This "Rivalry" Ends Here

There have been 72 regular season and 7 playoff meetings all time between the Minnesota Wild, and the Vancouver Canucks. And tonight, on the 73rd regular season installment of this so called "rivalry", the two meet for the final time as division rivals.

Back in the Wild's early years, the two teams fit the description of a rivalry. They hated us, and we hated them. Then it was at its most intensified state, when they met in the 2003 Western Conference Semifinals, which the Wild won in 7 games.

But since that epic playoff series, the rivalry has become, really, a non rivalry anymore. For the last 5 years, Vancouver has dominated the Wild, including an impressive 12 game home winning streak dating back to March 3, 2009 (The last Wild win in Rogers Center was January 31, 2009 on a Marc-Andre Bergeron GW OT goal).

The domination by the Canucks in recent years, has allowed them to even up the all time series record with the Wild at 29-29-14. So the winner of tonight's game, can say they were the better team when they were division rivals. (Insert sarcastic celebration here)

For something that has been considered a rivalry for this long, there sure have been a lack of great moments in these contests. Only two distinct moments come to mind when you think about this matchup:

There was that time the late Rick Rypien tried to fight a Wild fan.

And then the other was the Wild's comeback from a 3-1 series deficit in the 03 semis.

All because of Jacques Lemaire and his "lucky socks"

But after that, all you can think of is guys like Matt Johnson and Derek Boogaard getting into the occasional fight with the Canucks goon at the time, or the Sedin twins lighting up the Wild defense on a Wild power play, or Roberto Luongo's utter dominance of the Wild at Rogers Arena, and his utter awfulness against the Wild at Xcel Energy Center, or Todd Bertuzzi playing that awful Vancouver style of hockey (AKA Dive City)

There has not been a rivalry between the two teams in 10 years. And tonight, this "rivalry" will finally come to an end. Minnesota can move on and make rivalries with new divisional opponents next year, such as, Chicago, Winnipeg, and St. Louis.

And when those rivalries actually take off and become rivalries, the Canucks-Wild rivalry will just become an after-thought.


Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

NHL 2013 Preview: Northwest Division

5. Calgary Flames-One would think that with the fifth highest payroll in the league, Calgary would be destined to finish high up in this division, right? Wrong. The reason Calgary has such a high payroll, is they have brought in overrated players and massively overpaid them (Cammalleri-$6M, Bouwmeester-$6.68M, Wideman-$5.25M, Giordano-$4.02M), to prevent fans from thinking they are rebuilding. The fact is, Calgary should be rebuilding. They have a stale offense, overhyped defense, and a goaltender (Kiprusoff) who will eventually run out of gas from starting so many games a season. With all the other teams in this division getting better, Calgary has nowhere to go but last.

4. Colorado Avalanche-Colorado was probably the hardest team in this division to pick. They have some blossoming young stars (Landeskog, Duchene), but still have some question marks on the squad (Defense, goaltending). The Avs top defensive unit consists of Erik Johnson and Jan Hejda (Yikes!), and their #1 goaltender heading into the season is Semyon Varlamov. All these players have shown signs of brilliance, but they also have shown horrible stretches of play. Colorado doesnt get off to the best start in 2013, but they have a strong finish. But it only gets them a fourth place finish.

3. Edmonton Oilers-At long last, Edmonton gets out of the Northwest's basement. They had 11 players playing during the 119 day lockout, including their top line of Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Jordan Eberle (They played on the same line for Oklahoma City, too). Since they have had the #1 pick in the draft for the past decade (Slight exaggeration), Edmonton now has the best crop of young forwards, and now has the best defenseman prospect in all of hockey, when they signed Justin Schultz this summer. The Oilers however, still have a lack of depth at defenseman, and have a big question mark in net, handing over the reigns to Devan Dubnyk while letting Nikolai Khabibulin sit on the bench. Edmonton gets off to a fast start in 2013, but the leaders of the division will catch up and pass them eventually. But the question remains, can Edmonton hold on for a playoff spot?


2. Minnesota Wild-As we saw yesterday, Minnesota made a flurry of moves this offseason, capped off by the July 4th signing of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Even with Suter, the Wild will need increased production from D-Men Jared Spurgeon and Marco Scandella (When he recovers from injury), to stand a chance in this division. Minnesota has tremendous depth in the entire organization, so should someone go down with an injury, they have boatloads of talent to replace them. The Wild may not get off to a fast start, but they recover quickly and take second place in this division, and sneak their way into a playoff spot for the first time since 2008.

1. Vancouver Canucks-Despite injuries to Ryan Kesler and David Booth, this is still the team to beat in the Northwest. Perhaps the greatest strength for Vancouver this year, will be that they will have Corey Schneider and Roberto Luongo sharing time between the pipes (Unless Luongo finally gets moved). Both are #1 goalies, and Vancouver will most definitely use this to their advantage. The Canucks went out and bolstered their blue line, by signing Jason Garrison away from Florida. Garrison gives the Defense a little more offensive punch. Up front Vancouver is still led by the Sedin twins, and they still are the best tandem in the league. Vancouver has to a work a bit more to earn it, but they still take the division.


Check back tomorrow for playoff predictions.




Follow Giles on Twitter @gilesferrell

Wild Moving To Central Conference

Today, Craig Leipold, his staff, and the entire State of Hockey can feel good when going to bed tonight. Starting next year, the Minnesota Wild will take part in the NHL realignment which will see the league go to a 4 conference set up (2 conferences of 8 teams, 2 conferences of 7 teams). Ever since taking over as princpal owner of the Wild, Leipold has lobbied for the Wild to get moved into a division with these teams, and he finally got his wish. Leipold will watch his team play in the more centralized conference with Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Nashville, St Louis and Winnipeg. Also, any team not in your division you play a home and home series with them that year. The rest of your games come within your own division.

This is terrific news for the State of Hockey. They no longer have the long Canadian road trips from playing in the Northwest division, more road games will be starting at friendlier times for Wild fans (6, 630, or 7 pm), and they can rekindle the old North Stars rivalries with Chicago and St. Louis (These games are pretty intense already). The only main rival the Wild have currently are the Vancouver Canucks, and lately this rivalry has been boring and lopsided (In favor of Vancouver). So this is a perfect time for the team to relocate.

But perhaps the best news of all, is the fact this will be the weaker division in the foreseeable future. So this will give the Wild a better opportunity to win and make the postseason (Something the Wild have yet to achieve with Leipold running the show). The front runner here will obviously be Chicago and they will have sustained success with core players (Kane, Toews, Hossa) locked up for years to come. St. Louis is a team on the rise and will pose a big threat Detroit is a sinking ship due to largely the fact that their star players are getting older and past their prime. Dallas and Nashville will be wild cards for now as they have had recent success, but do not have any marquee names power the team past the next few years. And then you will have the bottom feeders Columbus and Winnipeg who will not be successful in the near future, but a top draft pick could easily change that.

So clearly, with the talent the Wild have and the talent they have coming up, they have the potential to be successful in this division for many years to come. And their record against the Central teams so far this year (7-0-1 against CHI, CBJ, DET, NSH, STL) is a huge positive for them moving forward.

The Wild and their fans are a big winner in this realignment. Now all they have to do is build a solid hockey team that contends for years to come. And they can get far closer to achieving that in this new division...

Here's the other conferences and their teams:

Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose and Vancouver

Boston, Buffalo, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay and Toronto

Carolina, New Jersey, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington

NHL 2011 Preview-Northwest Division

5. Edmonton Oilers-The best crop of young prospects can be found in Edmonton. Problem is, that’s all they have going for them at the moment. Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Magnus Paajarvi, and #1 overall pick (2011 Draft) Ryan Nugent-Hopkins lead the young prospects of Edmonton as they try and pry their way out of the NHL’s basement. But, they will not do so this year. The young guys will be major contributors to the team this year, but, their inexperience will be their undoing. Also, the Oilers defense and goaltending will once again be one of the league’s worse. Look for Edmonton to be in the hunt for the worst record in the NHL once again this year.

4. Colorado Avalanche-Coming in a close second to the Oilers in the NHL’s basement, was the Colorado Avalanche. The team has some nice young offensive forwards (Matt Duchene, Paul Stastny, and the #2 overall pick in the 2011 draft Gabriel Landeskog), and should put up some good offensive numbers. But why the Avs failed last year, was the fact they had poor defense and goaltending. The Avs traded for Washington G Semyon Varlamov (Giving up a #1 and #2 pick for him), to help fix that problem. The thing is, Varlamov has never played a full season yet. So giving up that much for him is a big time gamble, in my opinion. As for the Avs going into this season, they will do better than last year, but not well enough to contend for a playoff spot.

3. Minnesota Wild-Full team breakdown will be in tomorrow's post.

2. Calgary Flames-Last December, the Flames were playing like one of the worst teams in the NHL. But then, their GM Darryl Sutter was fired, and the team suddenly took off. They finished the season on a 27-11-9 tear, and finished just 2 points out of a playoff spot. This team is solid offensively (led by RW Jarome Iginla), and have a very solid presence in goal with Mikka Kiprusoff. However, their defense is average at best. They will need top blue liners Matt Giordano and Jay Bouwmeester to step up and now lead the defense, after Robyn Regehr was dealt to Buffalo this summer. I really can't explain why I believe in Calgary to finish second. It's really just a gut feeling. They somehow always find a way to get it done. And as long as they have Iginla, they should be good.

1. Vancouver Canucks-It’s hard to believe that the Canucks did not win the Cup last year. They simply were the complete package. They had the #1 ranked offense, #1 ranked defense, and arguably the #1 goalie in the NHL. But they were just simply outplayed in Game 7 against Boston. Not many changes for Vancouver heading in to this season. The only notable losses for the Canucks this summer were D Christian Erhoff and LW Raffi Torres. So essentially, they are bringing back the same team for 2011-12. And they should be just fine. This is still one of, if not the best team in the league. Look for Vancouver to compete for the West’s and NHL’s best record this season and make another deep run in the playoffs.