Second-Half Notes

The 'second' half starts tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs and the big question for Wild fans is whether or not the team can score enough goals to propel itself into the post-season. And so far this season, scoring goals seems to be the only thing that is holding this team back. The Wild, to this point in the season, have their defensive system working as usual, allowing a league second best 106 total goals against for a 2.30 GAA. Of course, this is exactly what fans have come to expect from a Lemaire led team. The scoring on the other hand, is not exactly up to par, even for our Coach's standards. The team is still entrenched near the bottom of the league, finding the back of the net only 114 times, good for a 2.48 goal/game.

So the question is, as I see it, can the Wild get back into the playoffs with this type of team defense and scoring? After all, the team that put up these stats is exactly the team that will play down the stretch, unless Risebrough parts from his past history and actually makes a meaningful move before the trade deadline.

Missing or making the playoffs will undoubtedly go down to the last couple of games, if not the last game of the regular season. As it sits now, the team is one point out, tied for ninth in the conference with Columbus of all team. I'm going out on a tangent here but I have always taken satisfaction knowing that, so far in the Wild's history, they have always had the upper-hand on their expansion partner in Columbus. The reason I like to pump-up our team over the B-Jackets is simply because I'm one of those 'this is a hockey market and yours is not'. Call me short-sided, but there are certain areas of the country that the NHL will work and areas that it won't, even I can see that. No, I do not lump Columbus into the side that won't work, but it's still not a 'hockey traditional' market. Anyway, if anything else, the team needs to finish ahead of Columbus.

Back to the Wild...I really don't have a feel for whether the team has what it takes to get into the post-season. Backstrom has held them into too many games and I am afraid that eventually he will break. He has been as solid as you can get and hopefully he can continue, but the team cannot rely on him alone. The defense in front of Backstrom has also been solid and it's 'team defense' that wins championships (or so our coach used to say). However, at this level, you need some scoring. So if our teams Jekyll & Hyde offense can somehow get consistent and contribute regularly, they may make a surprising push. There have been streaks recently of 6, 5, and 4 goal games recently that go along with 0 and 2 scored so it is hard to put a handle on the teams goal scoring. I cannot see or figure the difference, other than some games they can score and some they can't. Down the stretch though, if they can't find the back of the net, they may be outside looking in.