Thank you Coach Jacques Lemaire

It's going to be hard to see another coach behind the Minnesota Wild bench next season. Coach Jacques Lemaire has held that position for eight seasons, being the only head coach that this franchise has ever known, and will be sorely missed. Love or hate his coaching style, you cannot argue with his resume, as you cannot win 11 Stanley Cups without picking up some tips along the way. His list of accomplishments is a long and distinguished one but in the end, I get the impression that he knew and felt that he has done all that he could do with this team and that the time was right to move on. And that is unfortunate for this the Wild and the fans because this is a coach who worked magic with the tools that he was given. From the very first time the puck dropped for this organization, it was Lemaire and his coaching that gave the Wild a legitimate chance of winning each and every night. I beg you to look back, year by year, and check the teams rosters if you think anything different. This team remained significant and a factor in the league even though it was employing a collection of ho-hum players. And with the exception of last seasons team, this Minnesota bunch has been competitive when they should not have been. The Wild 'hung around' games that they had no business being in. The reason I believe this to be true is because of Coach Lemaire.

So thank you Coach Lemaire, for giving our Wild a chance...

Lemaire's Wild regular season record

year	g	w	l	ot	pts
2000-01	82	25	39	18	68
2001-02	82	26	35	21	73
2002-03	82	42	29	11	95
2003-04	82	30	29	23	83
2005-06	82	38	36	8	84
2006-07	82	48	26	8	104
2007-08	82	44	28	10	98
2008-09	82	40	33	9	89

Lemaire's Wild playoff record

year	g	w	l
2002-03	18	8	10
2006-07	5	1	4
2007-08	6	2	4