There’s a link on the sidebar here.  We’ve got our fair share of top notch writers there, and I write there too, so take a few minutes out and go over and sign up for the site.  I can tell you that, beyond a shadow of a doubt, there is going to be some cool coverage going on over there over the next few months. 

And my next plug for my fellow Hockey Primetime hosted blog, Bourne’s Blog.  I’m sure many here visit Bourne’s Blog frequently, but for those that don’t I’d like to share a favorite story of mine from his blog that involves two former Wild defensemen (Ed. Note – For whatever reason I can’t get the below formatting to change for the life of me.  Sorry about the spacing!): 

Here’s a fun story:

I’m trying out for the New York Islanders in Moncton, New Brunswick.  It’s our first intrasquad game, and my team is pretty decent.  I’m on a line with Jason Gregoire (who I suspect Isles fans will know in a matter of years) and Tyler Haskins, a potential grinder-with-skill that could easily replace, say, Sean Bergenheim in a matter of…. hours.

Early in the game, the puck gets dumped in deep, and I get on my horse to make sure I finish my check.  Head up, I notice that the defenseman going back on the puck is 6′6″ Andy Sutton, who has the common sense to move the puck quickly and effeciently, as a good NHL d-man should do.

Being the hustle-pot tryout kid that I was, I continued on to finish my check a few Mississippis later than necessary, and bounced off Sutton like someone threw a rock at a trampoline.

I head back to back-check, and their team dumps it in.

As the right winger, I hustle back to my wall to get my skates below the hash-marks, open up and provide an option for my defenseman (and friend and future roomate) Jordy Hart who has solid possession of the puck behind our net.

Yep!

YEP!

HARTY, YEAH!

Nothing.

We’re moving up the ice, him weighing his options like he’s picking which door the prize is behind, getting way too far up the ice.

By the blueline, he decides I get the prize.

The prize happens to be Andy Sutton’s shoulder, moving at a speed of WHOCARESITSANDYSUTTON (who, total random sidebar, treated the rookies like dogmeat).

They whistled the play down and gave Sutton a charging penalty, while I tried to stay away from the light.  Once I pulled my visor up from around my chin, our coach asked if I could go with my line on the next shift.  As a Canadian kid who played for a hockey Hitler in junior, I knew the answer was yes, regardless of truth.

When I jumped the boards a tad weak-kneed, I was lucky the play was in the offensive zone.  I headed straight for the net.  As I got out there, the puck was being cycled up from the corner to Marc-Andre Bergeron, he of the unnaturally hard slapshot.  I opened up and faced him to screen the goalie as I got to the crease.

Between my glove and my elbow pad, I helped their goalie by saving the puck with my wrist.  The puck then dropped at my feet, where I grabbed it, then blindly spun and fired.  And scored.

Half-concussed, and with what felt like a complete absense of sensation in my right arm (but lots in my wrist), I had scored a goal on my second shift of NHL training camp competitive play, complete with the knowledge that you should never hit Andy Sutton, and never try to screen a MA Bergeron howitzer. 

And that it’s probably time I think about becoming a writer.

So…Now that we have the shameless plugging out of the way and I’m well on my way through my second page in Word, on to the randomness of the notes today.

• The Wild waived Robbie Earl and Petr Sykora today.  Earl will likely be reassigned to Houston no problem, but it sounds like Sykora is a different beast altogether.  From what Mike Russo is reporting Sykora had a clause in his contract that would allow him to opt out for a European team should he not be completely satisfied with his situation in Minnesota.  Something tells me that Sykora wasn’t completely satisfied with his situation in Minnesota and, honestly, I think he’s got a legitimate beef with the team here.  He’s a ten-time 20+ goal scorer on a team that can’t buy a goal on most nights, yet he’s been consistently scratched for Derek Boogaard or James Sheppard or Robbie Earl or anyone else you might want to name.  He struggled with concussion issues early this season but, when he was given a chance and ice-time, he responded fairly well.  Now Richards flat out said that it was because he didn’t want to mess with a winning lineup.  Sure.  I can understand that.  But here’s the deal, folks.  Over the Wild’s last ten games, Sykora has been healthy.  He’s not only been healthy, but he’s been rearing to go.  The Wild’s record over the last ten?  4-6-0. If that’s a coach’s definition of winning, well…Maybe they should have thought about going a different direction.
• Many, if not all, of you know that I’ve got certain issues with Todd Richards behind the bench.  Beyond the fact that he (a former defenseman) is failing to get his players to grasp the defensive intricacies of his new “up-tempo” system, he can’t seem to get the Wild to start out a game with ANY pep in their step.  In their last six games, the Wild have fallen behind early in the majority of their games this season and have fallen behind by four goals in three of their last six.  Yes, this team is capable of rallying, but SOMEONE needs to do SOMETHING to get them out of the gates quicker.  That someone is Todd Richards.  But it seems to be something that he is completely incapable of doing.  While I am willing to give our rookie coach some time to grow, I am not convinced that he is an NHL caliber coach.  Still, over halfway through the season, there are times when he looks flat out lost behind the bench and it is very apparent that he is not getting through to our defense.  Maybe it’s inexperience on his part; maybe it’s not having all the right pieces.  I don’t know.  I don’t know what the solution is, but I certainly know that he is part of the problem right now.
• On a much happier note, Brent Burns practiced for the first time today and possibly could return against the Red Wings on Thursday.  While I would say having him play on Thursday is a bit of a stretch, it will be nice to have one of our key defensemen back in the lineup.  The big question here is who stays and who goes?  My initial reaction would be to say goodbye to Big John Scott.  As much as I am a big fan of Scott’s (he’s turned into one heck of an enforcer), I’ve got to say that I like what Stoner brings to the table more.  Stoner’s more mobile and a bit better in his own end, as well as having a solid offensive upside.  While he likely won’t get much playing time as long as our top-six are healthy, he’s a good one to have in reserve in case someone goes down.
• Congratulations to Guillaume Latendresse for being named the NHL’s third star of the week.  Latendresse had four goals and four assists, including a hat trick against the Coyotes.  In 25 games with Minnesota, he has 13 goals and 19 points and is tied for second on the team in goals.  He’s a far cry from the player who Montreal thought that they were trading, that’s for sure.
• Niklas Backstrom has struggled of late and he looks VERY tired in net right now.  It looks like the team’s strategy of riding him early on might be backfiring on them.  Of course, it doesn’t help that he’s got Kim Johnsson, Nick Schultz, Greg Zanon and three pylons playing in front of him.  No slight intended for Johnsson, Schultz and Zanon, who are playing admirably, but the entire team needs to be better in their own zone, Backstrom included.  If I’m Richards, I’d strongly consider giving Backstrom the week off from games and allowing him to rest up, as he will need to be sparkling for the remainder of the season if the Wild want to have any shot at the playoffs.
• Speaking of the playoffs, the team has 32 games remaining.  The eighth seed last season for the West was at about 91 points (the Wild currently have 51).  If that remains constant for this season, which it likely won’t, the Wild will need to win a minimum of 20 of its remaining 32 games in order to make the playoffs.  As of today, the likelihood that the Wild will make the playoffs?  10.1%.  It’s possible, but man I don’t like those odds.

Finally, I leave you with this video from NHL.com of the week’s best.  Enjoy!