Game #37: Minnesota Wild vs Nashville Predators, Friday December 31, 2010 at 5:00pm CST, Xcel Energy Center [GAME PREVIEW]

The Wild are again prepping themselves for New Year’s Eve tilt as the hype continues to build over at the league offices as they cross their fingers for good weather in preparation for the Winter Classic to be played at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field on Saturday.  Minnesota is coming off of one of its most complete efforts in the 2010-11 season, after a well-earned 5-3 win over the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday.  The Wild combined great hustle with some opportunistic play to give an over capasity crowd something to cheer for.  The Wild will likely be playing before a crowd of equal or possibly greater size Friday night and so another good showing would go a long way to proving to a fairly skeptical fanbase that its hopes of qualifying for this year’s playoffs are very much alive.  The State of Hockey really has been longing to feel excited about the progress of the Wild but so far all the organization has been able to manage is a few teases in the form of a few small winning streaks. 

Its incoming opponent is another team battling for one of the last spots in the playoff picture in fellow expansion cousin the Nashville Predators.  As anemic as the Wild offense is, scoring is even more difficult to come by for the Predators goal-starved offense.  The Predators top scorer, the aging veteran Steve Sullivan has just 20 points.  After letting veteran Jason Arnott depart to the New Jersey Devils via free agency the Predators attempted to replace him with enigmatic former Montreal forward Sergei Kostitsyn and their most significant free agent from the summer in Matthew Lombardi.  Kostitsyn has had his moments but they’ve been few and far between and Lombardi has been injured most of the season and that has hurt their offense significantly by being unable to replace the goals they lost with Arnott’s exodus.  Add into this a rather disappointing season from defenseman Shea Weber who has always provided a nice offensive boost from the blueline and you have a team that is hard-pressed to score more than two goals per game.  However the play of long-time Milwaukee Admirals farmhand Cal O’Reilly has been a pleasant surprise as has been the play of youngster Colin Wilson who is shaping up to be a fine power forward. 

If there is any bright side for the Predators it has been the tremendous play between the pipes by goaltenders Pekka Rinne and NHL rookie Anders Lindback.  Perhaps the tallest goaltending duo in NHL history at 6’5″ and 6’6″ respectively, Rinne and Lindback give Nashville a chance to win each night as their big frames do not give shooters much net to look at.  The Predators have an almost 50/50 rotation between the two and either one could be given the nod to be the starter against Minnesota.  The Wild must take advantage of its opportunities, especially on the power play where the Predators penalty kill is a source of strength.  If Minnesota can manage to score on the man-advantage that could shake the confidence of the Predators to strike back.  Nashville possesses as much team speed as any team in the NHL, and the Wild must play as it did against San Jose where they constantly kept their feet moving which will help them mitigate the Predators’ advantage in team quickness.  The Predators will be without the services of superpest Jordin Tootoo who voluntarily entered himself into rehab for substance abuse and that no doubt is a player Wild fans will be happy not to see on the ice.  Meanwhile the Wild will be without defenseman, and former Predator blueliner Marek Zidlicky who suffered an upper body injury against the Sharks.  The Wild called up Jared Spurgeon from Houston to replace Zidlicky but even he will not be able to replace the dynamic blueliner’s ability to help create chances in the offensive zone. 

Minnesota has lots to feel good about going into this game, but its just going to be a matter of execution, effort and heart that will determines who finishes 2010 on a positive note.  The Predators are a team that is directly in front of the Wild in the Western Conference standings and Minnesota should treat them as an obstacle they must overcome and do whatever it takes to defeat them in regulation.  With Nashville holding a 1 point lead, the Wild would be best served to avoid giving Nashville even a mercy point in the standings.  Two years ago, the St. Louis Blues were sitting about where the Wild were at this point in the season where they parlayed and outstanding 2nd half to earn a spot in the post-season before being swept by the Vancouver Canucks.  While I do not want to see Minnesota swept by anyone in the post-season, let alone the Canucks what I am really saying is the time for urgency is now.  The time to make a push up the Western Conference ladder is now.  The time to build momentum is now.  There should be no more discussion about “oh we have a lot of season left” when just as any new year proves just how fast time flies.  The time to change the organizations’ current direction is now, and not later and if they can learn that than perhaps 2010 was a place where they can say they made some real tangible progress.  But before you run off to watch the game in person or in front of your TV, computer, etc I have one last little feature for you that goes along with the celebration of a new year. 

Since it is the last day of 2010, it might be smart to look at some of the Wild’s cherished memories of the year.  A lot has happened and while some may question whether any progress has been made certainly there are plenty of reminders out there that franchise continues to chug along.  Like any lifetime there are good days and bad days and both can be notable in their own right.  So without further adieu here are the top 10 Wild moments from 2010. 

10.  The Return of Pierre-Marc Bouchard – After having sat out 13 months and 112 games Pierre-Marc Bouchard made his return to the Wild lineup on on December 1st, 2010 in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Calgary Flames.  While the loss made for an auspicious return, he has played surprisingly well for a player who has missed so many games.  He may not be scoring a ton of goals, which he never really has done since his junior days but he’s helped re-ignite Martin Havlat to become the team’s leading scorer for the 2010-11 campaign.  There are already a few experts talking about a bid for the Masterton Trophy, an award given for perseverance and its tough to argue the logic of thinking Bouchard could be a favorite. 

9.  The dismissal of former Assistant General Manager Tommy Thompson – At the conclusion of the 2009-10 campaign, the Wild chose to part ways with longtime Assistant General Manager Tommy Thompson.  While the Minneapolis Star Tribune‘s Michael Russo said he’d miss Thompson most Minnesota fans will not as they lay most of the blame on Thompson for the failed selections of A.J. Thelen, James Sheppard, Roman Voloshenko, Ondrej Fiala, and to a lesser extent Colton Gillies who looks to be a NHL fourth liner at best which cannot be considered too good a value when he was picked 16th Overall in 2008, not to mention the team traded up to select him.  While Thompson did have a few success stories over the years, his many failures steadily resulted in a very thin prospect pool and the team’s former practice of trying to rush its first rounders to NHL duty did not always turn into a formula for success. 

8.  The departure of Mike Ramsey as assistant coach and the hiring of Rick Wilson and Darby Hendrickson as assistant coaches – Assistant coaches are normally rather anonymous figures on most NHL teams, but when long-time assistant coach Mike Ramsey decided to step down as assistant coach after a trying 2009-10 season alot of Wild fans took note.  Ramsey, who had been with the team from the beginning had stated that there was a difference of coaching philosophy between him and Head Coach Todd Richards.  Defensively the team had been far more suspect than in year’s past so the team hired experienced defensive guru Rick Wilson as an assistant coach.  Wilson has been able to help Brent Burns find consistency at both ends of the ice and overall the play in front of Niklas Backstrom has been significantly improved from a season ago.  The team later surprised its fans on passing up the urge to bring back fan favorite Wes Walz, but instead plucking Darby Hendrickson from the Fox Sports Net North broadcast booth to be another assistant coach. 

7.  Josh Harding is lost to a knee injury, the Wild bring in Jose Theodore – In what was perhaps the worst pre-season performance in the franchise’s 10-year history the Wild lost backup goaltender Josh Harding to a season-ending knee injury in an exhibition game against the St. Louis Blues.  The loss of Harding, a goaltender Minnesota had hoped would play well enough to attract some trade interest now a complete impossibility the team looked to free agency where it managed to land former Vezina Trophy winner Jose Theodore to a very affordable 1-year deal worth just $1.1 million per season.  So far Theodore has been a nice complement to Niklas Backstrom, and for a short time even seemed to be a threat to take the #1 goalie spot. 

6.  Wild start the 2010-11 season in Finland – The Wild finally joined the growing list of NHL teams to have started its season in Europe by playing its first two regular season games in the homeland of Mikko Koivu, Niklas Backstrom and Antti Miettinen.  While the team enjoyed the sights, sounds, and experiences of Finland the team’s play in the nation was hardly one to be proud about.  After struggling to defeat one of the worst teams in the Finnish Sm-Liiga in Ilves the team lost its first two games the season to the Carolina Hurricanes.  The lone highlight of the trip was the play of 2010 1st round pick Mikael Granlund in a Sm-Liiga game as he scored two goals in a game attended by the Wild’s brass. That being said, it was a rough start after a terrible pre-season that had many back home wondering if Todd Richards was going to still have a job coaching the Wild by the time the plane touched down in Minneapolis.

5.  Wild sign Mikko Koivu to seven-year $47 million contract extension – On July 16th, 2010 the Wild signed its first permanent captain, Mikko Koivu to a seven-year $47 million contract extension that will have a hefty cap hit of $6.75 million until 2018.  While its still too early to say if this was a good or bad move, it does seem a bit questionable for a player who has never scored more than 22 goals in his NHL career.  No matter what the Wild are committed to the Finnish centre man for most of the next decade and while he currently is one of the league’s better two-way players it may not be enough to justify his big cap hit which is not that much lower than league superstars Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin. 

4.  Wild allow fan favorite Derek Boogaard to leave via free agency – I have friends who are Wild fans who were not sad to see big #24 leave the Wild, they felt he was a travesty as a player and felt he was grossly overpaid for a guy who got into less than 20 fights in a season.  Love him or hate him, there is no denying that Derek Boogaard is one of the team’s most popular players in franchise history.  Don’t believe me?  Just take a stroll down the concourses at Xcel Energy Center and you will see Boogaard’s name on numerous amounts of Wild sweaters closely followed by team wrecking ball Cal Clutterbuck but the fact people paid the extra $60 to put Boogaard’s name and number on their jersey is a testament to his incredible popularity.  The team decided it wanted a more versatile pugilist so it opted to let Boogaard leave and pass his duties to the more affordable Brad Staubitz and while Staubitz has never hesitated to answer the bell, it just isn’t quite the same as having the 6’7″ behemoth patrolling the Wild’s ice.  One of the classic criticisms of Boogaard was his inability to do much beyond fight as his detractors were always quick to point out his long goal-less streak but ironically that came to an end fairly early in the 2010-11 campaign with his new club, the New York Rangers ending the drought at 234 games. 

3. Jason Zucker and Erik Haula shine in freshman seasons in the WCHA – Looking back at my list as I compile it I know I sort of ripped into the team’s ability to draft talent so I’ve decided to note two guys where the team really seems to have gotten it right so far.  It hasn’t even been a full NCAA hockey season yet, and already two Wild draft picks that have chosen to take their game to Denver University and the University of Minnesota are already off to dazzling starts.  First has been the tremendously explosive play of Jason Zucker who is amongst the top freshman scorers in the nation with 14 goals and 21 points in 20 games.  Next has been the tremendous creativity of Pori, Finland-native Erik Haula who is 4th on the Golden Gophers with 15 points in 18 games.  Considering that Haula was drafted in the 7th round (182nd Overall) in 2009 gives him the potential to be the late-round steal the organization has lacked.  Once the holiday break ends it will be fun to see if both of these players can finish where they left off.  Toss into this the team successfully signing college free agents in University of Massachusetts’ Casey Wellman and Elk River, Minnesota-native and Colorado College defenseman Nate Prosser as well as Fridley, Minnesota-native University of Miami (OH)’s Jarod Palmer demonstrated a change of policy in regards to acquiring college groomed talented which had been largely ignored with the Doug Risebrough / Tommy Thompson regime.  

2. Rookies featured on blueline a core theme of 2010 – It all started late last season with a few late call ups and auditions with draftee Justin Falk and college free agent Nate Prosser being given a shot late in the season.  In the 2010-11 campaign it was the surprise of training camp that Falk was on the opening day roster and playing ahead of long-time AHL journeyman Clayton Stoner who was finally under a one-way contract.  Falk’s game would eventually falter and instead of going back to Stoner the team called up other rookie defenseman in Marco Scandella and perhaps the most surprising one of all in the baby-faced Jared Spurgeon.  Spurgeon has impressed the Wild coaching staff with his coolness under fire and Scandella looks to be a future top pairing defenseman as he continues to be partnered with the Wild’s most gifted blueliner Brent Burns.  The rookies have played so well that for a short time they even had supplanted Cam Barker who found himself in Richards’ dog house.  

1.  The Wild”s sellout streak ends – I know this may make a few eyes roll out there but on September 23, 2010 the team failed to sellout a pre-season game against the St. Louis Blues.  Up until this point the team had managed to sellout every single game in the franchise’s history which included pre-season games, all regular season contests, and all playoff games.  While some debate the legitimacy of the sellout streak over the years the organization made a rather public statement that in many ways it was glad to see it finally come to an end since it always felt the pressure of keeping it going.  It was the longest consecutive sellout streak in the league at the time, and since it ended in late September sellouts have been hard to come by as there have been just 6 during the 2010-11 campaign alone thus far.  With the team’s progress sort of in limbo and a lagging economy some of the corporate sales have decided to invest its money in tickets at the Twins’ Target Field instead.  Wild owner Craig Leipold had slight increases to the team’s season ticket prices which he said was a necessity since the team had been spending to the cap and he even hinted that for the first time since the lockout that the Wild may have ended up losing money by the conclusion of the 2009-10 season which to many seemed to be a bit of a shocker. 

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