2012 State of the 'Ville: The Ws who need more Ws

First off, it's 52 degree in Minneapolis right now, I have two things to say about that:

1) Al Gore, you were right, but it is in no way inconvenient
2) It's only 10 weeks until March Madness/Final Five, the greatest sports weekend of the year, any chance the weather could just stay this way until then?

A bit odd to be thinking winter sports on a day when it's anything but winter outside, yet it's time to assess the winter sports teams.  Or as I call them, the Olves and the Ild, the two Ws that lack Ws.

That joke may not be great material, but it doesn't change the reality of the situation faced during the long, (typically) cold Minnesota winters.  February can be a hellish month to live in this state.  In addition to the cold or snow, boredom weighs down like an anvil on your chest.  Cabin fever sets in, it's dark all the time; once the temperature reaches a certain point, venturing outside is limited to getting the mail and the hated act of shoveling.  During really bad winters, like the last one, people end up walking around with a half-glazed look on their face, hallucinating an oasis of green grass like a thirsty man in a desert.

Basically the need for distractions is at it's peak, just as the number of them dwindles to almost nothing.  Only so many trips to the rink can be made and the skiing situation is limited at best, so basically everyone ascribes to the twin tenets that I do year-round: Drinking and sports.  Problem is, the precious little entertainment offered by awful winter sports can make drinking a bit too prominent in the equation.  So it's basically the improvement of the Wolves and Wild is more than a sports thing, it's a public health issue.

(But first, we need to get whoever comes up with the ridiculous definition of "binge drinking" as being five drinks to realize that they need to calibrate.  Nobody is taking you seriously with this type of nonsense, it's going to fall on deaf ears.  People hear the term "binge" and think "that sounds excessive, then they hear the definition and think "what a bunch of reactionary BS, that reminds me, I should have a beer".

Five drinks isn't a binge, it's a Friday.  Five drinks is only a binge if you're under 18 years old and 5'8".  I wouldn't call having five slices of pizza "binge eating", particularly if you were really hungry.  The whole thing depends on the circumstances, and alcohol should be treated the same way.  If you lost your job today, five drinks is probably just getting warmed.

This topic is front-of-mind today, because I just read this really dumb article in the paper.  My first question is, if people are averaging nine drinks when they binge drink, then why not make that number the definition?  Not only would it be more fair to every guy who ever had five beers over a couple hours of poker, it might make people take the whole concept seriously for once.  We also need a more firm time limit, the whole "few hours" thing not only seems too generalized, but implies a leisurely pace that I do not associate with the term "binge".  I'm putting it at 3 hours, if you're not putting down a drink every 20 minutes, that's not a binge, plain and simple. 

Secondly, if binge drinking is most common among people who make $75k or more, where's the problem?  One man's binge is another man's unwinding at the end of a long week.  My advice to anyone making over $75k a year would be to keep doing what you're doing.  Have we spent any time investigating the linkage here?  I know that correlation doesn't prove causation, but perhaps people that know how to have a good time are just inherently more successful.

Finally, Wisconsin at 26% binge drinkers, once again you show us the way.  The West Virginia number I don't buy for a minute, they're lying so you don't go snooping around by the still out back.  And is it just me, or is there caption on that picture blatantly racist?  Not to mention you spelled schnapps wrong, otherwise great work their guys.

So here's where we landed:

Binge drinking - 9+ drinks in under 3 hours
Happy hour - Binge drinking for people who work, but make under $75k for year
Cocktailing - Binge drinking for people who make over $75k per year
Wassailing - Binge drinking on a holiday
Bender - Binge drinking for 3+ days in a row, requires immediate hair-of-the-dog, any attempt to fight a hangover disqualifies

Now those are some definitions with a chance of getting some traction with the public, back to sports.)

The Wolves haven't been to the playoffs since 2004, which was also the only year they made it out of the first round in franchise history.  The Wild are currently nursing a 3-year playoff drought of their own, and similarly have a single season of any real note in their history.  Both teams came into this season with new coaches, and both, despite early signs of life from the Wild, seem likely to continue their current streaks of futility this season.

But things are looking up (no, seriously, they are), with an influx of young talent and prospects on both rosters.  I'm happy to say that it appears I was dead wrong on both Kevin Love (who I didn't think they should've traded OJ Mayo for) and Ricky Rubio (who I didn't think would ever play here).  Both are here now and look like franchise building blocks, although it is quite early to say that, on Rubio in particular.

The Wild have turned a bare cupboard into and nice stockpile of young talent, granted that much of it is still too young to be contributing at the NHL level.  Despite my personal conspiracy theory that owner Craig Leipold forced the signing of uninspired winger Marty Havlat a few years ago, he generally seems like a fan at heart, wanting to see the team win and being willing to spend to do so.

Both teams have left the salary-cap hell of a few years ago, when they were not only terrible, but paying handsomely for the privilege.  As difficult as it seems to be to lure free agents to Minnesota, there is at least now room to do so.  It's highly doubtful we'll see a playoff appearance in Minneapolis or St. Paul this spring, but in the not-too-distant future, that should be the expectation.  If next year isn't contention, then it should definitely be the year after, frankly it's been too long already.


Timberwolves
Where we are: Emerging from the 7th circle of franchise hell

2012 Ceiling: 25 wins, figuring out that the team has three legit NBA starters in Rubio, Love and Derrick Williams, being poised to add the piece that makes them a playoff contender in the offseason

(Of course the downside is that Love doesn't want to play here, signs a one-year tender and bolts as a free agent the following year, then all bets are off)

Long-term prognosis: Until they get a guard who seems suited to take (and make) big shots in key spots, all I can see is an entertaining team that's a fringe playoff contender.  No doubt a huge upgrade from where they were, but it doesn't appear to be on the roster yet.


Wild
Where we are: Still one of the more boring and low-scoring franchises in the league.  Showed some signs of life early in the year, but after a series of excellent breaks, things have regressed to the mean in a big way, the bleeding needs to be stopped pronto to have any chance of a playoff berth.

2012 Ceiling: 10th in the Western Conference, just where they appeared to be headed when the season began.

Long-term prognosis: Perhaps it's just that the hype of the World Juniors tourney hasn't yet faded away, but there seems to be a lot to be excited about here.  Prospects like Mikael Granlund and Jason Zucker could be ready to contribute in a year or two, and the impressive collection of young players makes the idea of a big trade seem possible.  Not to mention, some huge names could be hitting the free agent market this offseason, and unlike the NBA, a few might actually consider signing in Minnesota, particularly if they look to be headed in the right direction.

So in a nutshell on both teams, enthusiasm as always, and as always, it's tempered.

Time to get myself outside :)

Points to Ponder

Life has been conspiring lately to prevent me from posting much.  I could take the advice of friends, and stop posting novels, trading length for frequency (hey now!), but when you get on a roll, it can be tough to shut up.  Work and school, always distracting from the important things in life.  In perhaps the best month on the sports calendar, I've posted the least, and that's unnaceptable.

Full slates off football and hockey, with the World Series to boot, anticipation of weekends like this is what sustains me through those long boring months known as summer.  Although being stuck in a library will rob me of the opportunity to catch Nebraska's annihilation of the Gophers in person, the rest of the weekend has been kept wide open for sports viewing, it's time to rube it up.

So, what's happening around town?

• Following last week's lament about my struggles picking football games, my sister, Rainwoman, promptly turned in a 5-8 week and allowed me to cut the deficit by 3 games.  Trend or mirage?  Fluke or example of regression to the mean?  Is she hearing the footsteps?  Is the pressure getting to her?  I'd like to think so!  Just had to bring it up, fan the flames of indecision a bit.  (Are you sure that's the right pick?  Positive?  I wouldn't do that if I were you!)  Psychological warfare at it's finest, pulling out all the stops

• I didn't write anything previewing the Wild this season, but like everyone else, I'm predicting them to be on the playoff bubble, hopefully creeping in.  Failure to do so would mean the earliest chance Minnesota has to snap it's pro sports playoff drought would be the end of the next Twins season in October 2012.  Two full years is a long f'n time to go without a playoff game when you have 4 pro teams.  Unfortunately, the local squad hasn't exactly been taking the NHL by storm early in the season.  Last night a goal with one second remaining was the only thing that prevented them from being shutout in Edmonton for the first time in 11 years.  Getting new players to mesh takes time, but as we've figured out the past couple of years, slow starts can spell doom.

• According to many people around town, Gopher hockey is back, following a sweep of Duluth last weekend.  I was on a roadtrip to my personal Mecca, Ralph Englestad Arena, so didn't see much of the games.  It certainly looked impressive, and you can't blame their fans for being fired up; when you're starving, even a package of Saltines can pass for a gourmet meal.  But can we keep it in check for the month of October?  Believe me, you'll have plenty of time between the Gophers sweeping the Sioux in November and the Sioux sweeping the Gophers in January to razz me all you want, let's not go too overboard on one series.  But I am happy for you...sort of.

• This town has doled out so much recent misery, it's once again time to ask our favorite question "Where is rock bottom?"  Will it be here soon?  Is it not going to arrive until the aforementioned two-year playoff drought comes to fruition?  After that?  About the only thing I can guarantee is that it is not today, because things are about to get a whole lot more ugly and embarrassing.  Stretching hundreds of miles to both the south and east are convoys of opposing football fans poised to descend on our fair city.  I'm calling it Football-O-Caust 2011 (had to add the year, due to the fact this may be an annual occurrence).  One horde will be clad in red, the other in green 'n gold, both will be making a mockery of their opponent.  Nebraska and Green Bay, welcome to town, bring money.  The Mall of America is stocked up with designer overalls, bars across town have laid in a supply of PBR, we're ready to roll.  Please take pity on our pathetic football teams, and if you see a glassy-eyed local with a look of despair, try not to pile on.

• Of course the big football story in town this week is the debut of Christian Ponder as the Vikings starting quarterback.  Ho.  Hum.  As I wrote when he was drafted, I didn't think he was very good in college, don't think he'll be very good in the pros, and just generally am not a fan.  Fortunately, I'm wrong a lot.  So let's hope that's the case here and get on board with the Ponder Era, there's really not much else you can do at this point.  It certainly can't be worse than the McNabb Era, and it will be refreshing to actually have a guy under 30 at the QB position following the recent string of greybeards.  Just don't go all giddy when he leads a nice drive in garbage time to cut the lead to 30 this Sunday, keep it in perspective.

So we're in for another weekend as a punching bag, but fear not, Minnesota fans, for we will have the last laugh.  With half the freeways in town closed this weekend (including I-35, Lincolnites) it will be a damn miracle if any of these people can even make it to the stadiums!

O/U on combined opposing team points: 90
Combined spread: 60 1/2
Giving a Cornhusker bad directions that land him in Hudson: Priceless

Enjoy the weekend.

All the negativity in this town sucks

It's come to my attention recently that some people feel most of what I write is overly negative.  There's even been concern expressed over my mental well-being.  To take the second point first, let me assure you that I am fine, and not suffering any ill effects from the constant stream of bad news that has been the last year of Minnesota sports.  After so many letdowns, only great disappointment has the power to wound, and in order to be greatly disappointed, you must first have some kind of expectations.  Save for the Fighting Sioux hockey team, there hasn't been much in the way of expectations during the last cycle of the calendar.  Falls don't hurt so bad when you've only climbed to the first rung of the ladder, the current situation is rolling over me like water off a duck's back.

As to the first point, the blog is called Loserville for a reason, and man has this town been living up to that moniker lately.  Although I trend negative due to years of experience, there have been nuggets of optimism sprinkled through these posts.  Sure the doldrums of summer tend to get me down, but the last post was packed with upcoming highlights of the fall season, what could be more optimistic than that?  I picked the Twins to win the division and Gopher football team to win 7 games last year, that's looks like optimism bordering on delusion at this point.

But being that we're on the cusp of a new season, it's probably a good time to pump things up and get excited about the prospects of the various local teams.  There will be plenty of time to lament failure later on.  If sports had it's own calendar, then August 31st would be New Year's Eve; tomorrow September starts, and with it comes fresh versions of football, hockey and basketball teams at all levels.  Baseball has it's own weird calendar that doesn't really fit, like it's run by the Mayans or something, but for the rest of the world, the slate has been wiped clean, and it's time to get rolling.

So now, I will attempt my most difficult feat.  In a town where all four professional teams have missed the playoffs, the college football team was not bowl-eligible, the college basketball team failed to qualify for March Madness and the college hockey team couldn't make it's own conference tourney, I am going to be 100% positive:

Sure, it's been a rough season for the Twins, but have you ever seen a team with this many injury issues?  They got a little fat and happy with their new stadium and division championship last season, and things slipped a bit, but give it a year and they'll be back on top, looking down at the Tigers and White Sox like they've done all decade.  Plenty of money coming off the books, the young guys continue to improve, things will be just fine.

Sure, the Wolves have been an NBA laughingstock for the last few seasons and will likely start the season in a lockout, but all signs point to Rick Adelman as the new coaching hire, which could be a game-changer for the franchise.  We'll give them a mulligan on the Rambis thing, he was a bad fit from the start, and it was good that they recognized their mistake and cut their losses.  With all the young talent on this team, there's a lot to be excited about, all it will take is a patient coach who knows how to tap into said talent, and Adelman is likely that guy.

Sure, the Wild made a bunch of signings that killed their cap flexibility in the present and future, but with some of those contracts coming off the books and a few savvy trades, they have the look of a playoff contender.  The young defenseman will need to step up, along with the goaltending, but the upcoming Wild squad appears to have more scoring punch than any version since the days of a healthy Marian Gaborik, which we know weren't many.

Sure, the Vikings missed their window, and are entering a transitional period, but who's to say what will happen in an NFL season?  Although it's going to take a lot of luck to get over .500, worse teams than this have qualified for the playoffs, it's the one league where (almost) every team truly has a shot.  Heck, the Bears won 11 games last year, and I'm not sure they were markedly more talented that this year's Vikings squad, a couple breaks can go a long way.

Sure, the Gopher football team was atrocious last season, but the finish they put together made it more clear than ever that the biggest problem with the team was gameday coaching.  Winning 2 out of 3 Big Ten games to finish out isn't exactly cause for celebration, but it is something to build on, and reminds us that you can't overstate the importance of not being coached by Tim Brewster when it comes to winning football games.  At least the current guy running things is somebody you want to root for, not someone who seems like he should be trying to sell your the undercoat package on a 2004 Chrysler Seabring.

Sure, the Gopher hoops team finished far below expectations, but there were plenty of bright spots before the team got decimated by defections and injuries.  At various points during the season, the team was on solid footing, only to have the rug pulled by yet another injury.  The silver lining is the experience that last year's freshman got, and will be bringing into this season.  Toss in what's been, by all accounts, a solid recruiting class, and there's no reason to expect a repeat of last year's limp to the finish.

Sure, Gopher hockey has fallen on hard times, but the fact remains that it will always have one of the most talented rosters in the country, and the most oft-cited problem with the coaching staff has been rectified.  Nobody is saynig national championship, but it can't be ignored that the Gophers played their best against top teams, beating 3 of the 4 Frozen Four participants last season.  Adding some consistency to that high-end play should at least get the team back in the NCAA tourney this season, and from there, who knows?

Alright, I hope that helped, doubtful that it will be a frequent occurrence as things play out, but there's no reason to pile on too heavy at this point.

As I've said, plenty of time for that once the games start :)

Half(that) price sale

“Just when I thought you couldn’t possibly get any dumber, you go do something like this…and totally redeem yourself!” – Wild fans, addressing Chuck Fletcher, 7/3/11

I’ve been slacking lately, my apologies, but there was a holiday and these are lean times to begin with.

The Twins are lousy, but not lousy enough to offer the great comedy of April and May. Not to mention that Scott Baker, the one player I truly enjoy ripping, is having a good run of things lately.

The summer drafts have passed, eliminating another talker.

Technically, there's no NFL, which means no NFL free agency or training camp battles to speculate on.

Too early to talk college football, and frankly there's not much to talk about there to begin with, at least not as far as the local university is concerned.

It's the doldrums of the sports calendar and I'm running on fumes. I know that this time of year is when a person should be out playing golf, mowing the lawn, but until recently, the Phantom Summer of 2011 hasn't offered much opportunity there either. Sure there have been a few good days, and things are starting to turn a bit, but I still crave sports entertainment and banter.

Besides, it's usually dark out during my free time, what am I supposed to do with that? The only options are watching whatever Yankees or Red Sox game ESPN is currently airing, checking out the Women's World Cup, or (gulp) network TV. Let's see, "Undercover Boss", "So You Think You Can Dance" or "Letting The Car Idle In The Garage Until Overcome By Carbon Monoxide"? Sounds like I'm going to need a towel and garden hose, would hate to do a half-assed job and only end up a vegetable, I drool enough as it is.

Enter an unlikely savior in the form of the Minnesota Wild, who’ve topped a mild shakeup on draft day with a true blockbuster, dealing Marty "Halfthat" Havlat to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Dany Heatley. My feelings can be summed up pretty succinctly in a text message to a friend of mine upon hearing the news Sunday night: “Awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome.” Here I thought the team was stuck with another 2-3 years of Havlat and Mikko Koivu as our best scoring options, playing everything cose to the vest and trying to win every game 2-1. Now with Heatley in the fold, the team finally has the marquee scorer it’s been missing, and added some true excitement going into the season.

Havlat has probably taken too much heat over the last few years, after all, it’s not his fault he got offered big money by a team that didn’t fit his skills. There’s more to the game than goals of course, but there’s also a lot more players who can provide that other stuff, putting the puck in the net will always be a premium skill. Last I checked, that’s still how they decide who won the game. Paying $30 million to a pass-first player like Havlat, who can be phenomenal when paired with great finishers, but fairly average otherwise, never made sense in the first place. At first I was shocked that the Wild didn’t have to include more, at least sending a draft pick to the Sharks, but when reflecting further, it starts to make a bit more sense.

The Sharks have no lack of high-end offensive players, and with a couple young regulars set to earn raises in the next couple of years, saving $2.5 million against the cap also makes sense. The list of names currently on the roster who seem to fit Havlat’s game is long, and it’s easy to imagine him setting up Thornton, Marleau, Pavelski, et al. for a lot of goals before things are said and done. Meanwhile the Wild gets the sniper it’s been lacking, and moves the needle on the offseason from ‘solid’ to ‘spectacular’.

Sure there are risks involved in making this move. Ottawa fans are still bitter about the way Heatley forced his way out of town. But when you consider what’s being given up, the similarity in salaries and the fact the Wild move one season closer to gaining a ton of cap room, this feels like a steal of a deal. Even if he never approaches the 50-goal mark of several years ago, Dany Heatley is the most exciting player the team has seen since Mary-Ann Groinorik left town, score 35-40 and Wild fans will be ecstatic.

Plus, on a personal level, I like how this move impacts the character of the team. For a long time I’ve been clamoring for more North Americans, more college hockey players, and now one of the best of both plays for our team. I’ve loved Heatley’s game since he took the WCHA by storm at the beginning of the last decade; his two seasons at Wisconsin are still among the best I’ve seen. Baggage aside, if given my choice of attainable players to add to this club (meaning no Crosby, Toews, Parise, etc), he would’ve been near the top of the list.

There are holes to fill and improvements to be made, but for the first time in a long time as a Wild fan, it feels like there’s momentum. Hope can be a dangerous thing, especially where trades are involved, but we are long overdue for a fresh bit of it around these parts, welcome to town Mr. Heatley.

5 Questions: Chuck Fletcher

Now that the NBA draft is over, we can move on to the one that sits in it's shadow, the NHL Draft.  This year's event is coming at you live from St. Paul, Minnesota this evening, where I will be in attendance to take in the spectacle.  No doubt that prospect seems pretty silly in the eyes of many people, but what can I say, I'm a rube.  Never been to a draft before, the ticket is free and it's only 20 minutes from my house, why not check it out?  Plus I need "Attend a draft" to complete a row on my Sports Nerd BINGO card, along with "Plan multiple vacations around sporting events", "Run two or more fantasy football teams in a given season" and "Start a sports-centric blog".  Big day for me.

Not to mention, if you follow amateur hockey, you actually know who a lot of these guys are (sad as that is to admit).  Sure the Canadian junior guys are a bit of a mystery, but even the best of those pop up in the World Juniors tournament every December, so not totally unfamiliar.  This year has fewer college players projected near then top than in previous years, but there are still a few names projected to go in the first couple rounds that will we'll get to watch in the WCHA next season.  The NHL draft is similar to the MLB draft in the sense that players typically need a few years of development before making the team, but similar to the NFL in that many players drafted in later rounds will have a chance to make an impact.  Basically it's the polar opposite to the NBA draft in a lot of ways, including fashion sense.

But just because late round picks can emerge into contributing players does not minimize the importance of a team hitting on it's first round picks.  As has been lamented many times in this space, the Minnesota Wild don't have a great track record of doing this, and always seem to finish just a bit better than is wise.  Tonight they pick 10th, and can ill afford to miss, given their thin piepline of talent.  Seems like the perfect time to offer the 5 hypothetical questions I'd like to have answered honestly by GM Chuck Fletcher.

1. First off, something I've been dying to know for two years: Did owner Craig Leipold force your hand in the signing of Matin Havlat?

How I think he'd answer: I don't know if "forced" is the word I'd use, but he was definitely very intent on making a big signing that would create some buzz.  He was a new owner, taking over the team just as Marian Gaborik left via free agency, and felt that a bold move was required to offset that.  What you have to understand about Craig is, he's a fan, and that can be a double-edged sword.  Sure it's obviously better than having a disengaged owner who only cares about the bottom line, but it can also force some knee-jerk decisions that have consequences in the long term.

I wouldn't say that I was against signing Marty Havlat, but at the same time, the timing was not ideal.  The team was not in good shape cap-wise and already had several sizable contracts with underperforming players.  Not to mention that the free agent crop that offseason was slightly below average, bidding up the price on players like Havlat, who are definitely a cut below superstar-caliber. 

Was signing an injury-prone wing who's only noteworthy seasons occured while playing between two stars my ideal scenario?  No way.  But sometimes the boss thinks something needs to happen for reasons that go beyond Xs and Os hockey, and this was one of those times.

2. Brian Burke, who's got a great track record as a GM, has said many times that he prefers North American players, since they grew up dreaming about winning the Stanley Cup.  Looking at past Cup winners seems to support this theory, as just about all, save the unique case of Detroit, have been made up of 70-80% North American players.

With that being said, do you worry that there's too great a European component on the current roster?

How I think he'd answer: Obviously I don't, or else I wouldn't have picked so many of them.  Perhaps we've trended a little too much in that direction during recent years.  With Koivu, Havlat, Backstrom, Zidlicky and Miettinen on the current roster, as well as Granlund, Larsson and Haula picked high in the last couple of drafts...crap, I guess that is a lot of Euros.  Man, I might need to reassess the "best player available" thing tonight, right now it's looking like we might end up with another Swede in the first round, this is starting to resemble some Scandinavian national team.

But when you think about it, there was a nice run of Candian first-rounders in the years before I was hired that didn't amount to a whole lot.  Mention James Sheppard's name to a Wild fan an they will begin to twich uncontrollably and froth at the mouth.  Tyler Cuma's career has been plauged by one serious injury after another.  Colton Gillies and Marco Scandella look like they could be solid contributors, but neither one has made the leap yet.  At the end of the day, I'm looking for the best player in any situation, no matter what continent they're from.  Of course we want a nice mix of skill sets, but we're not going to pass on a player simply because of his hometown.  That being said, maybe I'll steer clear of the Swede this time around.

3. Acknowledging the fact that he's the captain, face of the team and a solid all-around player, didn't you guys just overpay significantly for Mikko Koivu?  Isn't he essentially a second-line center on a contending team?

How I think he'd answer: Yeah, we probably did a bit, but that's the nature of the beast with this stuff.  Say what you will about his offensive production, Mikko is a cornerstone of this franchise and a keeping him was an absolute must.  How many big-time scorers play against the opponents top line as much as he does?  How many great offensive players has he played alongside?  I think if we could use him the way other teams use their top center, gearing our gameplan toward maximizing his offense, you'd see a big uptick in the goal and assist totals.  Unfortunately there's no one else on the team who can handle the defensive end of things the way he does, so we're kind of stuck.

Could we have gotten by a million or so per season cheaper?  Perhaps, but it wasn't a risk we were looking to take.  You can call it a panic move if you'd like, but I prefer to think of it as being certain about what you want and ensuring you get it.  At any rate, when it comes to pointing out the dead weight on this roster currently soaking up too much payroll, I can list quite a few guys before the name Koivu comes up.

4. Why hire Mike Yeo on the heels of Todd Richards departure, given their similar resumes?

How I think he'd answer: The short answer is because if he ended up elsewhere, I was worried it would come back to haunt us.  Everyone who's ever coached was a first-time coach at some point, and every experienced coach out there who's available has been fired somewhere in the past.  Craig MacTavish, Ken Hitchcock, these guys were certainly experienced, but not all of that experience was good.  Both had overseen losing teams in the past, so hiring them offered no guarantee of success.  That's not to say they're bad coaches, only that there are many factors that enter into fielding a winning team.

In Mike, we've got a guy who was part of a championship team in Pittsburgh, has a good track record working with young players and is respected in the organization.  Sure he's going to have some bumps along the way, and a veteran coach probably offered a better chance of short-term success by maximizing the talent on the current roster.  But at the end of the day, this is about the long haul and building a champion, and I think we're best positioned to do that with Mike leading the charge.  I want to be a contender for a decade, not a fringe playoff team sneaking in as an 8-seed next year.

5. Fair enough, but do you see issues with veteran players on the current roster being resistant the the new coach and pending youth movement?

How I think he'd answer: As you might be able to tell from my comments in the paper this week about the players needing better offseason preparation, I'm getting to the end of my rope with some of this crap.  There were some personality conflicts that developed with Todd Richards during the past few years, some players seemed to think they were above doing the little things.  That will not be the case moving forward, we may not be able to part with certain guys, but we won't hesitate to lay down the law with them if they're not on board with the program.  I'm a fairly low-key guy who doesn't like to air the internal laundry publicly, but I will not hesitate to call out anyone who isn't pulling their weight.

These guys have got to remember that I'm on the hot seat here too.  A good portion of the issues with this franchise were dumped in my lap, but now it's getting to the point where results are required if I'm to continue in this role.  Like many animals in nature, there's typically no danger, but get them cornered and you've got a fight on your hands.  I'm feeling a bit cornered these days, so if they want to push, they'll be doing so at their peril.

Stock Watch: 6/17/11

The best (at least not involving the home teams) playoff season in recent memory has concluded, and I have to say I'm feeling some withdrawl.  It's never easy to say goodbye to the 2+ month stretch of a good game or two every night.  Particularly when the local ballclub isn't doing much to inspire interest.

But life goes on, and we do have a few interesting developments on the local sports scene this week.  Most appear positive at the moment, but the question is, will they remain that way in the long term?  Not surprisingly, I have some opinions:

Buy - Ricky Rubio as a Timberwolf

Sure I'm the guy who's spent the past two years saying that Rubio would never see the court for the Wolves, even made a wager to that end.  I also continue think he's probably more style than substance at this point, and wouldn't be surprised if he ends up an NBA flop.  But hey, when you're dealing with the worst franchise in the league, there's nowhere to go but up, and waiting this long has certainly added to the intrigue.  Whatever shortcomings may exist in Rubio's game, the fact remains that he's younger than most of the players on the team, and should certainly get plenty of minutes to figure things out once he arrives.  Hope is all this team has got, and he makes up the lion's share.  Here's to the few Wolves diehards out there, I'm happy for you and hope it works out.

Sell - Mike Yeo, Minnesota Wild coach

Admittedly, I don't know much about this guy, other than what I've read the past few weeks.  He could very well be the next great NHL coach.  But put me in the same camp as most Wild fans today, who are questioning the idea of going with another unproven guy behind the bench.  Yeo has a few things in his bio that I like: Experience with a Cup winner, history of working well with young talent, sweet name (pronounced Yo!, how can you top that?).  But there are also some things causing a scratch of the head.

If the Wild are looking to embrace a youth movement, that's great, it's been long overdue.  Unfortunately, the team is lacking a couple of key ingredients for said movement to be successful, most notably a group of talented young players who are ready to contribute.  Sure they have a few decent prospects scattered about, but there's no one who really blows your doors off.  Colton Gillies is a player who's been quick to credit Yeo with aiding his development, and he certainly ended things on a good note with a strong playoff run.  But 11 goals and 15 assists in 64 AHL games doesn't offer the impression that our scoring woes are about to be a thing of the past.  Last year's first round pick is staying in Finland for another season, the rest of the best are on the blue line, where the team is already somewhat strong, what youth is going to be here for Coach Yeo to mold next season?

Add this to my familiar refrain of "capped out, bad contracts" and what exactly is the radical plan which will make this situation different than what Todd Richards dealt with?  Perhaps there were personality issues hastening Richards departure that we're not privy to, but does Yeo have a better shot gaining the confidence of a mostly veteran than Richard's would've in year 3?  It's just a perplexing move.  All along I figured the Wild were going in the MacTavish/Hitchcock direction, a veteran guy who could command the lockerroom and coax more production out the (many) underperforming veterans on the roster.  Instead they head the opposite way, hiring a name that appears to lack the cachet to excite season ticketholders and the gravitas to hold the attention of the vets.

But if you want the positive spin, listening to the Barreiro show yesterday, they likened this move to the Steelers hiring Mike Tomlin away from the Vikings a few years ago, a situation with many similarities.  The only problem is, that was the Steelers and this is the Wild.  One team makes good decisions, the other, not so much.

Hold - The red hot Minnesota Twins

The past couple of weeks has brought the ballclub back from the dead, but they're still on life support.  One bad stretch pushing them back into double digits would put us right back at square one.  Sure the return of Joe Mauer and the Japanese shortstop (he's being acknowledged generically until he justifies his presence) should help, but who knows, it could also mess up whatever odd chemistry they've found lately.

Playing the second half of June the same way they did the first would do a lot to convince me that this isn't just a blip.  It starts tonight with a mediocre San Diego team and a series they should take 2 out of 3 in.

2010-11 Wild Season In Review

The Minnesota Wild played one of their most compelling games of the season in Sunday's finale, notching a huge win to secure a playoff spot on the final day of the regular season.  The next morning, their coach was fired after two seasons on the job.  These two conflicting pieces of information may seem difficult to reconcile, until it's disclosed that the playoff spot in question now belongs to the Chicago Blackhawks, and the best role the Wild could muster was that of spoiler to the Dallas Stars playoff hopes.

Now I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a healthy bit of enjoyment to ending the season of the franchise that was stolen from this state 18 years ago.  I will hate the Stars for the rest of my days, and if given the choice of screwing over any team in the league, they'd be at the top of my list.  The whole thing still doesn't amount to a whole lot though, as us Wild fans are still left on the outside of the playoffs looking in, for the third season in a row.

Shortly after the NHL playoffs ended last June, I posted a critique of the Minnesota Wild's 2009-10 campaign, along with some ideas of how the playoff drought could be broken in the upcoming season.

Comparing how the team did a year ago

Points out of the playoffs: 11
Teams between the Wild and the #8 seed: 4
Goals for: 219 (22nd)
Goals against: 246 (21st)
Goal differential: -27(24th)

To how things played out this season

Points out of the playoffs: 11
Teams between the Wild and the #8 seed: 3
Goals for: 206 (26th)
Goals against: 233 (17th - tie)
Goal differential: -27 (21st)

Tells us only what anyone paying attention already knew going into the season, it's very difficult to get great improvement out of a marginal team that has no cap room available.

The Wild still lack anything resembling an elite scorer, and watched an anemic offense get worse this season.  Coming into the year, fans were sold on the merits of continuity, that a year of experience with the new system now in place would be enough to change the fortunes of the squad.  A few solid veteran's were added at the center position, but in general the returning personnel was similar.  Not surprisingly, they pretty much turned in a carbon copy of what happened the year before.

Last summer, I identified the 2010-11 Minnesota Wild Pyramid of Hope, six players at three different levels of performance who needed to step up for the Wild to improve.

Here's how they fared against expectations:

Laying the groundwork - 3 guys who need good seasons to keep the Wild out of the cellar

1) Martin Havlat
The ask: The Wild need 30 goals and 60 points at a minimum
The give: 22 G, 40 A
Thoughts: Although Havlat didn't hit the scoring levels laid out, it can't be said that he had a bad season.  Sure it would've been huge to see 8-10 more goals from him on a team this starved for scoring, but he was much improved from last season and given a bit of help, could come close to those stats in the future.  Now the question is, will it be Halfthat (2009 version) or Havlat who shows up to play next October?
Grade: B
 
2) Brent Burns
The ask: Stay healthy.  That's it.  I firmly believe that if Brent Burns can stay on the ice for 70+ games this season, he will produce.
The give: 80 games played, 17G 29A
Thoughts: Well I was sort of correct.  After rolling through the first half looking every bit the player he once was, Burns fell off a cliff in the season's last 30 games.  After playing game #47 to end the month of January, his season totals stood at 14 goals and 17 assists, with great defense to boot.  In the final 33 contests, he added 3 goals and 12 assists to those totals, while having several cringe-worthy moments in his own zone. 

At 26 years old, with one year left on his contract, Burns is a perfect example of the problems plaguing this team.  He can be an amazing player when he's on, few blueliners play a better all-around game.  Unfortunately he can be just as bad on occasion, and with the potential for a multi-year deal at $4-5 million per on the horizon, the Wild can't make the wrong call here.  Burns has been one of my favorite players over the Wild's history, but I think it's time to shop him aggressively this offseason.  The team needs to hold onto some value here, but the risk of signing another inconsistent player too a bad contract is too great.

3) Nicklas Backstrom
The ask: Play competently, re-establish himself as at least a Top 10 goaltender, .920 save % and sub-2.50 GAA is a must

The give: 2.66 GAA, .916 save %
Thoughts: The goals against won't be winning any awards, but when considering the save percentage and team playing in front of him, I'd have to call Backstrom's season acceptable.  The Wild turned getting outshot into an art this season, often allowing their goaltenders to get peppered ridiculously for stretches.  The goaltending is still on the pricey side, but hard to single out as a big part of the team's struggles.


Framing things up - 2 guys who need to step up for the Wild to return to the playoffs

4) Mikko Koivu
The ask: A bump from the 22G 49A line of last season to 30/50 range should do the job
The give: 17G 45A in 71 games during a season somewhat limited by injury
Thoughts: As I said at the end of last season, Koivu is the definition of a nice player.  Brings a lot to the table, takes little off, good teammate, leader, good building block.  But with that being said, Mikko Koivu is not the type of player you are excited to have your team paying almost $50 million to over the next 7 years. 

Admittedly, my views on things might be too myopic, with too much focus on scoring and not enough credit given for excellence in other parts of the game.  But when you're 26th in the league in goals, can you afford to pay a guy who's never topped 22 goals $7 million per season?  Even though talent evaluators can see value in many more areas, free agent dollars hinge on stats.  I may be wrong, but it would've shocked me to see any other team even approach the price the Wild just locked Koivu up for.  30 goals is not a ridiculous number,in fact at this salary level, it's a must.

5) Pierre-Marc Bouchard
The ask: For his sake, as well as the team's, PMB just needs to get healthy and get on the ice, we'll see where things go from there.
The give: 12G, 26A in 59 games, more importantly ended the season upright, giving hope he might be okay for the long term
Thoughts: Always nice to see a player come back from injury, particularly when it's a guy you're locked in to paying $8 million over the next two seasons.  Now let's move on with our warm feelings about PMB before I remember how drastically he loses his effectiveness in the playoffs.  That might be the saddest silver lining I've ever considered: At least we don't have to be reminded of how poorly our players perform in the postseason.


Finishing touches - 1 guy who could take the team to the next level

6) Guillaume Latendresse
The ask: The X factor, barring some huge improvements from other players, the damage done in the playoffs will hinge on Latendresse emergence as a go-to scorer
The give: Zip, zilch, zero, nada.  Not only is Latendresse not going to make an impact in the playoffs, his no-show this season is probably the biggest reason they're making early tee times for the third year in a row.  It seemed like we found a diamond in the rough last season, instead we've simply found another athlete who works hard when things are uncertain, then eases back at the first sign of some security.  Latendresse signed a nice extension, came into camp out of shape, got hurt early, and was never heard from again.  11 games played, 3 goals, 6 points, and a whole lot of question marks about his future as an effective player.


So should they have fired Todd Richards?  Probably not.  The consensus among the hockey fans and pundits alike is that the Wild's roster is nothing special.  Their talent is that of a fringe playoff team, so why be shocked when they end up on the wrong side of that fringe?  When the last Western Conference team in is the defending champs, who may have lost a lot, but still have far superior players, what can you do?

Michael Russo, the excellent hockey writer for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune wrote a piece earlier this week on how difficult a quick turnaround would be, given the current pipeline and salaries.  about how mediocrity is keeping the team from drafting game changing players.  Rachel Blount wrote a piece today discussing the need for an infusion of talent in the lineup.

While both are true enough, the fanbase can only respond with a collective 'Duh', as this isn't new info.  Barring something unexpected, like a quantum leap by several prospects or amazing coaching hire, things aren't getting better any time soon.  $50 million of next year's cap is already committed, meaning free agency won't be the answer.  A mid-1st round draft pick also won't offer a quick fix.

So we bide our time, hope the team can make a deal to move a big salary, and just generally stays away from locking themselves into any more big salaries for marginal players.  See you next fall I guess.

All-Star Sunday

First off, can I get a quick moment of silence for the first Sunday without football.  Yeah, I know the Super Bowl is next week, but that's still just one game, and this week reminds us what football-less Sundays are like.  Not sure if the week break is genius marketing by the NFL or simply a public service.  Maybe they know what a shock to the system it is to have no games and want to let us down easy by giving it a trial run, before coming back with one final game.  Frankly the whole playoffs is kind of set up that way, as a gentle easing into an existence without the pigskin.  Brilliant league that NFL, even when they're leaving you, the do it the right way.

First person to utter the words "Pro Bowl" however, is getting a size-13 shoe zinged at their skull.  They should've taken that lame horse of a game out behind the barn years ago and put it out of it's misery.  Instead they continue the charade of an All-Star game that not only fails to resemble the actual sport (which is fairly common), but also fails to involve most of the league's best players (which makes it kind of pointless).  I guess if you want to spend an afternoon watching the 4th choice at outside linebacker not blitz, that's your business, I've never gotten the appeal.

But hey, if you are a fan of watching top athletes disinterestedly go through the motions, then Sunday is your jackpot!  Following an afternoon of Pro Blow action is the NHL All-Star game, which incites minor interest, but only because of the system they've adopted featuring captains picking teams.  I will definitely DVR the pick show tonight, game is a maybe, could be an Antiques Roadshow marathon going up against it or something.  If the NHL has any marketing savvy, they will mike up some players expected to be picked toward the end, particularly if they could find a couple who are teammates or friends of the captains.  Of course if the NHL did have any marketing savvy, this whole thing wouldn't be happening on Versus, so that's probably too much to hope for.

Amidst this weekend's inconsequential backdrop, there are a couple of interesting items lurking.  The first is that Martin Havlat, former league leader in millions/goal ratio and general indifference, will be appearing in this weekend's game.  Now sure it took an open format that didn't have to respect conference, and about 3-4 more deserving players getting hurt, to get him there, but the fact remains, he's an All-Star.  This development, on the heels of a truly impressive first half, has caused me to reexamine some things and come to an important conclusion: It's time to drop the Halfthat nickname.  Henceforth, he will once again be known on these pages as Havlat.  It's only fair after all, he earned the name with uninspired, indifferent play last season, and is now shedding it with exactly the opposite. 

Sure he only has 14 goals, but he's 22nd in the league in points and those assists have been of legit vintage.  Not too many gift second assists that I've seen, Havlat has been the key to the offense most of the season and has been the best player on the ice a lot of nights.  So farewell Halfthat, it was a good run.  Rest assured we will keep you safely in the cupboard, should your namesake slide back to the place where you are once again a fitting handle.

And why is it relevant that Havlat has rediscovered his game?  Well because the Wild are surprisingly relevant 50 games into the season.  I'm not saying anything about the team has been a huge revelation, and they're still hanging on the fringe of the playoff chase, but I think we can give them and official Cleveland Indians/Major League "You know these guys ain't so f**kin bad!"  The club is sitting nicely within striking distance of the #4 spot, has shown some nice upside in beating good teams, all-in-all there's every reason to be cautiously optimistic.  How's that for a ringing endorsement?

Bizarre thing is, after a decade as a great home team that went belly-up on the road, the team has pulled a 180 this season, posting a 14-8-3 record away from the X, while middling along at 11-11-2 in St. Paul.  A look back at history puts the oddity of this in perspective, as the Wild have only had two winning seasons on their history, with the high-water mark being 2 games above .500 (19-17-5) during the division-winning '07-08 campaign.  Last season the team was 25-12-4 at home, but an abysmal 13-24-4 elsewhere; the year before looked pretty much the same.  So what the heck is going on here?  Beats me.  I haven't broken down the schedules to compare this season to the last couple, but I'm guessing there's not much of a difference in who they're playing.  I suppose the good news to take away from all this is that if they do make the playoffs, it will definitely be on the road.

But we can wait to jump off that bridge when we come to it, because even making it to the postseason will be a tall order for this team.  There have been some bright spots this season, but the Wild still don't score consistently enough and rely on their goaltenders to save their bacon way too often.  Not to mention they fact that good won't be enough, they've been playing good, but need to play better still, and for an extended stretch, if they're going to separate from the pack of contenders.  At least it's a story to follow though, in this bleak stretch of the year.  Coming out of the break, the Wild play a February schedule featuring 10 of 13 games against Western contenders, that stretch will probably tell us all we need to know.

So that went well

Couple of things:

The NFL continues to bedevil me, with a 1-3 start to the playoff season. 
Not only was I 100% certain that the Saints would pummel the Seahawks, I was also pretty darn sure the Chiefs would get the job done against the Ravens.  Obviously I was woefully incorrect on both counts.  But hey, that's playoff football, as unpredictable as it gets.  I still have absolutely no idea how the New Orleans defense folded so totally and completely, guess I should've put greater stock in Mr. Hasselbeck.  On the other side of things, it's tough to defend a team that got drubbed 30-7 at home, but if anyone can do it, it's this guy. 

Kansas City was absolutely GOUGING the Baltimore defense in the running game.  Jamaal Charles was doing exactly what he'd done all season, ripping off yardage at 9 yards a clip, then he put the ball on the ground and that was it.  Don't understand why the Chiefs went away from the run game so fast, particularly after watching Matt Cassel do everything short of taking a dump on their logo at midfield, but there it is.  I mean if you're planning on throwing indefensible picks anyway, why not just chuck a couple of jump balls to the guy who led the league in TDs?  His new nickname should be The Amazing Dwayne Bowe, no magician has ever pulled off a better disappearing act.

Michael Vick looked strikingly similar to the guy who couldn't throw in Atlanta.
That's really all that I have, just know that I'm rooting for $30 million in guaranteed money and a Kevin Kolb trade to either the Vikings or the AFC, pronto.  Let's get this done Philly, nevermind that you might be removing the strongest incentive factor for a guy who doesn't exactly have the greatest track record of staying motivated or on the field, SHOW HIM THE MONEY!!!  Not a rip on Vick personally, more so running QBs in general, they're going to get dinged, pay them large sums of guaranteed money at your peril.

In hindsight, I was a bit harsh on the Wild last week.
Okay, fine, so they don't suck as much as Maroon 5.  That's a terrible thing to say about anyone and it really isn't true.  The truth is the team has fought it's way back into contention during the past month, to now sit only a tiebreaker out of the playoffs and 3 points out of the #4 seed.  But there's some pesky stuff going on that makes it tough to shake my skepticism.  Like the .500 home record.  And the -11 goal differential that's the worst among the West's top 10 teams.  And the fact they average 2.5 goals per game.  And the likelihood that the team leader in goals will once again fail to crack 30.

Yes, it's all about results, so don't worry so much about the aesthetic, but the reality is it's hard to sustain things this way.  We've seen it play out many times before with this team, the only difference is that the hot streak usually comes early and then it's a slow slide down the standings.  With a tightly packed Western Conference that's full of good teams, the runs of good hockey can't be as sporadic as they've been so far.  But hey, it is their third best first half ever and the first two resulted in playoffs.  Not to mention that, more than any other sport, hockey provides a good chance to make a run from a high seed.  So I apologize for all those derogatory remarks.  Somewhat.

The BCS Championship Game is tonight
If limited to a two-syllable response on this, they'd be: Ho and Hum.  Fortunately ink is cheap here on the internet, so I can expound.  Frankly I doubt I'd be able to limit myself to two syllables about anything, two paragraphs is barely enough to curse out a Twins pitcher appropriately.

Once upon a time I would've been excited for tonight's matchup of the #1 and #2 teams in the nation.  After all, a showdown between the consensus two best squads in college football is always to goal when the season starts.  But lately, I just can't get excited about the sport's postseason.  I'll always love the action on fall Saturdays, the great stadiums, fans and rivalries; but the proliferation of bowl games and stringing out of the conclusion are starting to wear on me.

It's now January 10th, both Auburn and Oregon played their first game over 4 months ago and their last one over a month ago.  Last night the legendary Nevada Wolfpack outlasted a 7-5 Boston College team in the culmination of a rivalry as epic as there is in sports.  I'd tell you more, but surely there's no need, as you were likely glued to your TV just as I was.  I mean no true sports fan ever misses the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, been watching it since I was a kid myself.

But beyond the calls for a playoff that have become common, I'm even struggling to find a rooting interest here.  Auburn should've been right in my wheelhouse, a historically strong program with a transcendent star player, they are fun to watch and easy to root for.  But then this whole Cam Newton debacle sprung up, and it's making it hard for me to throw my support the Tigers way. 

It's naive to think that money and favors aren't being handed out under the table in big-time college athletics, and really the idea of players getting perks doesn't bother me all that much.  In fact, I'd be in favor of a system that paid the players some amount of money, if the logistics could be worked out so more than just the top few could afford it.  But if there's one thing I can't stand, it's hypocrisy, and the NCAA has truly set a new standard in that department this season.

The rules may be dumb, and I may disagree with more than a few of them, but if they're going to be on the books, they should be enforced consistently.  What has happened in the case of Mr. Newton, with the governing body admitting it knew rules were broken, but exempting the player from fault, was questionable.  What happened with Ohio St, with everyone knowing and admitting what happened, to the point of suspensions being handed out, then the players being allowed to play in a bowl?  Well that was ridiculous.  Reserve "disgrace" and "tragedy" for the important stuff, but the NCAA's enforcement has become a total farce and it's laughable.

I'd have no problem with any of it, if it were up front an honest.  This is a billion-dollar enterprise, a business of the highest order, please stop telling me that anything is about education and the rules of fair play.  The unfairness of it all is demonstrated constantly these days, with big time players being the safest from punishment, lest their exclusion from a game tick the ratings down 1% and upset a sponsor. 

To repeat, nothing about the corruption of the amateur athlete is my problem here, there is no longing for bygone days and love-of-the-game nonsense from me.  Amateur athletics, at least in the case of football and basketball, are a fraud that has been co-opted to provide power and money to a group of people who, as far as I can tell, deserve neither.  Sure there are plenty of kids out there who get opportunity and degrees they otherwise wouldn't from college sports, no doubt about it.  But as far as the folks at the top, please stop and smell what you're shoveling before you come down too hard on the easy targets who know one will miss, or hold back on the big guys on New Years, because nobody will miss them against Coppin St. next fall.

So Oregon, even though you have title to the 4 ugliest jerseys in sports, even though you play that atrocious delay-option offense, which is the type of fad that creates a dearth of good pro QBs, I am rooting for you. 

Go Ducks.

Everything but the NFL (and of course NFL picks)

As a dedicated (some might say demented) follower of all things sports, particularly the local variety, my favorite place on Earth is a bar called Joe Senser's in Eagan, MN.  With 4 x 6' screens ringing the inside and every sports package known to man, it is truly a sportsfan's paradise if you catch it on the right evening. Tonight, with the Wild facing the Red Wings, Wolves playing the Lakers, and Gopher hoops squaring off against North Carolina, happens to be one of those evenings.  Heck, there's even a Duluth-Wisconsin college hockey showdown thrown in to boot.

Although these winter sports teams have been in action for a few weeks, tonight feels like the true lidlifter on the season.  Perhaps it's the first meaningful college hoops game, first Timberwolves game that is actually being broadcast (more on that later), or just the fact there's snow on the ground, I'm ready to embrace the Boys of Winter.  So far, they're making it seem like that love may not be squandered. 

The Wolves are what they are, a team that we're simply not expecting much from in terms of results.  The success or failure of the season will hinge on intangibles: Staying competitive, finding an identity, young players improving.  So far, with the emergence of Michael Beasley as an elite scorer, Kevin Love's amazing rebounding and Wes Johnson's promise, they're delivering in spades.  I've been a big critic of GM David Kahn the past couple of years, due to the arrogance I perceived from him and some flat-out preposterous statements he's made.  It must be acknowledged that we are only 13 games into this thing, but based on the early returns, we could be a few months away from an official apology being issued.  The bar is low, and the first steps are always easiest, but for the first time in a very long time, I'm intrigued by Timberwolves basketball.  And that's really all I was asking this season.

The Wild had more expected of them this season, and haven't exactly gotten off to a blazing start.  But things certainly haven't been bad either, and some of the keys to success I addressed way back in June have shown promise.  The bottom line is they're going to need more goals, period.  But with Nicklas Backstrom returning to form to steal a few games in the earlygoing, Brent Burns looking like his old self and the addition of Matt Cullen proving to be a revelation, things are looking up a bit.  Even my nemesis Halfthat has looked suprisingly competent.  Are there concerns?  Heck yes.  The ridiculous powerplay percentage won't hold up, last year's leading goal scorer is on the shelf with an injury and the goaltenders can't keep this up all season.  But the good news is, so far so good, and after a 2009-10 season in which an early hole was dug, leaving the team trying to claw out of it all season, we'll take it.

Gopher hoops was to be the savior this winter.  No national, or even Big Ten, title aspirations, but a fun team with talent up and down the lineup that closed out last year on a high note.  College basketball is a fantastic sport, consistently exciting, with wild swings of momentum and scoring, played in historic venues in front of rabid crowds, I just can't say enough about it.  The Gophers have never been a star-studded group of high-achievers, but they've always been competent, save the dark days of the Muson Era.  But now, in year 4 of the Tubby Smith Revolution, the team seemed poised to make a leap.  Frankly, it was a leap that was supposed to be made last season, before a rash off suspensions and ineligibility derailed everything.  So you can imagine the foreboding that was being felt when the teams best guard, Davoe Joseph, was suspended for a violation of team rules last week.  We still don't know what he did, or when he'll be back, but we do know one thing: When (if?) he returns, this team could be really good.

Now I don't want to get too far down the road on you, but is there any event that packs more excitement per minute than March Madness?  With a whole season of ups and downs, wins and losses, avoiding injury and other missteps, still to come, it's way early to be chatting about this.  But I can't get the thought of making it through that first weekend out of my head, and from what I can see (knock on wood) this team could have the pieces to do it.  Of course that whole opinion might get turned on it's ear after watching them play the #8 team in the country tonight, but I love that this matchup is happening.  Beyond the experience of simply facing good competition, these games have a way of hanging around all season.  The past two years is't been early-season upsets of ranked opponents that helped the Gophers earn tourney berths, and while I hope that's not necessary this season, a good showing is always nice to have.  I don't expect a win by any means, but I am hoping for one.  At any rate, hope you can enjoy a great evening of sports.

(Closed-circuit to Fox Sports North, it doesn't wreck my night that you're not showing the Gopher hockey game tonight, but did you really have to show a home game of a hated rival?  Don't get me wrong, I'm always a fan of a good college hockey game, and being that I can't watch my Sioux in the wilds of Omaha tonight, will be casting an eye toward the Bulldogs and Badgers.  But if I was a Gopher hockey fan, or a Timberwolves diehard who missed K-Love's 31-31 game or Beasley's last second winner on Sunday, I'd feel pretty jerked around. 

I know it's a rough economy and all that, so not sending a production crew to Houghton, Michigan might be excusable, but the simple fact is we've got too many things going on in this town to live with your paltry bandwith.  Sports stations in other cities have alternate channels that pop up when games conflict, so with two professional teams and a popular college program colliding at least once a weekend for nearly half the year, I gotta ask, where are you at on that one?  And don't tell me to get a life and not worry about watching all three at once, I'm your bread-n-butter consumer here folks.)

NFL Picks

Last week: 9-4 (I believe 'scintilating' is the word you're looking for)
Overall: 61-51-3

Ben
Last week: 6-7 (Thud)
Overall: 22-15-1

Brent
Last week: 6-7 (Double thud)
Overall: 20-18-1



MIAMI -1.5 over Chicago (Little hiccup there, don't ever pick Miami at home, lesson learned)
PITTSBURGH -7 over Oakland
NY JETS -7 over Houston
Baltimore -10.5 over CAROLINA
TENNESEE -7 over Washington
Detroit +6.5 over DALLAS
Green Bay -3 over MINNESOTA
Buffalo +6 over CINCINATTI
Cleveland +1.5 over JACKSONVILLE
KANSAS CITY -8 over Arizona
Seattle +11.5 over NEW ORLEANS
Atlanta -3 over ST. LOUIS
Tampa Bay +3.5 over SAN FRANCISCO
NEW ENGLAND -3.5 over Indianapolis
NY Giants +3 over PHILADELPHIA
SAN DIEGO -10 over Denver

Into the abyss

Busy weekend, lot of stuff happening, unfortunately that's the last time we'll be able to say that for quite a while.  The month of July is the depths of the sports abyss, following the NBA and NHL drafts, and prior to the beginning of meaningful MLB games, it's just a long, slow grind until NFL training camps open.  I might actually have to get a life for a couple of weeks, oh the horror.

The double draft days of the past week were kind of exciting, but at the same time depressing, because when draft day is the most important day on the calendar, that means your team sucks ass.  I can't even remember when it wasn't the most important day on the Timberwolves calendar, and now the Wild have joined them.  Both teams seem destined to continue this trend next year.  It's almost enough to make me long for the sky-high expectations and brutal letdowns of a typical Vikings season...almost.

The Wolves continued their perplexing assembly of a "foundation" this past weekend as if the NBA were a fantasy league with a couple of flex positions.  The current plan appears to be obtaining players who will ensure a higher pick next year.  No real problem with their selection of Wesley Johnson from Syracuse, but trading away their second pick for the highly average Martell Webster was confusing.  I get that they might not have liked the options available to them at the #16 spot, but part of being a rebuilding team is having the freedom to gamble on raw prospects, giving them minutes to develop their game that more established teams can't spare. 

The point is probably moot, since no player that was attainable was going to change the situation this year, but if there's a big picture here, I'm missing it.  A year after drafting 4 point guards in the first round, the Wolves used their #4 pick on a small forward who's a solid shooter and defender with limited ability to get his own shot.  They then traded the #16 pick and Ryan Gomes (another average forward) for a small forward who's a solid shooter and defender with limited ability to get his own shot.  GM David Kahn may love Webster's game, but it's tough to tell why; the stats aren't there and he's certainly not the slashing-type shot creator that the team seems to be lacking. If the guy was coming off a rookie season where he showed promise, this would make more sense, but after 4 years in the league, he probably is what he's going to be the rest of the way.

Obviously it's dangerous to run a team with an eye toward popular opinion, but maybe keeping some guys with youth and potential, rather than trading them for established stiffs, would lessen the fan apathy toward this team?  Two years into his tenure, the KahnMan has turned 7 first round picks into not much.  The only buzz created was from the Rubio pick last season, and that has pretty much subsided.  At this point, the casual fan is going to need to be reminded who he is when (if?) he finally shows up.  They're also going to need an explanation on who is going to carry the scoring load, given the front office's apparently allergy to shooting guards.  Rubio may be an assist wizard, but it's never been a secret he can't shoot; current situation seems like a receipe for a lot of pretty passes followed by bricked shots.

So in general, I'm confused and a bit frustrated.  Adding to the frustration was the fact that the guy I really wanted at SG, James Anderson, was drafted by San Antonio at #20.  Always nice when one of the best college players gets undervalued because he doesn't have the potential offered by less productive players, then is snatched up by the team with the league's best track record of recognizing late first-round value.  I will remember to bring this up in 2 years when Anderson is averaging 20 PPG.

On the other side of the coin is the Minnesota Wild, who have a very clear and consistent philosophy over the years: Acquire the entire Finnish National Team.  Joining Mikko Koivu, Antti Miettinen and Nicklas Backstrom (in a couple of years at least) is Finland center Mikael Granlund, a playmaking center who's supposedly more NHL ready than many other first rounders.  Not the end of the world to draft another Euro, as it was at a position of need and the early run on forwards left things paired down, but geez is this team in love with Finnish players. 

When it comes to European hockey playuers, I tend to share the opinion of NHL GM Brian Burke, the architect of the Anaheim Ducks multiple Stanley Cup teams in the 2000s.  Burke favored North American players because they grew up dreaming of winning the Stanley Cup, and playing a more rugged style.  The Ducks two Cup-winning teams were built on size and toughness, with Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Scott Niedermeyer and Chris Pronger anchoring a nasty group of players who ground opponents down.  Looking back through history, this seems to be the norm in the playoffs; when things get nasty, North American players flourish as European players fold. 

There are of course exceptions, namely the Detroit Red Wings core of Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen and Lidstrom, but in general, the best players on most Cup winners are from this side of the Atlantic.  The Wild's playoff no-shows have had several root causes, and certainly not all can be traced back to the presence of Euros as the team's top players.  But when you already have two as your top forwards and one in net, adding another seems like overkill to me.  Just my opinion of course, and certainly hope it's proven wrong.

Silver lining to the draft by the way is the selection of Jason Zucker in the 2nd round.  He might be a bit on the small side at 5'10" / 175, but after watching his play on the gold-medal winning US national team in last year's World Junior Championships, I think this guy could be a great add.  Very quick with a knack for putting the puck in the net.  Plus he'll be a freshman at the University of Denver next season, so us college hockey fans will get to watch his development over the next couple of seasons.  Unfortunate that he will be playing for the hated Pioneers, but you can't have everything.

Finally, the US soccer team lost to Ghana on Saturday, a country with slightly fewer people than the state of Texas.  Thus ends another World Cup "run" in the first game of the knockout stage, basically no better or worse than was expected.  I'm happy that the soccer fans got their moment last week on the big goal to advance the team past pool play, but the whole deal strikes me as kind of "meh".  The US team was about two minutes short of heading home after 3 tie games, which would've been the most boring result possible.  It's nice they advanced further, and I did enjoy Saturday's game, but just don't see soccer moving past it's status with me as a novelty every 4th year.

Fixing the Wild

After jumping on the bandwagon for a thrilling Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup run, and in anticipation of the NHL draft this Friday, it seemed an appropriate time to address the question of how to fix the Minnesota Wild.

The 2009-10 Wild season was hallmarked by the Two Is: Inconsistency and Irrelevance.  The team put itself behind the 8-ball with a slow start, and never found the sustained stretch of good play they need to edge into the playoff race.  Pretty much the entire season was spent in what I refer to as the "5 Tall Beer Zone", you've had enough beer to know driving could be a concern (read: potentially illegal), but not enough to get that nice strong buzz the heavy drinker relishes so.  (Ironic to be using this term in describing the Wild, since it typically took 5 tall beers before you could enjoy watching one of their games last season, as well as another 5 after to try and forget what you just saw.  It was ugly, get it?  The team specialized in two things, not scoring and pissing away multi-goal leads, as poor a combination as you can find anywhere.  I just cracked a beer right now thinking about it, need something to keep my hands from shaking while I type.) 

They would put together a solid week of hockey, climb within striking distance of a playoff spot, then drop a few games and sink back to where they started.  This process kept recurring all season, leaving the team mired in the worst possible spot, with neither a playoff berth, nor a high draft pick to show for things.  Some relevant numbers about the team's finish last season:

Points out of the playoffs - 11
Teams between the Wild and the #8 seed - 5
Goals for - 219 (22nd)
Goals against - 246 (21st)
Goal differential - -27(24th)

In short, it was an abject and total failure on every level.  The team did nothing particularly well, yet did not fare poorly enough to get a top draft pick who might make a quick impact...and that's the good news.
How can that be good news?  Because it was only one year.  It was a transition season, with a new GM and coach, things were supposed to be rocky.  It would've been the perfect time to bottom out, throw out a real clunker, grab a high draft pick and position the team to make a big splash coming into this season.  Although fans may not be ecstatic about throwing in the towel and expecting to lose, anyone with half a brain could see things were in a terrible mess.  Overburdened by bad contracts, lacking immediate help from the minors and having lost it's best player, the Wild needed to take a couple large steps back before it could consider moving forward.

When you fire your coach and GM, there's nothing more to complain about for a year or two, fans at least need a couple of fresh mistakes to pin on the new guy before they can go too crazy. There was in fact, only one thing that they could've possibly done wrong, one thing that would've been truly awful for the long-term rebuilind plans, which was to overpay the wrong free agent in a panic move...so of course, that's exactly what they did!  And here we are.

To set the stage for the discussion of the offseason, one over-arching truth must be remembered: There's no help coming from outside, or at least not without surrendering one of the team's current assets.  Michael Russo, who covers hockey for the Star Tribune and is the best sportswriter in town for my money, wrote this article last week about potential trades being the path to improvement in a weak free agent market (http://www.startribune.com/sports/wild/96622489.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUBP7hUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUr)  If this weak crop of free agents wasn't enough, the team also has no cash to spend on them.  The actual 2010-11 salary cap is TBD, but is assumed to land in the $57 million range.  Based on the info available here, http://www.hockeybuzz.com/cap-central/team.php?team=MIN, we know the following:

Committed cap space - $48.2 million
Estimate to retain restricted free agents (Latandresse, Earl, Ebbett, Harding) - $4.5 million
Dollars available to fill remaining 5 roster spots - $4.5 million

Pretty obvious that the team is not going to be in the running for even mid-level free agents, even players who could be added from the minors would be at or above the average remaining salary they have available.  I may be being a bit generous with my assumption on Latendresse, bumping his salary from $800k to $2 million next year.  But after acoring 25 goals in 55 games, I believe the team will attempt to sign him to a multi-year deal, and doing so will require a significant bump.  Even saving another half million on that deal would not change the situation, we're capped out and that's that.

Although it's unpalatable to the average season ticketholder, losing short-term to win long-term was the only option, since the Wild will now be forced to sink or swim with the same players next season.  Hitting rock bottom has been a tried-and-true path taken by several other teams, including the last two Cup champions.  Both Pittsburgh and Chicago were dreadful a few years ago, but the upside to all the losing was the drafting of franchise cornerstones who have already brought championships, and will ensure another decade of competitive hockey for their respective teams.  Acknowledging this just adds sting to another year of being mired in the middle.

I know I just seem to keep piling worse news on top of bad, but the final piece to the puzzle is the fact that even the Rock Bottom scenario is no longer an option, since all of the most expensive (and useless) players have contract with no trade clauses.  Basically, for this team to do anything next season, it's going to need bounce back years from a whoooooole lot of people.

And with that, we can kick off the discussion of "2010-11 Minnesota Wild Pyramid of Hope"TM


Laying the groundwork -  3 guys who need good seasons to keep the Wild out of the cellar


1) Martin Havlat - Or, as he with henceforth be know in this blog "Halfthat" (as in, if an elite player would score 40 goals, he'll get you Half that), was signed to a 6-year / $30 million dollar deal immediately on the heels of Marian Gaborik's departure to New York.  Now my sneaking suspicion is that this deal was the result of pressure placed on the GM by the team's new owner, Craig Leipold, in an attempt to placate the fanbase after the loss of the franchise's greatest star in it's young history (MaryAnn Groinorik, The Slovak Sissy).  I don't have anything to back this up, but it's the only way I can make sense of the signing.  If someone would like to offer a better explanation of why the logical move following the departure of your fragile European goal scorer is to bring in a less-productive fragile European goal scorer, I'm all ears.  Until then, I'm sticking with my initial opinon.

And although I may be overly negative, this isn't revisionist history here, I hated this signing at the time and the last year has only made that hate grow.  I had watched Halfthat's play during the playoffs that season, and thought he was a gritty player who brought good chemistry, but one look at his stats told me this was a player I wanted no part of on my favorite NHL team.  One 30-goal season to his credit, notching 31 with Ottawa during the 2003-04 season.  Prior to a great 2008-09 campaign, in which he tallied a 29-48-77 line, while playing alongside the Blackhawks dynamic duo of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews (slight talent upgrade over what we have here), Halfthat had averaged 36 games played over the previous three seasons.  Excellent number if we're talking college hockey, unfortunately it only equates to 44% of an NHL schedule.  But hey, when you can get half a season of mediocre production for the price of a full season of stellar production, you have to do it...right?

Bottom line: The Wild need 30 goals and 60 points at a minimum (so basically double last year's production, you see how that works?) in the coming year if they are going to make the postseason.  NHL teams simply cannot pay superstar money to a player who is not providing superstar production.

2) Brent Burns - Two seasons ago, Brent Burns was coming off a breakout season in which he played all 82 games, scored 15 goals and added 28 assists.  At 23 years old, with 3 NHL seasons under it his belt, it appeared to every Wild fan that he would be the foundation of the team's blue line for the next decade, a dynamic 2-way defenseman with a knack for knowing when to jump into the play, there was simply nothing he couldn't do.  I haven't stopped to think about how much fun he was to watch that season in quite some time, and pausing to do it now, after what has unfolded over the last couple of years, is pretty damned depressing.

Sports can be like quicksand, with areas you thought were solid giving way in the blink of an eye and dragging everything down in an instant.  Nothing contributes more to this uncertainty than injuries, and Burns has been beset by a slew of them over the past two seasons, primarily concussions, limiting him to 106 games, and derailing a career on the rise.  No player on the Wild roster has the potential to impact the game in as many ways as Burns can, and did, when he is at his best.  At 25, his prime should just be beginning, but "concussion" is probably the single most frightening word in sport.  Not only does the threat of another hang over his career, it kills it's trade value.  On a team with a deep blue line, a healthy Burns would be one of the few potential assets that could fetch back the high-scoring forward the team desparately needs.  At the moment though, any deal would only bring back pennies on the dollar for a player once considered one of the top young defensemen in the NHL

Bottom line: Stay healthy.  That's it.  I firmly believe that if Brent Burns can stay on the ice for 70+ games this season, he will produce.  Maybe not at the level of the days when the Wild were at the top of the division, but at least enough to build up his value, and give the team another asset, rather than just another bad contract to add to the list.

3) Nicklas Backstrom - Now here is one I was dead wrong on.  Repeat after me: You do not pay $6 million a year for a goaltender.  Never.  Not ever.

When Backstrom burst onto the scene after signing a one-year deal with the Wild before the 2006-07 season, it was nothing short of unbelieveable.  The Finnish free agent out of nowhere was the best goalie in the league that season, posting eye-popping numbers (23-8 record, 1.67 GAA, .929 save %) while backstopping the team to a playoff berth.  Although the Wild were outsted in the first round that season by the eventual champion Anaheim Ducks, I had visions of dominant goaltending stretching years into the future.

A 2-year / $6.2 million contract followed, and things only got better.  A division title for the team in 2008 and All-Star selection for the goalie the following year made a contract extension for Backstrom the hottest topic surrounding the team during the spring of 2009.  I'm sorry to say I was in the camp that thought we should do whatever it took to keep him, despite arguments to the contrary from other fans, who stated his success was only a result of coach jacques Lemaire's defense-first system.  Eventually, the pressure to sign him became to great, and the team re-upped the goaltender to a 4-year / $24 million deal.  Then, as things are won't to do with NHL goaltending, the bottom dropped out.

The 2009-10 season was the team's first playing new coach Todd Richard's (allegedly) up-tempo style, and the results in net were not pretty.  After three straight seasons with a goals-against average under 2.35, Backstrom's number jumped to 2.72, and we officially had a problem.  To put this in prespective, the worst GAA for any NHL regular last season was 2.76, only two goaltenders were worse than Backstrom last season, one began the season as a backup and one ended it that way.  Blame cannot be placed solely on the system for these results.  To echo my sentiments about Halfthat, this is not acceptable performance from a goalie being paid $6 million per year.

So this my friends is a reeeeeeeeeeeal dicey situation, particular when you consider how many goalies have lost it over the years and never gotten it back.  And while an $18-million albatross hanging from the neck of the franchise for the next three seasons is not necessarily a death sentence (Chicago paid Cristobal Huet $5.6 million to sit on the bench while winning a Cup this past year; Huet's GAA when he was benched? 2.50), it isn't exactly something that can be brushed off either.  If Backstrom can't put 2009-10 behind him and return to an elite level, or (gulp) gets worse, this team is pretty well sunk.

Bottom line: Play competently, re-establish himself as at least a Top 10 goaltender, .920 save % and sub-2.50 GAA is a must

Framing things up - 2 guys who need to step up for the Wild to return to the playoffs

4) Mikko Koivu - If you were looking to define the term "nice player" in the NHL, Mikko Koivu's picture would be on the Wikipedia page.  Solid center, team captain, puts up 20G/40A every season, plays both ends of the ice, good on faceoffs, just a consistent all-around player.  Not spectacular, but certainly not bad, just nice.  Add in the fact that he's being paid a reasonable $3.25 million this season, and Koivu is one of the bright spots on an otherwise bleak rosters.  Problem is, stop me if you've heard this before, he's about to be paid superstar money for production that just doesn't warrant it.

Entering the last year of his contract this season, Koivu is in a good bargaining position for an extension, which seems inevitable before the summer is over.  The Wild can't afford to let their captain and best player walk away for nothing, ala The Slovak Sissy, nor should they.  But they also need to be reasonable in assessing his value, and not overpay ridiculously.  A deal in the $5 million range for Koivu seems likely, and if that is the case, it would be really nice to see him approach the 30-goal mark, or at least top his career high of 22, this season.  It's tough to complain too much about a player who brings as many things to the table as Mikko Koivu does, and it's true that there's more to the game than just scoring.  But last time I checked, the currency of hockey is still goals, and the team that he captains simply needs more of them.

Bottom line: Assuming the other parts of his game remain solid, a bump from the 22G 49A line of last season to 30/50 range should do the job, particulary if most of that increase is on the power play.

5) Pierre-Marc Bouchard - Of all the guys called out so far for underperforming, PMB is probably the biggest example, but also the toughest to blame.  It's been 15 months since Bouchard suffered the concussion that caused him to miss all but one game of the 2009-10 season.  His presence on the ice in September is a wild card that could change many elements of how the team operates this offseason.

At the moment, it appears Bouchard will be returning to the lineup, having just been given clearance to begin working out, following the abatement of the post-concussion symptoms that dogged him all season.  Although he may be a wee little man who's not going to bang in the corners or score many goals, PMB is a gifted playmaker who averaged 45 assists per season in the 3 years prior to his injury during the 2008-09 campaign.  If he's able to go this season, the offense would get a nice shot in the arm; if he's unable to play, the Wild would be free to add his $4 million salary to their pool of available cap space. 

Unfortunately, that doesn't help too much at the moment, for a couple of reasons.  Number one, barring a setback in the very near future, the team has to assume he's going to play, so it can't go spend those dollars on a free agent addition.  Number two, Bouchard is in year 3 of a 5-year deal, so even if he didn't make it back this season, and the cap space became available, the Wild would likely only be able to offer a one-year deal.  With no large contracts falling off the books next offseason, it's unlikely the team would be able to add another $4-5 million salary without putting themselves in a tough spot a year from now.  Anyway, it's probably a moot point, by the time they found out Bouchard was going to sit, all impact free agents would be off the market.

The only thing that's for certain is that his upcoming season is as pivotal to Bouchard's career as it is to the Wild's chances of success.  At only 26, he should be entering his prime as a player, but another head injury would most likely mean the end of what once looked to be a very promising career.

Bottom line: For his sake, as well as the team's, PMB just needs to get healthy and get on the ice, we'll see where things go from there.

Finishing touches - 1 guy who could take the team to the next level

6) Guillaume Latendresse - Ask any Wild fan about the best move of the Chuck Fletcher Era to date, and without fail they will reply "Pouliot-for-Latendresse".  In what looked to be a simple swap of garbage 25 games into last season, the GM shipped the most disatrous Wild draft pick of all time, Benoit Pouliot, to Montreal in exchange for another underachieving young player in Latendresse.  The rest, as they say, is history, as Latendresse scored 25 goals in 55 games to lead the team, and put a small silk head on that pig of a campaign.  Now the question becomes, Trend or Mirage?

It was clear from the jump that Latendresse was a better player than Pouliot, the uber-bust, 4th overall pick from 2005.  In three seasons with Montreal, Latendresse tallied goal totals of 16, 16 and 14, while Pouliot netted 9 total over parts of three with the Wild, and generally stunk in every other phase of the game to boot.  What no one saw coming however, was that Latendresse would start putting pucks in the net at the pace of a 40-goal scorer, showing nifty moves around the net and pretty much carrying the offense for much of the season. 

Now it's probably just the skeptic in me, but despite what I saw happen last season, I just can't believe a 15-goal scorer in the Eastern Conference can transform into a 40-goal scorer in the West simply due to a change of scenery.  While it's true Latendresse has a lot going for him, including size, a cool name, a smoking hot pop star girlfriend and serving as the basis for a great joke I made up (What's do the Minnesota Wild and banging a fat girl have in common?  Latendresse), I just don't think he can equal last year's performance.

I hope I'm wrong, really I do, but something just isn't adding up here.  Maybe he really is the perfect linemate for Halfthat, perhaps his game was being stifled in Montreal, but something in my gut tells me he's closer to the 15-goal guy than the 40-goal guy, and I just can't shake the feeling.  The good news is that the Wild get to find out the answer for a pittance of what they're paying Halfthat to find out what some of us already knew (he's a complementary player).  If Latendresse can do for a full season this year what he did for two-thirds of one the last time out, the ceiling on this team will be raised dramatically.

Bottom line: The X factor, barring some huge improvements from other players, the damage done in the playoffs will hinge on Latendresse emergence as a go-to scorer

In closing, I will simply say that the current state of the Minnesota Wild is bad; that should be obvious at this point.  Furthermore, given the deals that have been handed out, the injury histories of key players on the roster, and the general lack of promising young players in the pipeline, it does not appear likely to improve much in the near future.

Looking at this bleak situation, the one consolation that can be offered is this: These players have done what we need them to do before, and if they do it again, we can win now.  It is never pleasant to go into a season knowing that your only shot at significance is for most of the team to have career/bounce-back years, because as we all know, things rarely work out that way.  But it is far less pleasant to be dealing with a roster of players with no track record, who offer no reason to think they are capable of performing at the level required.

After all, here in Loserville, you gotta have hope.  Go Wild.