Wild season wrap up.

By Josh Sargent



Alright Hockey fans, the season is coming to an end and with only a couple games left and our team on the outside looking in for the playoffs so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to wrap up the season.

There were a lot of ups and downs this season that made all of us watch our team and cheer or make you stand on your favorite spot on the couch and yell “What the BLEEP are you doing!?”.

You can’t be completely diluted expecting that the wild would make a deep playoff run. Let’ be realistic here for a moment the best that we could have hoped for at the beginning of the season, with the coaching change and a new General Manager, the farthest this team would go would be to the first round in and dumped like a prom date.

Yet, you couldn’t expect Brent Burns and Pierre Marc-Bouchard, two of the teams best young talent, to get concussions early in the season, taking one out of possibly making the Olympic team and winning Gold and the other out for an entire season.

For both players this was suppose to be a rebounding year; after each set career highs in points total for the 07-08 season, 43 for Burns and 63 for Bouchard only to follow it up with near career lows with 27 for Burns and 46 for Bouchard.

Both players are staples on their side of the puck for the wild.

Burns some feel is one of the top young defensemen in the league with a lot of up side but now could be a, lets not kid ourselves, huge question mark. Last year he missed the last 19 games of the season with a concussion and just less than half this year.

Bouchard is one of the fastest guys on the team and what his size is lacking his heart makes up. Standing 5’10, with boots on, and 171 lbs, soaking wet wearing a fur coat, he is not afraid to get physical in the boards and fight for pucks with players twice his size. But like Burns, missed the last couple games of the 08-09 season with a concussion only to not be fully recovered and re-injured in the first game this season.

We are not hearing a lot of people say this from the Minnesota Hockey community or outside but this could be a recurring problem with both talented players for the rest of their careers. Although most Minnesota Hockey fans will think it will be over at the start of next year don’t be so sure, to anyone who might be nervous remember to breathe when you see one of them give or take a hit next year.

Burns and Bouchard were not the only ones who were hit with a concussion. Petr Sykora was also put out of commission for a while with the dreaded head injury but was not the main problem with his short term with the Wild. He was continually a healthy scratch for the team and his agent Allen Walsh went as far to say “that he was treated with less respect then a rookie.” which I would have to agree. To scratch a guy who was a consistent 20 goal scorer consistently for the likes of James Sheppard is ridiculous and probably one of the biggest mistakes of the season.

The big deal made this off season was to bring in Martin Havlat in to replace a departed Marion Gaborik. After setting a career high points total, 77, last year with the Chicago Blackhawks, Havlat didn’t look like he was able to hit his stride this year. He would show flashes of why this team went after him only to turn a 180 in the next game and showed by being a -19 this year, but putting up 54 points this season is a good start for the forward and as the team develops and grows it would not surprise me if he set the points record for the wild.

Two of the players that showed up this year and not surprising were Captain Mikko Koivu and Andrew Brunette.

Koivu, who should break the 70 point mark this season and continues to impress both the team and fans, showing that this is his team and being someone who you can rely on, he has surpassed his older brother that last couple of seasons and was also the leader of the Finn team in the Olympics this year. Look for Koivu to be one of the best players in the league that you rarely hear about.

Andrew Brunette was told that he would have no future with the Wild in the “New Hockey League” in 2004 only to have his best years with the team that he put away in the Wilds 1st playoff run. Coming back to the Wild he is one of two players to play in every game this year and is 2nd for the team in goals scored! This guy is someone who hopefully ends his career with the Wild and who all the younger players should model their game after.

Cal Clutterbuck is another one of the teams rising stars, their youth, and future. After setting the league record for hits last year with 356 he leads the league with 308. His toughness is something that should not be overlooked though a hockey commentator who is only out done by the clothing he wears calls him Cal “Buttercup”. Hopefully, through the next couple of years he will become more of an offensive threat putting up 30+ points to compliment throwing off the games of opposing teams.

The Wild are ranked 24th currently giving up 235 goals and only one of their defensemen on the plus side. When 3-7 defensemen you are using the most are a -16, -14, and -11 that is not going to put you in a good spot to make a run to the playoffs. This is going to be an area that they will have to take a long hard look come free agency and make some decisions that will produce next year.

If Burns can return to form and with Zidlicky, Schultz, and Barker could be a great foundation to build around for your defense. I would defiantly look to pick up a piece or two through free agency this year to stabilize them in case Burns can’t return or when there are holes needed to be filled.

In goal this year has not changed much Niklas Backstrom has been the wall that we all know he is having a 2.73 save percentage. That is higher then his career average which is 2.31 but I feel is still respectable seeing how the season went. Josh Harding stayed in his usual strides as well with a 3.05 save percentage. This year though showed that the Wild could have more depth in goal then everyone thought. With getting a couple looks at Wade Dubielwicz and Anton Khudobin, with 2 games each this year. Although Khudobin is 4th on the depth chart he looked better then Dubielwicz. Khudobin stood on his head to have a 0.87 S% over Dubielwicz’s 3.85.

The biggest experiment that needs to be cut is the James Sheppard project. He has not lived up to his hype and has been given every chance possible to do so. Playing 63 games this year and only putting up 6 points is too much, Derek Boogaard played in 55 games has 4 points and has a better +/- rating then Sheppard with -11 to his -14……weak. But I don’t fault Sheppard completely, the last couple years he should have been in Houston developing rather than playing in the NHL where he is being beat down due to lack of skills needed to keep up with the pros.

Another player that never showed what we thought he was is Benoit Pulliot, but unlike Sheppard the Wild made a great trade by sending him to Montreal for Guillaume Latendresse. Latendresse has quickly become a fan favorite, although if you asked anyone in the state to spell his name they have no idea; and a player that opposing teams need to take into consideration. Playing 78 games this year and putting up 40 points this kid has tremendous upside.

Typically the Wild have not been the team to make great or even good trades picking up Latendresse was just a start so when they moved Kim Johnsson to Chicago for Cam Barker I was very much impressed. Another young player that this team can build around with a big upside Cam Barker just needs a little guiding and could put up 40+ points a year not to mention he was the only defenseman who is a plus this year at +5.

For this being a rebuilding year the fans have a lot of expectations for the 10-11 season and not much for patience either. There are a lot of positives to take out of this season but also glaring holes that need to be fixed. Coach Todd Richards and GM Chuck Fletcher are moving the team in the right direction and will be in playoff contention next year.