Our New Year's Resolution:
Lord Stanley's Cup
by Chris Thompson

Tuesday December 31, 2002

The Minnesota Wild started the season as the talk of the league. A killer power play, a budding superstar, and a goaltending tandem second to none has the Wild riding high atop the Western Conference standings. People called if a fluke, but as the season progressed and the Wild remained a force, that talk changed to speculation of the possibility that Minnesota could make the playoffs in just their third season in the league.

Then the wheels started falling off the wagon. The power play fell apart, dropping from among the league's best to 25th. Star Marion Gaborik is still having success, but many teams have learned how to keep him in check and have stifled the Wild's offense.

The goaltenders have continued to play well, but without the goal support, they haven't found the wins piling up as much as they'd like to see, especially Manny Fernandez. Fernandez finds himself with a 10-8-1 record compared to Roloson's 9-4-6 record. This, despite the fact that They have a nearly identical save percentage, though Manny's GAA is slightly higher at 2.42 per game vs Roloson's 2.08. Never-the-less, as a pair they have put up outstanding numbers and could both have better records if the Wild could score some goals lately.

So what's wrong and how can it be fixed? Well, the biggest problem at the moment is the defense. With Willie Mitchell and Brad Bombardir both out, Minnesota has been missing two of its top defensemen. While Filip Kuba and Andrei Zyuzin have done well, they spend more time on the ice than they should due to the lack of quality depth at the position. Players like Brad Brown, Lubomir Sekeras, Nick Schultz, Ladislav Benysek are playing more minutes than they deserve and guys like Curtis Murphy and Jean-Guy Trudel are even finding their way onto the ice. The result is pucks staying in the defensive zone far too long, due to poor passing and poor defensive positioning. When the puck spends so much time in our own zone, it's hard to score many goals on the other end of the ice!

Another problem the Wild have experienced lately is the slumping power play. One thing I've noticed lately is how we play with two defensemen more often now when we're on the man advantage. This confuses me. I thought we brought Cliff Ronning in to, among other things, play the point on the power play. And Zholtok proved to be quite adept at the point last season. So with two regular power play lines, it would seem ideal that one would be playing the point on each line with a defenseman joiing them (Kuba on the first line and Zyuzin on the second). If Minnesota gets back to playing a good passing forward on the point more, they may find renewed success on the power play.

Finally, they've had health issues outside of typical injuries. The entire team has dealt with viral infections and stomach ailments recently. Sergei Zholtok collapsed to the ice in overtime on the Edmonton game after his body decided it was too worn out from the illness and physical exertion on the ice. The team has showed a lot of moxie to play through these ailments, but it doesn't exactly make them better goal scorers.

So what's the secret to getting into the playoffs and maybe even winning some games once we're there? Well, first we need to get all those defensemen healthy. If we take care of business on our end of the rink, we'll get chances on the other end of the rink. Next, we need to be more aggressive on the power play by playing forwards on the point. I think few would argue that Zholtok and Ronning pass better than any of our defensemen. If they can sit back there and set up plays, good things will happen. And finally, they need to sterilize the lockerroom to make sure that nasty bug is gone forever!

Oh yeah...and the goalies need to stay hot. If these things happen, the Wild will continue to impress people and will move back up the standings a little, possibly holding home ice advantage for a series or two in the playoffs. Yes, it's great to be a Wild fan these days. Much like the Twins did, they're making fanhood a memorable experience. Make sure you don't miss out!!!