Bleacher Report - Minnesota Wild

Minnesota Wild: Drastic Times Call for Drastic Measures

Blake Benzel — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:18:42 -0500

Hockey sticks beware: The Minnesota Wild are on the prowl.

At least, that’s what yesterday’s practice showed, according to Mike Russo of the Star-Tribune.

At the X yesterday, the Wild underwent an extremely physical practice that caused tempers to run high. Sticks were broken, slammed against the glass, and, in the case of Mikko Koivu, airmailed to the fourth row.

Richards told reporters afterwards that he’s decided to change his tone after a sleepless night following the team’s loss to Phoenix. Apparently someone has finally realized that coaxing this team to be better just doesn’t work.

Let’s be honest here. Jacques Lemaire was 10 times the coach that Richards is at this point in his career. Lemaire couldn’t do it last year, so why would Richards be able to do it this year?

Just as Brent Sutter awakened the Calgary Flames with a physical series of practices, Richards hopes to do the same to the Wild, and if there’s any team that needs it, it’s Minnesota.

On paper, this team isn’t much different from the team that was mere points from making the playoffs last season. Its lines are even looking very similar to last year’s team at this point. The most auspicious change was supposed to be the coach, who would take off the reins.

So far, the reins are off, but the results are much the same—only this time, the defense isn’t playing airtight like it has in the past.

For a team that wanted to play a fast, physical style coming into this season (much like the Anaheim Ducks team that won the Stanley Cup), it has spent much of the season losing battles on a regular basis. It has been very rare for a Wild player to come up with a puck that is contested in the corner.

But this “new” Richards might spark something in the team. To my knowledge, the players have been coddled for most of their careers. Just look at Brent Burns and Mikko Koivu. When anyone talks about them, all you hear is how much potential these two young superstars have.

You always hear about how great of a leader Koivu is, or how dynamic a talent Burns is.

But you never hear that Koivu may not have been the best pick for the captain of the team this season, or how Burns tries to do so much on the ice that he is frequently not ready when the game starts going back towards his own end.

The Wild need a change, and the change needs to start at the coaching level right now. The staff needs to stop coddling its golden boys.

Just look at James Sheppard. His confidence is obviously very, very fragile right now. He’s playing soft and he’s playing tentative—in other words, he’s not really playing.

But why not drive home the point with him in practice? Why wouldn’t you send him into a puck battle drill with John Scott or Derek Boogaard, or even Owen Nolan? Why wouldn’t you send him into a puck battle and tell him that he’s not stopping until he gets the puck?

Why wouldn’t you take a stick, tape it to Benoit Pouliot’s hands, and tell him that you’re not taking it off until he starts focusing on his shot and shooting like he’s capable of? Why wouldn’t you do that with Martin Havlat?

All that has been talked about this season by the media is how bad this team is, but all that has been talked about by the team is how bad it's been playing. There’s an obvious disconnect there. This team doesn’t think that it's not good and, honestly, neither do I.

But what needs to happen on a player level is that players need to begin taking accountability for their actions on the ice.

Yes, the coaching staff needs to give these guys a swift kick in the backside, but once that has been done the players need to step up and be accountable.

There is no better example than that of Brent Burns.

Mysteriously, Burns simply disappears after a poor performance. He doesn’t talk to the media or even address them—he just disappears.

To be quite honest, running and hiding isn’t a trait you’d want in your worst player, let alone one who is supposed to be one of your superstars.

The team needs to stand up and be accountable for its actions. This isn’t a mandate that needs to come from the coaching staff, however. This is one that needs to come from within.

Owen Nolan and Andrew Brunette. These are the players this needs to come from. Koivu and Havlat. These are the players this needs to come from.

A locker room-wide mandate that, no matter what the outcome of the game is, you’re sitting at your stall after the game facing the music. It doesn’t matter if you win 6-1 or if you lose 6-1, you’re sitting at your stall, answering questions.

But that’s not going to happen. At least not yet.

For that to happen, the main offenders would have to have some modicum of mental toughness.

But the mental toughness won’t start coming until the team begins to show some physical toughness.

Maybe that’s what Richards wants to start stressing in his practices. Physical, beat down, drag out wars. I, for one, certainly hope so because I, for one, am sick of watching this team underperform on a nightly basis.

Hopefully the Wild will eventually get to the point where they are too.

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Minnesota Wild Must Rebuild

Austin Lindberg — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:51:24 -0500

There is a long way to go until this year's trade deadline of March 3, 2010.

But with the Winter Olympics, general managers around the league are going to have to do their homework earlier than usual to work around the Olympic break from Feb. 15-28.

The Minnesota Wild are amongst a handful of teams who look to be major players in that deadline. If the Wild are serious about moving forward with new head coach Todd Richards and new general manager Chuck Fletcher, they will be sellers come deadline day.

The Wild are ending their adjustment period to the new, open system of Richards. Wednesday's game was nearly error-free with regards to operating in the system. However, the team still could not generate any sort of bite or strike fear into Phoenix.

The Wild are sleepwalking through the 2009-10 NHL season because this is a team very much in transition. Gone are the days of the Jacques Lemaire defensive lockdown; his replacement implements a much more aggressive approach.

Although Lemaire is gone, the players that former GM Doug Risebrough pieced together to function in Lemaire's system remain—and they don't fit the new system.

In July, the Wild front office wanted to push for the playoffs.

Fletcher was eager to put his stamp on the Wild and signed Martin Havlat to a six-year, $30 million contract to replace the departed Marian Gaborik. Just before the season, Fletcher signed veteran scorer Petr Sykora to add even more offensive support.

Nine games into the season, Fletcher sent the Wild's 2011 second-round draft pick and 2009 fourth-round pick Alexander Fallstrom to Boston for gritty goal scorer Chuck Kobasew.

Fletcher has done a lot of work to keep this team from having to start all over. However, his work has been for naught. The Wild sit second from the bottom in the Western Conference. Three weeks ago they showed signs of hope by winning four of five. They haven't won since.

It's admirable of Fletcher to try to make this team a contender right away. His waste-no-time attitude is a welcomed change of pace to Risebrough's. But continuing to mortgage the future in order to improve a poor team to mediocrity is what cost Risebrough his job.

The Wild in transition is a failing project; blowing the team up and starting over couldn't be that much worse. If the team wins 35 games in a transitional year and misses the playoffs by 12 points, is it any worse to trade assets, amass draft choices and prospects, win 25 games, and miss the playoffs by 22 points?

Owen Nolan, Eric Belanger, Kim Johnsson, and Marek Zidlicky will all be unrestricted free agents at the end of the season, and all four would be valuable assets to teams looking to make a push in the playoffs.

It's possible that the Wild could receive a first-round pick for Nolan or Johnsson depending on how the market plays out, but a realistic return for all four players should be a draft choice between the second and fourth rounds or respectable prospects.

If the Wild are going to get better anytime soon, they need to make wholesale changes as fast as possible. That means shedding payroll, trading assets, and amassing draft choices and prospects. This team lacks the talent and prospects to do much of anything in the next three to four years as it stands.

The sooner the Wild fall, the faster they will rise. They've experimented with mediocrity for the better part of a decade. If Fletcher fails to rebuild, he will follow that path of mediocrity for the foreseeable future.

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The Minnesota Wild Stumble Out of the Gates, Fall To Phoenix 3-2

Blake Benzel — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:57:31 -0500

Coming off of a four point road trip that many considered a disappointment, the Wild desperately needed to right the ship on Wednesday night against the Phoenix Coyotes.

To be fair, I really consider this loss to be my fault. The instant I got in to work, yesterday, I began talking to my co-workers about the Wild and the Coyotes—telling them that it was in the bag. A sure win.

I mentioned the stat that Ilya Bryzgalov was 0-5 against the Wild, with a 4.02 goals-against average and a .874 save percentage, and that was just at the X. Overall, I mentioned, he was 1-7 with only slightly better stats.

I also brought up that Niklas Backstrom has notoriously been a Coyote killer in his career, having only lost one previous game to Phoenix.

Not only that, but I brought up that the Wild had won their past seven games against the ‘Yotes at the X.

It was in the bag.

What I didn’t count on was Minnesota coming out as flat as a glass of Mountain Dew that has been sitting out for a week.

To be fair, the 3-2 final doesn’t sound that terrible. I mean, the ‘Yotes are a completely different hockey team this season, right? They’re eighth in the West, a point ahead of the legendary Detroit Hall of Famers and two ahead of the Vancouver Roberto Luongos.

It doesn’t sound that bad if you didn’t watch the game.

If you watched the game, however, you saw a Minnesota team that put forth what their coach called their “poorest performance of the year.”

The Coyotes came out and dictated the tempo of the game for the first 30 minutes, outshooting the wild 15-5 and pinning them deep in their zone early and often. During this time, the Wild could not get anything going—they could hardly even get a break.

This was none more evident than a phantom slashing call called on Owen Nolan with just seconds left in the first period—the ‘Yotes ended up cashing in on the powerplay after the second period began.

“That’s not the reason we lost the game,” Richards said in his post-game presser. “We had chances in the third period and we didn’t finish.”

The slow starts and lack of finish have been an area of concern for the Wild this season and a large part of this has been due to Martin Havlat’s absence on the scoresheet. Havlat, who was expected by many to replace the production of Marian Gaborik, has responded horribly to the added pressure that his new contract has given him, notching just one goal and two assists in his past 16 games.

In addition, he has struggled to find chemistry with anyone on the Wild’s team and has been unable to create as the Wild expected he could.

A goal and a strong performance against the Maple Leafs last week had Havlat looking like he was turning things around, but he can’t just settle for playing better anymore. The Wild need him on the scoresheet night-in and night-out if they are going to be successful.

The Wild have been plagued by let downs after big goals for quite some time now, and last night was possibly the worst of all. After the Coyotes carried a 1-0 lead into the third, Andrew Brunette tied the game early on for his eighth goal of the season, breaking a nine-game goal drought. Just minutes later, the Wild experienced their letdown, allowing defenseman Jim Vandermeer to score his second of the season on an odd man rush.

The Wild kept pushing, and Antti Miettinen tied it once again with less than five minutes left on the clock.

As has been a troubling trend for Minnesota, however, the team allowed the Coyotes to get right back in it just 19 seconds later with a Scottie Upshall goal off of what looked to be a bad rebound and a bad defensive play by Niklas Backstrom and Marek Zidlicky, respectively.

But, despite being dominated for most of the game early, the Wild were still in it. They still had their chances to win and didn’t capitalize on them.

This tells me that this is a team that needs to figure out why they are not coming out of the gates with any jump in their step.

Richards has pointed the finger at himself, saying that he needs to reassess what he is doing on gamedays during the morning skates and in practice preparing the team and I would tend to agree.

Whatever the reason is, the team just does not come out with any pep in their step. Poor starts have now cost them three of their last seven games—something that is inexcusable at any level.

Injuries are undoubtedly hurting the team, with regulars Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Benoit Pouliot, Chuck Kobasew and Petr Sykora all keeping seats warm up in the press box, but the team has got to soldier on through this tough time.

A great start would be coming out strong against a surging Islanders team on Friday, especially with Lil’ Herb Brooks in the house. Who knows. Maybe Richards will even recruit the youngster for a pre-game pep talk. Lord knows it couldn’t be any worse than it already has gotten.

One thing’s for sure though. I’ll be keeping my mouth shut about this one.

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Wild-Coyotes: Too Little Too Late

Nick Maxson — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:51:47 -0500

ST. PAUL, Minn - Despite a third period comback, Minnesota falls to Phoenix 3-2 at The Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul Wednesday night.

A slow start and inconsistent play allowed Phoenix to jump out to an early 1-0 lead in the first throwing 15 shots on goal in the first period compared to Minnesota's five.

A new look Phoenix team under new coach Dave Tippet carried most of the momentum throughout the first two periods with an aggressive forecheck and great puck control in the offensive zone, exactly what Minnesota is trying to do.

The Coyotes kept Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom busy by shooting from anywhere on the ice and often finishing the game with 32 shots on goal.

The real let down came in the third period when Antti Miettinen scored at 15:02 to tie the game at two and just 19 seconds later Phoenix's Scottie Upshall scored from a tough angle to take the lead for good and seal the win for the Coyotes.

Phoenix did have a fast start to the season but since has dropped to a 12-9-0 record two points behind Dallas for third place in the pacific division with 24 points.

Minnesota falls to 7-12-2 overall, 5th in the northwest division and 14th in the western conference.

Minnesota drops the first of a four-game homestand which will continue on Friday as the Wild host the Islanders.

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Martin Havlat: Where is the Offense?

Nick Maxson — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:43:44 -0500

Confidence is the heart and soul to any professional athlete; i'ts what makes them believe they can be the best, or the worst.

Since his arrival in Minnesota, Martin Havlat has yet to show his true offensive fire-power we were hoping to see from his days in Chicago.

Throughout the first 20 games, we have seen Havlat hesitant, on edge and definitely lacking confidence in his own game and the numbers prove it.

With only two goals and six assists and a team worst -13 on the season, this is not the Martin Havlat the Wild signed nor the explosive forward the fans want to see.

Watching every game film from this season compared to last season's overall play, a few conclusions can be made.

1. Low Confidence

Havlat isn't confident not only in the team's changing game-play but also his own.

Last season when he entered the offensive zone with the puck on his stick, he attacked the ice using his speed, creativity and quick hands to muster scoring chances and goals.

This season is completely the opposite, just watch Havlat enter the zone this season. The first difference is that he will swing the puck wide and stop moving his feet instead of attacking the net or using his speed to get around the defense or push them deep into the zone.

Second thing you may notice is the shot totals. Last season Havlat would never turn down an opportunity to blast a shot on goal, but this season he definitely is looking to pass the puck first rather than use his quick hands and fool the goaltender.

In my book, all the above are confidence issues and its something where I believe if the team starts playing well, he will get better.

However, the Wild need him and others like Koivu, Burns and Brunette to lead the Wild out of this slow start and get the wheels turning again. That is how Minnesota is going to get out of this slump.

2. New System

It is never easy to take a team that for so long played almost a mirror image opposite to what your trying to get them to play like.

For Minnesota, thats going from defense first, to all out attack mode.

On top of that, you just made the move to a new team in Havlat's case, so you can't rely on other team members to show you where you should be or what the coaching staff wants you to do—your're learning right with everyone else.

It is surprising, though, to see that since Havlat is such an offensive player that this new system wouldn't benefit him.

However if you think about it, it makes sense.

Minnesota players who studied under the Jacques Lemaire regime are struggling to get the old material out and the new in.

Mistakes are forcing Havlat to cover for their mistakes and that means he cannot be as offensive as he could be right?

It's one way to look at it, but even for Havlat every offense runs different and he could be experiencing the same mental fatigue from Chicago as some old Wild players.

3. Stanley Cup

Yes the Stanley Cup comes into play here, you have to take it from Havlat's point of view to understand this argument.

After leading a talented and successful Chicago team all the way to the Western Conference Finals last season, once a player gets a taste of that, it becomes an addiction, an obsession.

Coming to Minnesota on a six-year $30 million deal, and knowing the challenges with a new General Manager, Coaches and players and a new system is a bit rough for someone coming off a deep playoff run assuming the next season or two could mean no return to the playoffs.

So why do it?

Two words, Pittsburgh Penguins.

Pittsburgh built through the draft and was patient, but after just a few short years and being near the bottom of the NHL, the Penguins are now the top dog in the league.

Chuck Fletcher was an intrical part of developing that team that took home the Stanley Cup last season.

Coach Todd Richards is a proven winner as a player and coach.

Owner Craig Leipold, who deserves more credit than he gets, has opened up his pocket book already to bring in Havlat and, as he did in Nashville bringing in players such as Kariya and Forsberg. He put hockey on the map in Tennessee with the Predators' playoff run in 2006.

Havlat will come around as he is surrounded by new young talent or brought in talent.

He is waiting as he did in Chicago, and it paid off. The same will happen here in the State of Hockey.

Once the Wild start winning, they will gain more confidence and the players game will jump up—Havlat is no different.

Just think of Havlat as a time-bomb waiting to explode; and when he does, he will be a force to reckon with in the NHL and the new face of the Minnesota Wild.

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Minnesota Wild Quarter-Term Grades

Austin Lindberg — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:44:24 -0500

After 20 of 82 games, the Minnesota Wild are in trouble. The team sits last in their division and 14th out of 15 teams in the Western Conference with seven wins and 16 points.

The franchise will be broken up into forwards, defensemen, goalies, player development, coaching, and front office management and analyzed and assigned a letter grade at this point in the season.

Forwards D+

Todd Richards' new system is very dependent on forwards getting deep into the zone and pressuring opposing teams into mistakes. There have been few occasions this season where Wild forwards have been able to effective accomplish this effectively.

Richards' style is not the issue, the Wild seem to be able to effectively play this way against tired or flat opponents. There are signs of hope, but when the only positives are coming when opponents aren't at their best, it's generally a sign of a lack of talent.

The Wild rank third from the bottom in the West in goals for and only Mikko Koivu, Andrew Brunette, and Eric Belanger have a higher points-per-game ratio than their post-lockout career numbers.

The youth in James Sheppard and Benoit Pouliot, the megastar in Martin Havlat, and the offensive support in Petr Sykora, Chuck Kobasew and Owen Nolan have not showed up.

Defensemen D

In the last two years of Jacques Lemaire's reign with the Wild, there were a lot of fans who demanded he relinquish his defensive stranglehold on the team. It's pretty clear now that the only thing keeping the roster that Doug Risebrough afloat was the defensive stranglehold of Lemaire (and a healthy Marian Gaborik).

The Wild have given up the third most goals in the West and the team's collective goals-against-average has gone up by 0.82. That number has been inflated by some poor starts by then-injured Josh Harding but even Niklas Backstrom has seen his GAA rise by .34 since last year.

In addition to not playing as tight defensively, Wild defensemen also seem to be struggling to adapt to Richards' up-tempo system. Greg Zanon and Shane Hnidy have been solid additions in their own zone, however both look nervous with the puck on their stick and prone to turnovers in their own zone.

Kim Johnsson has struggled with injuries for most of this season and Brent Burns still displays lingering effects of being moved to wing last season.

Goalies B

The days of "good, not great" goalies in Minnesota getting their stats padded are over with. Lemaire's system saved this team nearly a goal-a-game and now Backstrom's stats look more human. Imagine the trouble this team could have been in with a 40 year-old Dwayne Roloson or a 35 year-old Manny Fernandez.

Backstrom has done a great job of giving this team stability on a consistent basis and his .908 save percentage is nothing to sneeze at. However, he doesn't look as sharp as a year ago. The lingering problem Backstrom has had is rebound control, which he appeared to conquer last season, and it's returned.

Harding started the year with an undisclosed lower-body injury and made two starts with a sub-.750 save percentage in those starts. Since his return from injury he has made two appearances and his save percentage is at .955. It's unlikely that he'll continue to play at that level, but it's fair to say his early season woes can be attributed to his injury.

Player Development F

In the history of the Wild, the team has managed to draft seven players that have earned a tag as anything more than "promising." Gaborik, Koivu, Harding, Burns, Nick Schultz, Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Cal Clutterbuck were all draftees who have gone on to some sort of prominence within the team.

Only Gaborik has been an All-Star. Only Clutterbuck was drafted outside the first two rounds, and he was taken in the third.

The Wild's 2005 first round pick Benoit Pouliot and 2006 first round pick James Sheppard are both on the roster, but neither have proven they deserve a promotion from the fourth line. The 2007 first round pick Colton Gillies spent 2008-2009 with the Wild, but only played in half the team's games.

This left many wondering how sitting in the press box was more beneficial than playing regularly with the team's minor league affiliate or in junior hockey.

As it stands, the team doesn't have many prospects that look ready to make an immediate impact in the NHL. Robbie Earl has made his mark in his recent call-up but the majority of who's left in Houston don't seem to be any major solutions to the team's issues.

Coaching B

This probably wasn't the start to his head coaching career Richards was hoping for. But given the pieces he was given, he's doing an admirable job of minimizing panic. His team is leaking goals and they can't score any either, but Richards has managed to put together special teams units that are smack in the middle of the league.

His players may not be showing it on the ice, but Richards' system has its value. When the Wild play teams coming off games the previous night, or flat teams, the offensive pressure is highlighted and is clearly effective.

If Richards is given a few seasons to collect the type of players his system requires, those flashes of the system's capabilities could be regular occurrences.

However, as it's been clear all season, this team does not fit Richards' system. There's something to be said for sticking to your guns, but there's also something to be said for not banging your head against a wall.

If Richards was to adapt his style to a more conservative approach, he might be able to keep his team in games the way Lemaire used to.

Front Office Management B-

To be fair, it's only Chuck Fletcher's first season with the Wild. And also to be fair, he was handed am absolute mess of a hockey club. The start to his draft was genius, moving down and collecting picks later is something this club was in desperate need of.

But to pass on University of Minnesota star Jordan Schroeder might end up haunting Fletcher. And to pass over the USA junior star for Minnesota's Mr. Hockey Nick Leddy doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Fletcher was also eager to sign Havlat to his six-year, $30 million contract. Rumors suggest there weren't many teams willing to give Havlat such a lengthy contract considering his injury history. Perhaps his excitement to join the Wild could be explained by the otherwise lack of interest and Fletcher's desire to put his stamp on the club.

His trade of a second round draft pick and prospect Alexander Fallstrom to Boston only nine games into the season quickly erased the "wait and see" philosophy of his predecessor. However, giving up draft picks is one of the largest reasons this team is in as much trouble as it is.

Minnesota Wild D+

If this team is going to do anything other than rebuild this summer, it needs its forwards to play the type of hockey their scouting reports, contracts and resumes say they can.

It needs to stay healthy, injuries to Bouchard, Johnsson and Harding have magnified the team's problems but if they can return, the Wild can climb out of the bottom of the West.

It needs time to adjust to Richards and his system and it needs Fletcher to get the players Richards needs.

This team is in bad shape at the moment, but there are signs of life. It's going to take time to get the players it needs but an infusion of new blood is the start. And if the grades in late February are anything like they are, a fire sale at the trade deadline will be the start of that infusion.

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