Game #7: Minnesota Wild vs Edmonton Oilers, Thursday October 20, 2011 at 8:30pm (CDT), Rexall Place (GAME PREVIEW

Ever since the lockout, we have bared witness to what happens to a team who is horrible for so long that they’ve stocked up on high draft picks.  It often takes a few years for those draft picks to develop and mature, however on those horrible teams, those first round draft picks are often pressed into service the season right after they’re drafted.  For most people, the two teams that come to mind when it comes to using their picks to eventually win the ultimate prize are the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Chicago Blackhawks.  Well my friends, we are starting to see the renaissance of yet another team that is using their past failure to create success.  Enter the Edmonton Oilers.

For the past couple of seasons, Edmonton was not an opponent I feared.  While that’s often a dangerous attitude to have, for the Oilers it wasn’t.  They were no longer the team that the Wild couldn’t beat the first two seasons.  Now, the Oilers are starting to turn that proverbial corner, and that is going to prove dangerous for most teams, especially the Minnesota Wild.  At this early point in the season, I doubt that they’ll make it to the playoffs.  However, if they did, I wouldn’t be completely shocked, nor would I begrudge them that accomplishment.  If they miss the playoffs this year, my guess it will be like the Wild of last season, meaning they just ran out of gas in the final push of the season.  But mark my words my friends.  The Oilers will become the team to beat in the coming years, and sooner rather than later.

For Minnesota, one has to still wonder if the team’s natural development, complete with growing pains due to being an expansion team, was ultimately hurt by that Cinderella playoff run in 2003.  That run certainly raised the expectations of fans.  Plus, many Wild fans, while they wanted the team to develop the “right way” they weren’t about to tolerate absolute poor performance either just to score the best picks either.  Add that with inept scouting and drafting, and it’s been a recipe for disaster, well if disaster was keeping you out of the playoffs by just a few points and force you to take mid-round picks.  However, one of the Wild’s better picks was taken in the 2003 entry draft.  However, Brent Burns is now playing for a new team.

If there was one major concern of the fans, it would be that of “where is the top line of Dany Heatly, Mikko Koivu, and Devin Setoguchi?”  Yes, it’s been nice to see goals coming from Guillaume Latendresse, Matt Cullen, and Cal Clutterbuck but teams often do not win games solely on the backs on secondary scoring,  Great teams, need their top line to step up the challenge and then receive scoring support from their teammates to create an all-around scoring threat.  However if there is one thing that has truly annoyed be about this team, it would be on defense.  I am bothered that when Burns was traded to San Jose, nothing was done to fill that hole.  Instead, we’re left with an often inept Marek Zidlicky to fill Burns’ skates.  I’m still trying to figure out who is/was a worse defensemen, Zidlicky or Filip Kuba.  I don’t know if we’ll ever get an answer, but I’m really starting to become wary of Wild defensemen from the Czech Republic.

Considering the play of the Wild and Oilers lately, I’m not holding my breath for a win by Minnesota.  The youth in Edmonton, have certainly created a youthful buzz.  That kind of energy is often infectious, and that is sometimes hard to combat.  Even harder to combat, is the fact that the Oilers appear to be be having fun playing.  Combine that with a Minnesota team that has struggled with their own identity and inability to play a solid sixty minutes of hockey, and I’m expecting an Edmonton win.  That is a prediction I’d gladly be wrong about.

While poor performance over the years has improved some teams, it hasn’t always worked out so well.  If it had been the Wild to end up at the bottom of the league for seasons, I have a feeling that we would have ended up much like another team:  the New York Islanders.  Great selection spots, but little to show for it.

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