The Wild Were Able to Survive a Brutal First Half
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by user Leslie Monteiro
Now that the All-Star Game was over last night at Dallas, the Minnesota Wild will get back to work today for practice and then resume their second half of the season on tommorow night. They will play the Calgary Flames in a Northwest Division showdown at the Xcel Energy Center on Friday evening. Now, it is time to evaluate what the Wild did in the first half and what the future is in store for this team. This team will have to win at least 85 percent of their remaining games to be in the playoffs. It is going to be a tough task because the division is tough and there are many good teams in the Western Conference.
After evaluating the Wild based on the good things and the bad things that they have done, it is safe to say that the season has been successful so far. The team from St. Paul would make the playoffs if the regular season was over right now. They would be the eighth seed facing the first seed, Anaheim Ducks. Obviously, they will try to win the division so that they can get home ice and avoid playing the best team in hockey early.
They had a good first half considering that they had a winning record without their best players. They dealt with injuries in the last few months. They lost Pavol Demitra. Marian Gaborik, and Wes Walz for a good portion of the first half. If a team lost most of their scoring punch, they are going to struggle which is why the Wild have struggled in the last two months.
The absence of Gaborik clearly showed. His team were struggling to score. Their power play has been horrible. They have been great at home, but they have been hideous away from Xcel Energy Center. Their lack of offense was one of the reasons why they have been teetering at .500.
Wild fans got to see firsthand how Gabby's absence affected their team when he was holding out several years ago. At the time, the team was four years old. They were coming off a great season in 2003 when they went to the Western Conference Finals. Gabby was a huge part of that team' s playoff success. Unfortunately, he decided to holdout because ownership was too cheap to pay him what he deserved. It took until the end of Octobe 2003 for both the organization and their star player to reach an agreement.
The Wild struggled to score that year because of his holdout. He brings so much value to this team. He makes his linemates better like a point guard does to his teammates. He can score at sheer will. It was not a coincidence that the Wild went 3-1 on the road trip couple of weeks ago when he came back from his injury. That stretch was important because the team was in danger of putting themselves in a hole in the divsion not to mention being very close to last place. Fortunately, he came back in the nick of time. He has been prone to groin injuries. The trick is for him to stay healthy the rest of the way.
The success of this team should be credited to Brian Rolston and Manny Fernandez.
Rolston was the lone Wild representative in the 2007 All-Star Game. This was well-deserved. He carried his team on his back. He always came up with a huge goal whether it's a game-tying goal or a game-winning goal. He did a good job defensively. He always found a way to step up. This is why he was named the captain of the month for the third time this season by Wild head coach Jacques Lemaire. He was the captain of the team in October, November, and now January. It would not be surprising if he gets another shot of being a captain couple of more times thiss season.
Manny was given the responsibility of being the #1 goaltender when Dwayne Roloson was traded to the Edmonton Oilers in mid-season last year. There was questions about him living up to that status. He has been inconsistent at times which is why Lemaire would rotate him and Roloson often.
Fernandez clearly did not feel comfortable and he was vocal about it. He was a huge question mark heading to this season. He started off well, but then he struggled for a little bit.
His head coach decided to play the backup goaltender, Niklas Backstorm a lot in an effort to get Manny motivated. The starting goaltender all of sudden had to share his job with his backup. Manny then went on a nice five-week stretch in which he has really played well. He was huge out in this road trip. He made crucial saves in the third period, overtime, and in shootouts in a game against the Chicago Blackhawks. At one point, he was the team's penalty killer when the Hawks were firing every shots at him. He has really been a life-saver. It is good to see him handle this in a positive manner when he was sharing his job to Backstorm. Instead of pouting, he did his job and he started to play much better. He has to keep playing like this for this team to be in the playoffs. As good as Backstorm is, the puck stops with Fernandez.
This team clearly have questions. Can Gabby be healthy? Who knows. There is no guarantee that he will be healthy considering that he has been on the injured list a lot in recent years. The Wild need to cross their fingers and hope that they can knock on wood with their prized player. Can Manny continue to be reliable? Will the team avoid the injury bug? This team definitely has the talent to go to the playoffs. They have proven that they can play together and win games. This team just need to avoid the injury bug.
Smart money says that the Wild will qualify in the playoffs as the sixth seed thanks to being injury-free.
