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| Photo: Dave Reginek/Getty Images |
You see that, Wild fans? Take a good look. What do you see on that page?
No, its not the Oilers are going to have heavy odds in the draft lottery again this year. This is what you should be noticing:
Your Minnesota Wild are in the top Western Conference wild card spot, with Phoenix six points behind them (with one game in hand). Dallas (eight points behind, two games in hand) and Vancouver (nine points behind, Wild have one game in hand on them) are closely behind the Coyotes.
This past weekend, the Wild split a home and home series with the Detroit Red Wings. Detroit won the first game 3-2 in St. Paul and Minnesota won the second game 4-3 in overtime.
In between those two games, idiocy was at its finest. Here was the general consensus from the State of
- Mike Yeo should be fired. He is on pace to have the team finish with the second most points in franchise history. Clearly, that is worthy of termination.
- The name Peter Laviolette was tossed around to replace Yeo. Good lord people. Just no. Use .0001% of your brain here.
- Mikko Koivu is done because he can't score like he used to. The guy can still score, he is just defensively responsible. Do you want him to have an Ovechkin like plus/minus rating?
- Charlie Coyle is overrated, Nino Niederreiter is under-used. Ha! Both get the right amount of playing time. If you hate Coyle that much, why not draw up a trade where he gets moved for a backup goalie (oh wait...).
- Kyle Brodziak and Dany Heatley got their usual treatment. You guys hate them very much.
The season was (and in some cases, still is) basically a wash to some people.
Again, lets take a quick meander at the image above. The Wild are still leading the Wild Card. They still control their own destiny. Yet, people seem to think that the Wild are going to submerge below the playoff line and slip out of the postseason.
For the love of all things people, have some bloody faith.
Have some faith that the Wild can buck this god awful schedule to end their season, and get in the postseason for the second consecutive year. Have faith in the head coach, who been around winning teams in his entire coaching career and who has the utmost respect from his players (something that is not overly common in the NHL these days). Have faith that simply, something good can happen. Don't just toss in the towel because the Wild are 3-3-4 in their past 10 games.
No, this is simply not just "blind faith". There are some things that could be fixed (like general penalty killing, switching up the power play lines, etc), but suggesting that major changes like firing the head coach is just not what you should believe in at this point. Its just a "quick fix" football mentality. Firing Yeo will do this team no favors. Period. End of discussion.
Its nature for Minnesotans to think negatively. Look at what we have been through in the past decade (the Timberwolves futility, the Vikings up and down nature, and the Twins going from a yearly playoff team to a bottom feeder). But for just one bloody month, can we think positively? Is that too much to ask?
The Wild have 10 games left. I choose to believe good things can happen.
Have a nice day.
Follow Giles on Twitter for more positivity @gilesferrell
