Minnesota Wild Turning It Around After Slow Start

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

After a putrid start to the 2009-10 NHL season, the Minnesota Wild are starting to show signs of life. 

Everyone expected some growing pains to start the season; however, when the team started 3-9-0, it raised some eyebrows. 

How bad was the team’s start? 

It ranked as the team’s worst start in franchise history—worse than their inaugural campaign when the team started 2-7-3. 

The Wild have long been known as a streaky team, however, and this season has not been any different.  Since their slow start, they have won four of five games heading into Thursday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. 

The team’s recent five-game stretch has seen them give up more than two goals just once (their 5-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks) and has seen them dominate play on multiple occasions, including most of the game against the Dallas Stars and Toronto Maple Leafs. 

The Wild have been in desperate need of what head coach Todd Richards calls their “compete level” to be higher, and they have done just that.  Their recent two victories against Dallas and Toronto have been strangely devoid of the defensive errors that have plagued them this season, with the exception of Schultz’s own goal—part of the territory as a defenseman. 

One thing that really has stood out to me over the last two games has been the communication between the rearguards.  Against Toronto, especially, you could tell that the defensemen were actively communicating with one another.  This is something that has changed during the Wild’s recent winning ways and something that will need to continue if the team is to build on their recent success. 

In addition to the team’s defense actually playing defense, their offensive lines are finally starting to click. 

The AMA Line has been put back together (for those uninitiated into the wonders of Mike Russo and his blog for the Star-Tribune, the AMA line is A ndrew Brunette, M ikko Koivu, and A ntti Miettinen), Martin Havlat is finally beginning to play like the player everyone thought that he would be and the team’s third line of Chuck Kobasew, Kyle Brodziak, and Cal Clutterbuck has looked like one of the team’s best lines on a regular basis. 

But on top of all of this, there is one thing that has really stood out in my mind over the last five games. 

Richards finally looks comfortable behind the bench. 

You want proof?  Just look at his use of timeouts in the last two games. 

As Russo pointed out, he has been very shrewd in using his timeouts—using them at crucial points against both Dallas and Toronto to give his team a much needed extra rest. 

This team is proving that they are extremely talented in all facets of the game; however, their one weakness to this point has been their coaching. 

This has never before been a problem for the Wild, who have always had the luxury of having one of the best coaches ever to grace the NHL behind their bench for their first eight seasons, but early on in this season Richards was struggling—both with the pace of the game and with the management of the game. 

But now he’s hitting his stride, getting in his groove, or any other cliché that you might want to use. 

This is good news for the Wild. 

Yes, they’re still in last in their division.  Yes, they’re tied for last in the conference. 

But after this recent stretch of games, they’re just four points behind Edmonton, six behind Vancouver and seven out of the top eight. 

For a team that has struggled as greatly as they have, there certainly looks to be a bright side. 

The Cutting Room Floor 

This is a new segment I’m going to include in my articles from time to time about random notes or blurbs that I either cut out in my final editing process or just decided not to write about.  So, here’s the run off from my brain.  Enjoy! 

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?