Wild

Right now the Wild are the toast of the town. 7-1-1 out of the gates and lookin' good. With the Vikings hampered by a horseshit QB and Coach, the T-Wolves facing life post-KG, and the Twins just waiting for the next free agent to drop, at least we have the Wild.

Like alot of people, the Wild took some warming up to. I obviously grew up with hockey and some of my favorite childhood memories are of going to the Met to watch the Stars take on the hated Blackhawks. I was ten when they were ripped away from me, I can still remember the "Norm Green Sucks" chants echoing through the rafters. I was happy when we got a new team, but it took a while to adopt them as my own. Slowly but surly, Jaques Lemmaire has built a likable, hard working team that are easy to love (although can be boring to watch at times because of the focus on defense).

I think it's safe to say that they made the right decision in keeping Backstrom, he's solid night in and night out. After years of sometimes brilliant, and sometimes abysmal goaltending from Roloson and Fernendez, it's nice to have some consistency between the pipes. With almost all of the players returning, we are getting the type of play we expect; grind-it-out, tough D, great penalty kill, timely scoring. The biggest difference in my mind between this last year's team and this year's is that they've had another year to develop and gel as a team (I hate that term, but it fits here). Youngsters like Bouchard, Burns, and Koivu are vastly improved and all three lines are clicking. They've been able to squeak out tough games and hold off comebacks for the most part (Last night in Calgary has been the only exception). The key to winning this year lies in staying healthy (Gaborik) and finding a way to improve the powerplay. Once again we find ourselves at the bottom of PP productivity and at the top of the penalty kill. I have a feeling that this team will surprise alot of people this year and emerge as a legitimate Cup Contender. Imagine the parade down 7th St. in St. Paul, it gives me goosebumps just mentioning it. Go Wild!

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