Braving the Wild: Minnesota's Quest for Lord Stanley

[mnwildgophers]

Braving the Wild: Minnesota's Quest for Lord Stanley

Being a kid from Minnesota my whole life, I was ecstatic as the next person when I found out that we were getting a hockey team back. I was too young to remember much about the North Stars, but getting hockey back in Minnesota was the biggest thing I can remember. When they were selecting the name of the new Minnesota hockey team the finalists were Blue Ox, Freeze, Northern Lights, Voyageurs, White Bears, and Wild. I remember wanting the Northern Lights so bad, but ultimately, the Wild was selected. The name has grown on me, so I like it a lot now. As for the Wild's history, there really isn't much, but they did have one improbable run in 2002-2003 when they upset the Avalanche in 7 games after being down 3-1 in the series and coming back from another 3-1 series deficit against the Vancouver Canucks. Their run would end against the red-hot Ducks and J-S Giguere who would ultimately lose to the Devils that year. The Wild have made the playoffs 3 years and were one and done the other two years that they ended up making it. They own 1 Northwest Divisional title and that came in the year 2007-2008, but were bounced by Northwest divisional foe Colorado Avalanche in 6 games. Jacques Lemaire and Doug Risebrough brought a team that wasn't very good to pretty good with Risebrough bringing in the correct players for Lemaire's system and Lemaire using his defensive prowess to "coach up" players to a more successful season, but the Achilles' heel that is coming back to haunt the Wild now is the ineffective drafting that Dough Risebrough has done. Since 2004, most of the 1st round picks by the Wild have been atrocious, with a few glances of hope from some players such as Cal Clutterbuck who was drafted in the 3rd round and has come into his own not only as a grinder, but a guy who could pop in 20 goals a year. Let's look at the continual failures by Risebrough in the first round:

2004: AJ Thelen - complete bust, playing ECHL
2005: Benoit Pouliot - traded for Guillaume Latendresse, new GM Chuck Fletcher was able to make something out of nothing here
2006: James Sheppard - rushed to the NHL, maybe if he was brought along slowly, he would have been better
2007: Colton Gillies, trading a 2nd round pick to move up one spot to take a guy who had not much offensive flair was a big mistake. Who was taken with that 2nd round pick? Eric Tangradi
2008: Tyler Cuma, who has been injured too much to know how he will be, but it remains to be seen on this one, GM Chuck Fletcher seems intent on letting Cuma develop in Houston for a while, but the real gem out of this year's draft was Marco Scandella who has looked great for the Wild.

After the 2008-2009 season, Jacques Lemaire stepped down and Owner Craig Leipold fired Doug Risebrough and brought in new GM Chuck Fletcher who brought in the most logical head coaching candidate in Todd Richards. Fletcher's first draft as GM was an okay one, but the later picks are where he shined. He got Nick Leddy in the 1st round, but traded him away for Cam Barker. In the 3rd round, he obtained Matt Hackett who is being groomed for a starting role at some point. 4th round was Kris Foucault who seems to have a 2nd/3rd line potential in the NHL. He has scored some "clutch" goals for the Calgary Hitmen. He took Alexander Fallstrom in the 4th round also, but he was traded to the Boston Bruins in the Chuck Kobasew trade. 6th round came Darcy Kuemper who has looked nice in Red Deer and will also be groomed for a future role or maybe a trade chip. He took Jere Sallinen who is playing with the Blues of SM-Liiga. He seems like a long shot to make the NHL. Last pick by Fletcher in the 2009 draft was Erik Haula who has been outstanding in the USHL and looked great for the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Since this game doesn't have NCAA schools in it, I created him and put him on the Calgary Hitmen (who own his rights in the CHL). This draft looks to be an okay one, but I'm much more optimistic for his 2010 draft in which he took Mikael Granlund, Brett Bulmer, Johan Larsson, and Jason Zucker. We will see how they progress in the coming years.

In this BEAGM mode, I'll be controlling the Wild and it's affiliates. I will be using OBG's newest sliders since he always makes good ones, but I may tweak depending on how the games go. I plan on doing monthly updates. I have some modified rosters, but I have all of the updated moves in the NHL as of now, and I've created some prospects. I might do a full recap for the bigger games like rivalry and stuff like that.

[mnwildgophers]

MINNESOTA WILD SEASONAL RECORDS

2000-2001: 25-39-13-5, 68 Pts, Did not qualify for playoffs
2001-2002: 26-35-12-9, 73 Pts, Did not qualify for playoffs
2002-2003: 42-29-10-1, 95 Pts, Lost in WCF to Ducks 4-0
2003-2004: 30-29-20-3, 83 Pts, Did not qualify for playoffs
2005-2006: 38-36-8, 84 Pts, Did not qualify for playoffs
2006-2007: 48-26-8, 104 Pts, Lost in 1st round to Ducks 4-1
2007-2008: 44-28-10, 98 Pts, Lost in 1st round to Avalanche 4-2
2008-2009: 40-33-9, 89 Pts, Did not qualify for playoffs
2009-2010: 38-36-8, 84 Pts, Did not qualify for playoffs

• Most goals in a season: 42 Marian Gaborik, (2007–08)
• Most assists in a season: 50 Pierre-Marc Bouchard, (2007–08*)
• Most points in a season: 83 Marian Gaborik, (2007–08)
• Most penalty minutes in a season: 201 Matt Johnson, (2002–03)
• Most points in a season, defenseman: 43 Brent Burns, (2007–08*)
• Most points in a season, rookie: 36 Marian Gaborik, (2000–01)
• Most goals in a game: 5 Marian Gaborik (Dec. 20, 2007 vs. New York Rangers)
• Most wins: 119 Niklas Backstrom (as of end of 2009–10 season)
• Most wins in a season: 37 Niklas Backstrom; (2008–09)
• Most shutouts in a season: 8 Niklas Backstrom, (2008–09)
• Best +/- in a season: +22 Keith Carney, (2006–07)

[mnwildgophers]

Wild Ready to Start Fresh, Have A Decent Preseason

The Wild went 1-2-1 in the preseason getting ready for the year.

The preseason went as follows:

@ Oilers 0-1 L
@ Flames 2-4 L
vs. Avalanche 1-2 W
vs. Canucks 4-3 OTL

While not a great preseason, it doesn't really matter though. Head Coach Todd Richards has his lines set and is ready to announce them:

Pierre-Marc Bouchard - Mikko Koivu (C) - Martin Havlat
Andrew Brunette - Matt Cullen - Guillaume Latendresse
Chuck Kobasew - John Madden - Cal Clutterbuck
Eric Nystrom - Kyle Brodziak - Antti Miettinen

Nick Schultz - Brent Burns
Marek Zidlicky - Cam Barker
Clayton Stoner - Greg Zanon

Niklas Backstrom
Jose Theodore

The Wild open up in Finland against Carolina and hope to play well against them.

A look around the league shows a couple of injuries sustained in the preseason:
Atlanta - D Tobias Enstrom will be injured for the next 9-10 weeks with a broken wrist
Washington - LW Alexander Semin will be injured for about a week with a wrist sprain

[mnwildgophers]

Carolina Hurricanes vs Minnesota Wild
Oct 7, 2010 1 2 3 F CAR (1-0-0) 1 2 0 3 MIN (0-1-0) 0 0 0 0 Three Stars Cam Ward 27 Saves, SO Zach Boychuk 1G Sergei Samsonov 1G	Team Stats Comparison CAR MIN Shots on Goal 23 27 Hits 12 22 Faceoffs Won-Lost 14 12 Penalty Minutes 6 12 Power Plays Converted 2 0 Power Play Opportunities 3 2 Time on Attack 6:22 7:49
Scoring Summary FIRST PERIOD CAR Zach Boychuk (1) from Jussi Jokinen (1) SECOND PERIOD CAR Eric Staal (1) from Joni Pitkanen (1), Erik Cole (1) CAR Sergei Samsonov (1) from Ian White (1)
Carolina Hurricanes - Goalies GOALIES SHOTS SAVES SV % GAA Cam Ward 27 27 100% 0.00
Minnesota Wild - Goalies GOALIES SHOTS SAVES SV % GAA Niklas Backstrom 23 20 87% 3.01

[mnwildgophers]

Minnesota Wild vs Carolina Hurricanes
Oct 8, 2010 1 2 3 F MIN (0-2-0) 1 0 1 2 CAR (2-0-0) 0 3 1 4 Three Stars Eric Staal 1 Goal, 1 Assist Jussi Jokinen 1 Goal, 1 Assist Cam Ward 26/28 Saves	Team Stats Comparison MIN CAR Shots on Goal 28 26 Hits 10 14 Faceoffs Won-Lost 22 17 Penalty Minutes 2 4 Power Plays Converted 2 1 Power Play Opportunities 2 1 Time on Attack 9:19 4:14
Scoring Summary FIRST PERIOD MIN Marek Zidlicky (1) from Brent Burns (1), Mikko Koivu (1) SECOND PERIOD CAR Tuomo Ruutu (1) from Joni Pitkanen (2), Eric Staal (1) CAR Jussi Jokinen (1) CAR Eric Staal (2) from Jussi Jokinen (2), Tim Gleason (1) THIRD PERIOD CAR Chad Larose (1) from Jeff Skinner (1), Jay Harrison (1) MIN Cam Barker (1) from Pierre-Marc Bouchard (1), Matt Cullen (1)
Minnesota Wild - Goalies GOALIES SHOTS SAVES SV % GAA Niklas Backstrom 26 22 85% 3.56
Carolina Hurricanes - Goalies GOALIES SHOTS SAVES SV % GAA Cam Ward 28 26 93% 1.01

[mnwildgophers]

Edmonton Oilers vs Minnesota Wild
Oct 14, 2010 1 2 3 F EDM (2-1-0) 1 0 2 3 MIN (0-3-0) 1 0 0 1 Three Stars Nikolai Khabibulin 25/26 Saves Shawn Horcoff 1 Goal, 1 Assist Colin Fraser 1 Goal	Team Stats Comparison EDM MIN Shots on Goal 20 26 Hits 22 13 Faceoffs Won-Lost 20 11 Penalty Minutes 12 6 Power Plays Converted 0 0 Power Play Opportunities 2 5 Time on Attack 4:47 7:47
Scoring Summary FIRST PERIOD MIN Guillaume Latendresse (1) EDM Shawn Horcoff (1) from Dustin Penner (2) THIRD PERIOD EDM Colin Fraser (1) from Ryan Whitney (2), Alexandre Giroux (2) EDM Gilbert Brule (1) from Shawn Horcoff (3), Sheldon Souray (2)
Edmonton Oilers - Goalies GOALIES SHOTS SAVES SV % GAA Nikolai Khabibulin 26 25 96% 1.67
Minnesota Wild - Goalies GOALIES SHOTS SAVES SV % GAA Niklas Backstrom 19 17 89% 3.05

After another horrible start to the season, Head Coach Todd Richards is going to Theodore for a couple of games to see if he can turn it around. He's also putting Kobasew with the 2nd line and dropping Brunette to the 3rd line. Something has to give as the Wild are outplaying opponents, but one rush from the other team results in a goal. It's been a very frustrating start for the Wild. Also, Mikko Koivu is hurt for about 1-2 weeks so C James Sheppard has been called up. There isn't much help down in Houston to replace Koivu, so it could be an even bigger tough stretch against Columbus.

[sensfan1996]

I'll be following this, good job! maybe lower the cpu difficulty by 1?

[mnwildgophers]

Quote: Originally Posted by sensfan1996

I'll be following this, good job! maybe lower the cpu difficulty by 1?

I usually dominate the CPU, but I'm outplaying them, just can't put one past the goalie. It feels like the real Wild though because we do have a major problem scoring goals.

I'll give it about 10 games before I start messing with sliders. I think I just have to stop giving up so many prime scoring chances too.

Edit: Just a correction, I'm calling up Colton Gillies, not James Sheppard. I don't want to have to pass Sheppard back through waivers. I'm going to keep him in Houston for the year.