Tom Powers: Identity crisis has Wild losing face

Great article Tom! The Wild and it's fans are lost. Nagele and Risebrogh made it so. It is easier for a camel to fit though a needle than a rich man to fit through the gates of heaven. It is OK to be rich and to be successful but the greed these 2 showed to the faithful fans of hockey in Minnesota is nauseatingly, bilefully repulsive. We should find them, tar and feather them and put them on the next box car out of town. God will smite them.

It will take years to recover from DR's ineptitude. They have no identity, no farm system, and no trade bait. Todd Richards has the equivalent job of that inflatable Automatic Pilot from the movie Airplane.

More crappy writing from a crappy journalist. Did you file this from under Lemaire's desk in New Jersey? Why do you feel necessary to take pot shots at a rookie coach instead of writing about how DR and Lemaire did nothing in their 9 years to build a strong competitive organization. Did the Wild not hire your guy to be coach, or was it that they showed the door to your guy. Why don't you go write about the T-wolves instead. Wild fans know what they got to look forward to and what to expect without reading your hyperbole.

Maybe they need to go away for one of those retreat weekends. The kind where you have to trust someone to catch you when you fall backwards.

I think peoples expectations are a tad high for this years Wild and are finding themselves disappointed...and writing about it (Powers,et al). Its silly to think they are going to get any better this year - thats just wishful thinking.

Todd Richards isnt the issue...They're not going to have a solid identity probably until next year. Wild have a few players left over from the DR/JL regime that are taking up cap space and cant get rid of because no other team wants them via trade - Sheppard, Bouchard, Benoit, Belanger and yes, sorry to say even Boogs. DR vastly overpaid Bouchard so he has the bulk of the cap space tied up.

I think once these contracts are up they'll be dropped and we can make a bigger splash in the FA market. Im hoping the brain trust has improved to the point that we can start rebuilding Houston with solid draft choices as well.

This doesnt happen in a season. It may take until season 3 with Richards to see any improvements. Only if we're lucky maybe next year depending on the chemistry and how fast it clicks.

I feel bad for Nolan...that workhorse deserves a ring. Dont be surprised at trade deadline hes dealt for draft picks to a contender at seasons end. Thats what the Wild need. Harding will probably be gone too but it might not even be a bad idea to ship Backstrom either rather than Harding to clear up even more space.

They're rebuilding folks (agian). Give Richards and the new brass a chance...and time.

Tom wrote:

I think peoples expectations are a tad high for this years Wild and are finding themselves disappointed...and writing about it (Powers,et al). Its silly to think they are going to get any better this year - thats just wishful thinking.
Todd Richards isnt the issue...They're not going to have a solid identity probably until next year. Wild have a few players left over from the DR/JL regime that are taking up cap space and cant get rid of because no other team wants them via trade - Sheppard, Bouchard, Benoit, Belanger and yes, sorry to say even Boogs. DR vastly overpaid Bouchard so he has the bulk of the cap space tied up.
I think once these contracts are up they'll be dropped and we can make a bigger splash in the FA market. Im hoping the brain trust has improved to the point that we can start rebuilding Houston with solid draft choices as well.
This doesnt happen in a season. It may take until season 3 with Richards to see any improvements. Only if we're lucky maybe next year depending on the chemistry and how fast it clicks.
I feel bad for Nolan...that workhorse deserves a ring. Dont be surprised at trade deadline hes dealt for draft picks to a contender at seasons end. Thats what the Wild need. Harding will probably be gone too but it might not even be a bad idea to ship Backstrom either rather than Harding to clear up even more space.
They're rebuilding folks (agian). Give Richards and the new brass a chance...and time.

For the most part you're right, however, Belanger doesn't make a ton of dough but he actually shows up every game. Shep looks lost, Poillot has ability but very little hockey sense. Bouchard need to go for sure, Boogie, yeah, him too. All this talk about a lack of an identity doesn't hold water either. THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR LACK OF EFFORT, NONE, PERIOD. This team actually has more scorers than last years', but these guys cannot hit an open net, whether it be Havlat, Sykora, Burns or Shep. I would have these guys perform shooting drills until they drop based on what they do on the ice. Please get rid of Zid-dummy, he sucks and is a huge liability on the ice, Hnidy: slow, indecisive and also a liability on the ice. Playing Zid with Burns on the powerplay together borders on stupid, both are risk takers...hello! Chuck, I turned off the game after the first period, I became nauseous watching this team mail it in yet again. These guys are getting payed as professionals, start acting like it!

From my spot at the X last night I thought 3 things lost it for us this time: Dead on our feet for first 20 mins, lousy powerplay, and a shaky goalie. The goalie's not an issue 99% of the time. The powerplay is a mystery. Needs work! This unit, even when this team is playing well, is going to be the difference between winning and losing potentially lots of games for this club. Thats true in the NHL as a whole, but especially for "modest" offensive teams like us. Dead on our feet for 1st period is the one that p****s me off. What do they need for Gods sake? Back to back wins, 4 days off, Division rival that we already trail by like 10 pts, injury-ridddled opponent, COME ON!! This 09 version wastes home ice advantage (i.e. the crowd) more than any previous version of the Wild so far, and thats sick!!

I totally agree that Owen Nolan deserves a ring. He's a very hard worker and I hope they trade him so he gets a chance. The sooner the better. I mean, get his name on the Stanley Cup now before he needs that LifeAlert thing.

One other point about Owen Nolan. I recall Marc Crawford saying that Owen was a "man among boys" on his Corwall Royals team, and he knew he was ready for the NHL when the Nordiques wanted him. I truly think that's the case now. His experience and skill level are way beyond a lot of players on this team. It might seem like he isn't contributing because he doesn't have a lot of goals, but I don't think he's had a lot of help.

*CorNwall Royals

RiverRat wrote:

From my spot at the X last night I thought 3 things lost it for us this time: Dead on our feet for first 20 mins, lousy powerplay, and a shaky goalie. The goalie's not an issue 99% of the time. The powerplay is a mystery. Needs work! This unit, even when this team is playing well, is going to be the difference between winning and losing potentially lots of games for this club. Thats true in the NHL as a whole, but especially for "modest" offensive teams like us. Dead on our feet for 1st period is the one that p **** s me off. What do they need for Gods sake? Back to back wins, 4 days off, Division rival that we already trail by like 10 pts, injury-ridddled opponent, COME ON!! This 09 version wastes home ice advantage (i.e. the crowd) more than any previous version of the Wild so far, and thats sick!!

My exact same thoughts watching it on TV - 4 days off and this is how you guys play??? Like you played 4 days in a row.........

I'm am so perplexed at all the people who for some reason find the Wild's pathetic start surprising. Do they not watch other hockey teams?

The identity of the Wild is very simple to figure out. The are a horribly talent void team with a good goalie. Even in the win at Pittsburgh they were outshot like 35 to 14...ridiculous. You lose that game 98 times out of 100.

When Jacque was here we played the incredibly boring trap and had a line-up that sported some of the top defensive players in the league (Walz, Mitchell, Dupois etc). Well they are all gone and they were replaced with supposedly "offensive" players like Kim Johnsonn, Anti Miettenen etc.

Problem is these "offensive" players are at best average NHL players. Half the Wild team doesn't even make the vast majority of other NHL rosters. Koivu is by far out best player, but after him we have NOTHING. The is no player on the roster (minus Backs) including Koivu who is anywhere near All Star caliber.

The identity of the Wild is very simple to figure out. They are the least talented roster in the NHL...period.

Jacque made below average talent work with his smothering style. Richards wants to skate but he has to skate against NHL rosters with one that would make a decent AHL club, and only decent.

Just check out the Winter Olympic Ice hockey rosters in Feb. What you will find is with the exception of a VERY few, the Wild had little to no world class caliber players.

It's no surprise they can't complete....Please.

I said before the season, you can't make scorers out of a bunch of sloggers. You want to play uptempo? You have to have those kind of guys. You really don't create them out of Jacques Lemaire's roster. In a year or two, we'll have those guys. And yeah, old guys and even young guys like James Sheppard, who hasn't scored a point this year are going to be traded.