The rash of rash behavior in the NHL appears to be spreading more rampantly than ever before. And the list of players injured by other players seems to grow every day. And, yet, no one should be surprised that, with such apparently arbitrary decisions vis-a-vis supplementary discipline handed down by the league, the NHL is still struggling [...]
The Minnesota Wild retired the #1 before playing their inaugural home opener – a sellout – in honor of the fans. Then-principal owner Bob Naegele said then that no Wild player would wear the number 1 because the team wanted to remember that the fans were always #1 in their hearts and minds.
Sadly, it would appear we have indeed come a long way, baby.
When you’ve worn your new third jersey more often than you’ve worn your A-game, you know you’ve got problems.
All good things, they say, must come to an end. For the Wild, the end of their opening run of “success” that belied their actual overall talent level was signaled by Lemaire’s resignation at the end of last season.
The Minnesota Wild is not a good NHL team right now. But, it’s becoming evident that the players are, in fact, starting to assimilate to head coach Todd Richards’ new system.
The Wild looks like a team that will struggle this year. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
“Derek ‘The Boogeyman’ Boogaard had the 36th-most fighting majors in the NHL during the ‘08-09 regular season. While it would almost definitely benefit the team to divest itself of him, Wild fans should probably not expect that to happen until he becomes a UFA on 7/1/10.”
“The last thing most hockey fans remember about Petr Sykora was how he completely fell off the map last season with the Penguins.”
The only way the ‘09-10 Minnesota Wild could look more different from the inaugural ‘00-01 Minnesota Wild is if they started wearing purple uniforms.
The Minnesota Wild doesn’t score much. So you’ll excuse Wild fans if an offensive outburst like the one the team has produced this off-season has taken their breath away.
