Game #39: Minnesota Wild at New Jersey Devils, Tuesday January 4, 2011 at 6:00pm CST, Prudential Center [GAME PREVIEW]

There are times in life when you realize that things can always be worse.  For example, last fall I, like many people, came down with the much dreaded H1N1, otherwise known as ‘swine flu.’  It was one of those strains that knock you flat on your back for a week.  While I cannot remember ever having been so sick in my relatively short life, I had to remind myself that things could always be worse.  For me, the flu was merely an uncomfortable inconvenience.  Not everyone was so fortunate.  So yes, things could have been much, much worse for me.

The Wild have had one of those seasons.  As a fan, it’s been extremely hard to watch this team at times.  Just when you think they’ve turned things around, they crash and burn.  At best, we’ve had to get excited over little things like a two-game win streak.  While Sunday’s game against Phoenix was an exciting game, it’s not the kind of excitement that fans want to endure on a regular basis.  However, I can forgive the team for some of the issues on Sunday because of the amazing late-regulation goal by Pierre-Marc Bouchard that tied the game and of course the overtime game-winner by Cam Barker.  Yet it’s hard to endure a season such as this on those occasional feel-good moments.

While the season hasn’t been all rainbows and puppies, it has certainly been better than the season of tonight’s opponent.  I can only imagine the raw emotions of the fans in New Jersey.  If you’re a fan of a team that has made the playoffs 13 years in a row, you come to expect certain things, such as continuing that tradition.  Of course winning the Stanley Cup three times in 15 years doesn’t help those expectations as well.  Reading this morning’s article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune you have to feel bad for Devils’ head coach, Jacques Lemaire who has only been at the helm now for two weeks.  If you’ve read that article, you can just feel the pressure he’s feeling.  This is a man who has a talented roster in front of him, yet is having to go back to basics.  According to Lemaire, he’s having to break bad habits, and those are always the hardest to break.

What’s funny about Lemaire being back in charge on the Devils’ bench is that he’s saying and doing exactly what needs to be going on in St. Paul.  Lemaire even knew back when the Wild hired Todd Richards that more offense would not be created by an up-tempo game.  In all those years with the defensively-minded Lemaire makes me think that really the best offense is the best defense.  If you can keep the opponent off the scoreboard, you can usually find a way to score a couple for yourself.  I know I for one would greatly appreciate a coach that would get the team back to basics and skate them hard instead of holding the optional practice.  I don’t know if it’s because Richards is younger and he’s trying to be friends with his players.  What this team needs is a bona fide authority figure, not just a figure head.

I’ll admit, this is the kind of game that scares me.  The Wild have historically performed poorly against bad teams.  A game against the struggling Devils could easily spell disappointment for Wild fans.  Although perhaps this is the kind of loss that would actually wake people up.

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