Watching the present standings , one couldn't help but notice the placing of the Minnesota Wild in their conference and wonder why the team seems to be struggling so much. In one way I guess you could think that the reasons are as simple as the team is just not capable with the current roster of being much of an improvement over last year. Tony Amonte the newest of pick ups for Minnesota during the offseason has certainly done all that has been asked of him and realistically running down the numbers on the team so has Yanic Perrault also an offseason acquisition.
But so many oters on here are underachieving at this point. Can the blame be laid to rest on coach Lemaire and his defensive style of coaching? This could be a major factor in it for sure. Our record presently shows us after 10 games as being in quite the funk but realistically we are one bounce away from being damn perfect. In the first ten games our record is 2-5-3 with one OT loss. Not particularily good, but considering we have lost all 4 of 5 games by only one goal and only Long Island has beaten us by two., not to mention the 3 ties.
A few breaks our way could result in a much different record. There is no doubt the players have bought into Jacques defensive scheme as I am sure we are not an easy kill for anyone on any night. So the problem must lie elsewhere. Scoring is an obvious answer. We need someone to break out and have a decent season offensively to have any chance. I believe the problem actually starts with our defense believe it or not. The lack of an offensive defenseman in the league not just on my team is very noticible and hampers any chance of converting more often. This is where the major blame lies. A few more Orrs and Coffeys would sure be nice to select from. In the mean time we will struggle along and hope for a more offensive side toan already defensive club.
Games so far
Minnesota 3 Carolina 3
Ottawa 2 Minnesota 1
Minnesota 3 Buffalo 3
Rangers 0 Minnesota 2
Minnesota 3 Chicago 4
Long Island 4 Minnesota 2
Minnesota 1 Colorado 1
Philadelphia 3 Minnesota 2
Minnesota 4 Columbus 2
Phoenix 2 Minnesota 1