If I was a Wild fan I honestly wouldn't be too worried.
Sometimes seasons suffer natural disasters but the foundation is still solid on that team.
Run through the list and pretty much everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.
Injuries to key players early in the season (just bad luck really but get off on the wrong foot in today's NHL and it's just very difficult to get back into the mix)
Terrible goaltending (theoretically this can be fixed relatively easily in the off-season)
Personal issues to key leaders on the team (both of their captains dealing with deaths in the family Suter and Parise)
Failure for new acquisitions to gel (Vanek obviously here, but he's a great talent, perhaps a whole season to gel is what's needed)
And then collapsing moral under high expectations creating a viscious circle
Were I managing that team I'd just wait it out collect the high draft pick in a deep draft and then reboot next year with key young guys (Brodin, Granlund) a year older and better and the rest of the foundation in shape. Friedman said that this is similar to what happened to the Islanders last year. The knee jerk reaction would have been to fire teh coach after the failure last year, but it's a rocky road sometimes and your season can get blasted but factors very much out of your control - best to see through the bad times).
|