Now changing on fly, Wild speeding into contention
Take a quick look at the Western Conference playoff picture and chances are you won't notice the Minnesota Wild.
No surprise there. Minnesota is down around the bottom of the standings and still needs to jump six teams to get above the postseason cutoff line. That's a steep hill for anyone to climb nearly halfway through the schedule, and when you throw in the lack of marquee names and how little was expected this season, overlooking this team is not that hard to do at this stage.
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| Niklas Backstrom has been sharp lately, winning four of his last five starts. (Getty Images) |
Predictably, there have been growing pains involved in launching this new era. The Wild were punchless as they lost their first six road games of the season and found themselves 3-9 near the end of the opening month. In essence, Minnesota looked dead and buried. And it didn't help matters that Martin Havlat, who was signed to replace franchise face Marian Gaborik when he left as a free agent, was turning into a bust.
Havlat still hasn't come close to getting any semblance of his game back, and the injury bug has been no kinder to the Wild that anyone else this season with four of their players now out with concussions. Yet since early November when someone must have flipped a switch, Minnesota has turned into one the NHL's hottest teams.
"It's really not as dramatic as it seems from just looking at the points we're getting now," said Antti Miettinen, the Wild's top scorer of late. "With so many changes, we were just trying to find ourselves at the beginning of the season and obviously we played a lot of games below our level. But a season is a long process and I think we see it moving forward."
Steadily too. The Wild improved to 10-4-3 since their horrid start with a 1-0 win in Colorado on Wednesday and closed within four points of a playoff spot.
Minnesota's offense has apparently warmed to the idea of utilizing its overall team speed and come alive, largely because the top line of Miettinen, Mikko Koivu and Andrew Brunette has led the way.
Meanwhile, the Wild showed division rival Colorado that the remnants of Lemaire's defensive teachings remain, and with one of the league's top goalies in Niklas Backstrom at the top of his game, Minnesota has suddenly become a force to be reckoned with.
Or maybe not so suddenly. Rookie coach Todd Richards says the Wild are at a point that reminds him of being an assistant in San Jose last year when Todd McLellan was in his first year behind the bench.
"When you first come in as a new coach all the guys are trying to show you what they can do, but it's not like I'm re-inventing the game," Richards said. "Systems are all fairly similar, it's just that we may have a little different philosophy on how to play when you don't have the puck and being more aggressive, or for the defense getting up the ice. But other than that it's all the same.
"What I found though at the beginning is that guys were just trying to do exactly what the coach said or asked and they weren't making the reads or using their instincts. So it took a little while to adjust and get comfortable. Here too. Now guys know what to expect from the coach and they know what the coach is expecting from them. I think that's why we've done a good job over the last month."
Backstrom, who could be the starter for Team Finland at the Olympics, didn't diminish the importance of finding a comfort zone to Minnesota's improved play. But he said the urgency that was created as a result of some roster moves played an equally critical role.
During Risebrough's tenure the Wild rarely made in-season personnel changes regardless of the situation, but this season Chuck Fletcher has already made two trades and a waiver claim despite being pushed up hard against the salary cap.
Fletcher traded for young forwards Chuck Kobasew and Guillaume Latendresse and picked up Andrew Ebbets on waivers. While the GM insisted the moves were made with long-term rather than quick-fix motives in mind, Backstrom said the team felt the impact.
"The management showed they're not going to accept what we're doing and would try to get more out of every player," Backstrom said. "That's a part of this business. We're in best league in the world, and there are lots of players who are going to take your spot if you're not putting your best every night.
"It was a big message for everyone in the locker room."
One that might even get the Wild noticed.
