What Went Wrong: From Wild to Mild

It's hard to believe that 20 years have passed since the Minnesota Wild had their only legit playoff run. It was their first time in the playoffs, and it was their third season of play. They won back-to-back seven-game thrillers over the Colorado Avalanche (in what would be Patrick Roy's final playoff series) and the Vancouver Canucks, but their trip to the Western Conference Final saw them run into the Great Wall of Giguere. Even so, it seemed like we would see more of this from the Wild as the years went by.

Boy, we were off.

The Wild would suffer disappointment after disappointment, and it continued even after the team drafted their current hockey wunderkind in Kirill Kaprizov. I had been fooled before; I thought for a good bit that the Wild were deep, but last year's playoffs showed me that they weren't. Kaprizov is, as Emmitt Smith put it, "a diamond surrounded by garbage." He carried that entire load, and all it got the team was a first round exit. A funny thing happened during the tail end of this season, though. Kaprizov was sidelined for a bit, and the Wild suddenly found themselves leading the Central Division. Yet in the final moments leading to Kirill the Thrill's return, they fell off and were surpassed by Colorado and Dallas.

Even so, the Wild had their superstar back for the playoffs. So all was well, right? Wrong!

Last year, Kaprizov scored seven of Minnesota's 16 goals in the playoffs, truly carrying the team on his back. How did Kaprizov fare this year? Only one goal, and that was his only point in six games. Granted, Dallas has Jake Oettinger in net, so that could have been a factor. Or it could be the pressure of carrying a team on his own. Or it was just a typical downfall. In any event, this was not a good postseason for Kaprizov. But at least Kaprizov found the net. The same could not be said for the immensely overrated Matt Boldy--all three of his points were assists.

Five points led the team; Mats Zuccarello, Ryan Hartman, and Gustav Nyquist had that total. Zuccarello and Hartman had two goals each, and one of Hartman's goals was the double overtime winner in Game One. All five of Nyquist's points were assists, and as for goals, the team leader was Frederick Gaudreau with three, which were all of the points he had.

Is this the end for Marc-Andre Fleury? It's been shown that Filip Gustavsson has been the better goaltender for the team, but there is still some insistence to start Fleury. After all, he has the experience. Three Stanley Cups. Reached the Final four times. However, he's had some problems in net over his career, and they still exist. After Gustavsson won Game One, Fleury took the net in Game Two. Boy, was that a disaster. The Stars lit him up--seven goals, all on Fleury. That gave the Stars momentum, and they took over the series, going on to eliminate the Wild in six games.

The Wild will have quite the interesting offseason. They need to get some help for Kaprizov, and maybe, just maybe, they need to move on from Fleury. The Central Division will continue to be very tough to deal with, and the Wild know this. They need to stack up, because if they don't, they'll continue to look up at the Avalanche and Stars every year, and the first round exits will never end.

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