Wild finalize roster for 2011-12 season, Nystrom awaits fate and USAToday predicts Wild to finish last in the Western Conference

If you’ve been paying attention at all to this year’s pre-season the majority discussion has been over the myriad of suspensions resulting from illegal checks that have been resulting in head injuries.  Last night, as I was watching college football and checking my Twitter account (StateofHckyNews is my Twitter name) I saw a tweet from TSN’s Bob McKenzie who is clearly tired of the lengthy discussion and debate over suspensions being doled out and whether this is an overreaction from the league.  Here was his tweet, “In the last 5 years, I would say I have been more anti head shot than just about anybody in the media, BUT I am troubled by something…”  The Wild are no stranger to these suspensions as Brad Staubitz will sit the first 3 games for a vicious hit from behind he delivered to Columbus’ Cody Bass.  The National Hockey League, to be polite over the years was pretty random in their distribution of suspensions as was the case under long-time rules czar Colin Campbell.  Those days are clearly over, as new player’s safety enforcer Brendan Shanahan has not only been aggressive in tagging players with suspensions but he’s also made efforts to give the process a semblance of transparency by offering a detailed and succinct video explanation for those suspensions.  In fact you can see Shanahan’s reasons for giving Staubitz a 3-game suspension here.  Personally I think its outstanding as it gets the reasons for the decision right out in the open for everyone to see.  Unless players miss significant time from suspensions I think the vicious hits will continue to be commonplace.  Sure, some may say this would be a great time to rid the league of the instigator rule and let the league police itself by allowing for some vigilante justice to hold the cheap shot artists accountable, this really is about promoting safety.  A fight can be just as damaging as a cheap shot and while like many fans I love a fight when they occur it would be a massive slippery slope to say that practice would solve everything.  Sure, if a guy like Alexandre Burrows hit a guy from behind has to answer to a heavyweight enforcer he may think twice before he does something like that; my question is what sort of accountability would there be for a guy who already basically fights for a living.  If Colton Orr delivers a cheap shot and your team doesn’t have an enforcer dressed then who holds him accountable?  Then if he doesn’t get what is coming to him so to speak do you wait until the next game to settle the score?  What if that’s the last time or the only time you face that team?  The league stepping in with force and levying some serious suspensions you not only get the violator off the ice, but repeat offenders go on a longer suspension than those who are new to this form of discipline and that way you hit these players where it hurts the most, playing time and in the pocketbook.  I too also understand how the debate over whether a hit is suspension-worthy is taking away some of the attention from the game itself but I’d still encourage the league to handle it the way they have thus far. 

So will we see a similar address from Brendan Shanahan to the Wild’s Eric Nystrom for his participation in a mild hit that turned into an ugly injury to Edmonton’s Taylor Fedun who both were chasing for the puck only for the contact to send Fedun out of control into the boards where he broke his femur.  Minneapolis Star Tribune‘s Wild beat writer Michael Russo tweeted he did not believe Nystrom would be levied a suspension but rather Shanahan was still going to talk to both players about the incident.  After watching video of the incident here I did not think Nystrom was really looking to cause Fedun serious harm.  Unlike this hit that most Wild fans remember. 

Either way, I really hope Taylor Fedun can comeback from this serious injury and I would say again its another example of why the league should consider instituting ‘no touch icing.’  I know his recovery will be arduous, but there are more than a few stories out there where players who have sustained serious leg injuries have managed to have fruitful careers, just ask Kurtis Foster and Dino Ciccarelli.   

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Wild finalize roster, trims it down to 23 players

The Wild trimmed the final 5 players to get its roster regular season ready when it dispatched Drew Bagnall, Casey Wellman, and Elk River’s Nate Prosser to the team’s American Hockey League affiliate in Houston.  Matt Kassian, Cody Almond, and Apple Valley’s Mike Lundin are on injured reserve.  Lundin has been plagued with back spasms that have kept him out of pre-season action and will force him to miss tonight’s game as well.  This news means that waiver wire pick up Nick Johnson and 19-year old Brett Bulmer have made the regular seaosn roster.  Johnson arrives with a solid reputation as a hard worker and little doubt his history with Mike Yeo and Chuck Fletcher in their days with the Penguins made him too good to pass up when he came across the waiver wire.  Meanwhile, Bulmer has impressed the coaching staff with his effort, physicality and overall nastiness that makes him a natural agitating presence.  It will be interesting to see if he can keep his spot all season long because he’s still eligible to play major junior.  So here is the Wild’s 23 man roster as of right now. 

Forwards:  Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Cal Clutterbuck, Brad Staubitz (suspended), Dany Heatley, Eric Nystrom, Matt Cullen, Mikko Koivu, Darroll Powe, Nick Johnson, Devin Setoguchi, Colton Gillies, Brent Bulmer, Kyle Brodziak, and Guillaume Latendresse

Defenseman:  Clayton Stoner, Marek Zidlicky, Nick Schultz, Greg Zanon, Marco Scandella, Jared Spurgeon, Justin Falk

Goaltenders:  Niklas Backstrom, Josh Harding

USAToday picks Wild to finish 15th in the Western Conference in 2011-12

I have to admit, the one national news source I use the most for my classroom is USAToday.  I am normally not a big reader of American-based newspapers apart from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, but I recently picked up USAToday’s 2011 Season Preview at my local newsstand.  Like the Hockey News’ Yearbook it provides a team-by-team analysis along with speculation about where they will finish.  USAToday‘s lead hockey writer is one of the most well-respected in North America in Kevin Allen.  As I stated in my own Northwest Division preview the experts’ opinion of the Wild’s direction is completely tied to what they think of Minnesota’s most important acquisition in Dany Heatley.  He is of the mindset that the Wild have signed more of a liability than an asset and feel that in combination with the departure of Brent Burns that the team is going to have another season of struggle. 

I will give him credit, he understood that Brent Burns has a lot of talent and potential which we may regret dealing away at some point in the future.  He also points out Heatley’s declining production but what he fails to take into account is how Heatley could also help make a player like Mikko Koivu more productive.  Not that pre-season results directly correlate to regular season success, but Mikko Koivu has been lighting the lamp with regularity and being on a line with a sniper like Heatley probably opens up the ice a lot more than when he was paired with Andrew Brunette and Antti Miettinen.  So Mr. Allen feels the Wild will be the West’s bottom feeder and if that’s true then we should have a great shot at dynamic talents in Nail Yakupov or Alex Galchenyuk, but if he’s wrong you can bet he’ll hear about it from this writer!