Wild late additions make team better for playoffs
Playoff season is interesting in all pro sports, but in the National Hockey League, it takes on an entire identity of its own. If you ask any Canadian-bred player, coach, general manager, or, presumably, fan, the answer is unanimous – they would rather do well in playoffs and win the Stanley Cup than win or even dominate throughout the regular season.
In baseball, a team that contends for a divisional pennant, or loses in playoffs, is clearly successful. In pro football, the New England Patriots have done so well over the past two seasons that the entire nation considers them the standard of the NFL – even though they have lost the past two Super Bowls.
But in the NHL, a team that overwhelms its division during regular season play and goes through a round or two of playoffs, considers the season a failure if it doesn’t win the Stanley Cup. Likewise, a team that sputters in seeded 16th is convinced it can make up for a mediocre season by getting hot enough to stickhandle through the minefield of playoffs and take a run at winning the Stanley Cup.
Minnesota hockey fans may be more sophisticated, and more sympathetic, than the standard-issue Canadian NHL zealot, so they already consider this a highly successful season for their division-winning lads. But they also may have overlooked the fact that the Wild are better-suited to making a legitimate run at the Stanley Cup than at any other time in their brief history.
My pick is the Wild to beat the Avs, Peter Forsberg and all, and it will be a series of close, low-scoring games, even though the Wild could win in five.
Briefly, elsewhere around the playoffs, I like Detroit, the league’s top point producer, and a team with Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, and Niklas Lidstrom, and a goalie tandem of Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood, to make short work of Nashville in five. In two extremely difficult match-ups that I think may both go seven, Anaheim will beat Dallas, as wily Brian Burke found a way to keep Teemu Selanne and Scott Neidermayer fresh – give them the first half of the year off! Meanwhile, Chris Pronger proves that if Lidstrom is slowing down at all, he’s ready to assume the mantel of the NHL’s best defenesman. San Jose will beat Calgary, because an inspired and inspirational Joe Thornton will outplay 50-goal-scoring ace Jarome Iginla.
In the East, Montreal should handle Boston in five, and that’s giving the Bruins a chance to win a game, after being swept in all eight meetings this season. I like Ottawa to surprise Pittsburgh, but it will be a wild and goal-filled seven games. Consider the matchup in firepower: Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby (24 goals) Evgeni Malkin (47) and Marian Hossa (29) have all the press clippings, while Senators Jason Spezza (34 goals), Dany Heatley (41) and Daniel Alfredsson (40) give Ottawa that edge, 115-100. But Alfredsson must get healthy. Washington will beat Philadelphia, only because Alexander Ovechkin 65-47—112) is the best scorer in the NHL; and New Jersey will once again prove that grit, determination, and Minnesotans named Paul Martin, Zach Parise, and Jamie Langenbrunner will offer enough offense, while Martin Brodeur again proves that age is no requisite in choose the best goaltenders.
Meanwhile, back to the Minnesota Wild. The difference in their series might be late signees – with the Avalanche signing Peter Forsburg, and the Wild signing Chris Simon. If you’ve read anything about Simon, it hasn’t been good. But my suspicion is that better things are coming, from his play, and from the so-far negative media reports.
Through their formative years, the Minnesota Wild have not been realistic challengers for the Cup. The Wild have had good players, led by the electrifying Marian Gaborik, and constantly outstanding goaltending. When they advanced to the Cup semifinals a few years ago, they excited the whole State of Hockey, but they were trying to do it with more hope than substance. Last season, the Wild came close. They lost in the first round, but the series was tough, and the team they lost to was the Anaheim Ducks, which used the victory over the Wild as a springboard to go all the way and win the Stanley Cup. When the Ducks had won it all, Wild fans could go back and appreciate their team even more for the challenge they threw at Anaheim.
The Ducks stretched the parameters of newly restricted NHL rules, and also got by with it. Jean-Sebastien Giguere was great in goal, but the difference in the Ducks was general manager Burke, who once ranged off the wing for the Edina Hornets before a college career at Providence and then an NHL career that has since been eclipsed by his work in league and team administration.
If the Wild can get past a typically strong Colorado Avalanche outfit in the first round, anything can happen. Winning home ice by capturing the division also is an enormous edge, because of the “Team of 18,000†that the Wild boasts about. But the most intriguing thing about the Wild this spring is that their skill players, always impressive, are likely to play at a consistently higher level, home and road, because of a couple curious additions for this season – Sean Hill and Chris Simon.
Adding Hill, a Duluth native, wasn’t controversial, except for the fact that he had to sit out the first half of the season for failing the NHL’s play-enhancing substance test. Hill, who swears he never took such a thing, did have an NHL exclusion for treatment of a personal hormonal imbalance. It may not be that one caused an effect that led to the other, but Hill isn’t a fool, and he would have had to be one to take any illegal substances when he knew he would be under scrutiny for his approved medication. Hill came in as a free-agent from the New York Islanders, where he was among the league leaders in hits and shot-blocking, as well as having a cannon for a shot. Although he was a veteran, he played 23 minutes a game.
Simon’s addition was far more controversial. Never has a pro athlete been brought into the Twin Cities with more ridicule. Both Twin Cities newspapers, all the television sports anchors, and every talk-radio show within broadcasting distance blasted the Wild for taking a player whose reputation has been for going over the edge to assault opponents, leading to suspensions that have been as severe as they have been commonplace.
Everybody agreed the Wild needed to add a free agent star, not a thug. They could have added Peter Forsberg, or Sergei Federov – imagine that – but instead, they signed only Chris Simon, an NHL bad boy convicted long before he could spend a day in Minnesota’s sports-fan court. John Russo of the Minneapolis Star Tribune immediately set off columnists Pat Reusse, Jim Souhan – do these guys ever read each other’s columns before nearly duplicating them? — and, of course, Sid Hartman.
Russo made up a box with all the horrible things Simon had been suspended for, including being tossed for hammering Jarkko Ruutu. That was the one that stopped me, because only a few weeks earlier, Russo had written that Ruutu was “the most despised player in the NHL.Ââ€
Why? Because he blindsides foes, injures them with cheap hits, and generally escapes notice. That, incidentally, was the common thread running through the list of victims of Chris Simon. Yes, he’s tough. Yes, he seems mild-mannered and soft-spoken away from the game. Yes, he can play the game, and shoot the puck and score some heavy-traffic goals. And, yes, when someone does something particularly nasty and unnoticed to him or a teammate, Chris Simon can blow his cork and do a scary number on the perpetrator.
The Wild have Derek Boogaard, the heavyweight champ of the league, who stood out on the finesse-and-flash Wild team so much that every time he collided with an opponent he seems virtually assured of a ticket to the penalty box. If you go back to last season’s stretch drive, you’ll also recall that Brent Burns, who we’ve had the luxury of watching grow from a gangly teenager to a solid defenseman, added a new dimension by being attacked a couple of times and responding by punching out clearcut victories, which even surprised him. That added toughness has allowed Burns to blossom this year into a league standout.
The Wild bolstered Boogaard and Burns with the addition of Adam Voros, and Todd Fedoruk, two more willing combatants if things get too tough for the finesse guys to dangle. Hill gave the Wild another dimension by making it very uncomfortable to spend any time in front of Niklas Backstrom in the Wild goal. True, Hill didn’t play enough for quite a while, and a 30-something veteran needs to play to retain adequate quickness. When Kurtis Foster broke his leg, tragically, near season’s end, Hill got more ice time, and responded by playing better and better, getting sharper, and even scoring goals in two successive games. He gives the youthful Wild another veteran with playoff savvy, like Keith Carney, with the added edge of blowing people out from in front of the net.
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Then comes Simon. With Boogaard, Voros and Fedoruk, there was a nice balance of toughness to accompany the swift-striking capabilities of Gaborik, Pavel Demitra, Brian Rolston, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Mark Parrish, and other forwards, giving them room to make their flashy plays. Mikko Koivu is excluded from those needing help to get room, because he has become the prototype Jacques Lemaire forward – gifted offensively, but more important, flawless in his approach to offense, because he first pays dedicated attention to defensive responsibilities.
Now add Simon to the mix, and the Wild not only have a nice balance, they have more than a nasty balance when it comes to playoffs and opponents – such as the Anaheim Ducks – who might decide they can forcefully take a finesses team off its game and into its summer vacation. When I first read the ridicule, the insults, the outright displays of media righteousness against the Wild ever bringing such a thug to the Twin Cities, my first reaction was that with the arrival of Simon, every skater on the Wild team grew another couple inches in the freedom to perform.
The fans had no choice but to react with similar outrage to all the media outpouring, and call-ins and letters to the editor assailed the Wild for bringing in a criminal element to our clean-cut team. Overlooked by the quick-to-rip, the Wild has enough talent – sheer talent – to go all the way. But only if that talent performs to near capacity every night – not just at home, not just against non-physical foes.
We didn’t hear much criticism when a nasty fight broke out right at the end of the regular season, and there was Chris Simon, making short work of a nasty foe who appeared to be wishing he had been a bit less nasty. In fact, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, he of the amazing puck-handling skills, got into the first fight he’d ever been in, after being speared for all to see on videotape but unseen by any of the officials. I am not going to say that Bouchard wouldn’t have fought, had he been speared under other circumstances, but I will say with certainty that it was a lot easier for him to react in a manner that could gain more room – as well as confidence – for himself, because of the presence of a fellow like Simon. And I also enjoyed the reaction of the Team of 18,000, when they roared their approval that Chris Simon had been welcomed into the family.
The media guys who don’t cover/don’t understand hockey assume that talent always wins, so if you have 15 skilled guys, you should add a 16th. Fortunately, general manager Doug Risebrough knows how important it is for skilled players to be able to free-wheel with confidence, at home and on the road, and he landed Simon for bargain-basement help at the trading deadline. Lemaire loves dedicated workers who look at handling the responsible stuff first, and he also loves to have so many highly skilled players to engage and win if a goal-scoring rally is required. But Jacques knows, too, that skilled teams can disappear under physical attack – especially in a playoff series – and that 15 skilled guys can have far more hope for success if they have a few of those less-skilled guys who can cruise around out there like big, hungry sharks, without even having to state the obvious – “You do something nasty to one of my boys, and be prepared to deal with me.Ââ€
A year ago, Lemaire complained that Anaheim seemed to be going beyond the limits of physical play that other teams, including his, seemed to be governed by. The league did nothing, and whether it wanted to or not, the league handed the Cup over to the Ducks.
Lemaire and Risebrough have been crafty in their development of the Wild, but they both adhere to the philosophy that, while they prefer a skating game, if the league is going to allow a bit of extra roughness at playoff time, ’tis better to give than to receive. That’s different for the Stanley Cup, of course, where it’s better to receive. But the two are related, and while it’s still a long-shot, the Wild are built for a major run into springtime.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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