The Wild have won five straight dating back to their October 29 contest against Detroit and it’s time to get on board Minnesota!

They’ve beaten quality opponents: Detroit twice, Vancouver, St. Louis and Calgary (okay… not Calgary, but the rest of the teams are good).

They’ve also been scoring: they hung five on the Nucks and three on the Flames.

And yet, the Xcel Energy Center has open seats almost every night.

I know, I know, the team hasn’t done anything since winning the Division in 2007-08.

I know that they haven’t got past the first round since that miracle season in 2003 and I know that this team is still in a rebuilding phase.

They’ve indicated that they can do something this year, however, and it’s time that we support them.

Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi, the two San Jose imports, have found the scoreboard and Matt Cullen, a 35-year-old man, is leading the team in goals and looking like the player he was when he won a cup in Carolina.

Playmakers Mikko Koivu (eight assits) and Pierre-Marc Bouchard (seven) have thrived with the talent around them and Guillaume Latendresse looks like he’s the player he was two years ago when he was acquired from Montreal.

The youth are chipping in from the blue line: Jared Spurgeon and Marco Scandella, both 21, each have a goal apiece and Call Clutterbuck is still disrupting opposing teams with his brutal hits.

This team can win. And, dare I say, this team do it by scoring goals. Plenty of them (by Wild standards).

The Wild have started their road trip with a win (the 3-0 doozy in Calgary) and will face all three California teams and the lowly Blue Jackets (basically an expensive AHL team) before returning home.

Minnesota then plays their next six games in St. Paul. Please, please show up. Support this team.

They’ll play quality opponents:

Colorado (Nov. 17) got off to a fast start,

St. Louis has a new coach and are expected to make the playoffs (Nov. 19),

Edmonton has a lot of young talent and has got off to a great start (Nov. 25),

Calgary, well I’ve already bashed Calgary (Nov. 27),

And Tampa Bay was in the Eastern Conference Finals last year and the game is on national television (Nov. 28).

Let’s make the Xcel Energy Center the place to be again.

Tom Schreier covers the Wild for MinnesotaSNN.

Follow him on Twitter @tschreier3.

Email him at tschreier3@aol.com.

The post Wild Win Five Straight: It’s Time to Get On Board Minnesota appeared first on MinnesotaSNN.

If the Wild want sustained success, they need not look forward to the Nashville Predators as a franchise model to emulate.

Here’s what Nashville has done right:

Drafting and Development

Their leading scorer in 2009-10, Patric Hornqvist was the last pick in the 2005 draft.

Pekka Rinne, their current goaltender, was an eighth round pick in 2004 (there no longer is an eighth round).

Shea Weber, a defensemen who has scored 16 goals in the past two seasons and netted 23 in 2008-09, will become a prized free agent next season. He was drafted in the second round of the 2003 draft.

Consistency at the Coaching Position

The Preds have had only one coach in franchise history, Barry Trotz.

The Results

Hornqvist, the last pick in 2005, led the Predators in scoring in 2009-10.

Nashville has made the playoffs seven of the last eight seasons, despite playing in a division with three storied franchises—the Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues.

During that time they’ve lost their first round picks from 2000-02—Scottie Upshall, Scott Hartnell and Dan Hamhuis.

Last season they made the second round for the first time in franchise history. Nashville joined the league in 1998, two years before the Wild.

They have generated enough hockey interest in Nashville to avoid the sale of the team to Jim Balsille, who wanted to move the team to Hamilton, Ont.

They set attendance records last season and, as evidence of fan loyalty, the Nashville faithful cheered their team in Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals, a game they lost to the Vancouver Canucks. That’s recognition of long-term effort, not short-term results—a sign that the Preds are relevant in the Music City.

They believe their team can win.

Now, imagine the Predators in a hockey-mad market like Minnesota. They could increase payroll (Nashville is always at the cap floor) because of the big crowds at games and keep those first round picks, offer a big contract to Shea Weber and probably go out and get a much-needed scorer or two.

They’d be perennial contenders.

I understand, the Wild have two significant achievements that Nashville doesn’t: they’ve won their division (2007-08) and have been to the Western Conference Finals (2003).

However, the team has not made the playoffs since winning the Northwest Division in 2007-08.

The Wild won their division in 2007-08, but haven’t been back to the playoffs since.

They play against historically-significant teams in hockey markets, but Colorado won their Stanley Cups in 1996, when the Wild didn’t exist, and 2001, when the team was in it’s infancy.

Calgary’s roster has gotten old and the team hasn’t been good for a while.

Edmonton fell to the league cellar after losing in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2006.

Vancouver has been a strong team, but nothing like the Red Wings or even the Blackhawks.

The Wild have had some great homegrown players, but has relied on outside sources for most of their talent.

Mikko Koivu, Cal Clutterbuck, Nick Schultz and Pierre-Marc Bouchard all came from the farm system and the team developed a scorer in Marian Gaborik and a blue line threat in Brent Burns.

Gabby is in New York and Burns is in San Jose, however, and the team’s two stars from the 2007-08 season, Brian Rolston and Pavol Demitra, were imported and left as soon as the came.

Matt Cullen, Dany Heatley, Devin Setoguchi, Guillaume Latendresse and Marek Zidlicky will play a significant role on this year’s team. Every one of those players came from outside the Wild system.

Minnesota is working on building up the farm system, but I don’t see talents like Nashville has in Jonathon Blum or Colin Wilson.

Successful teams across the NHL use homegrown talent. San Jose and Detroit haven’t had the luxury of picking first like the upstart Kings, Blackhawks and Penguins have, but continue to win with homegrown teams. Buffalo looks like a contender and a majority of their roster came from the farm system.

A home grown player pilfered from the Islanders, Spurgeon could make an impact with the club this year.

The Wild, like every team in Minnesota, has to rely on drafting-and-development to build their team and trades to supplement their talent. Free agency is tough to rely on because the bright lights of New York, Boston, Chicago and now Los Angeles enamor 26-year-old superstars.

Since losing the North Stars in 1993, Minnesota cannot rely on historical significance (or, really, a history of success) to woo talent to the State of Hockey.

Finally, the team needs stability at the coaching position in the post-Lemaire era. They’ve got to put their faith in Mike Yeo and give him a team to work around.

In order to succeed in the in the post-Gaborik, post-Lemaire era, the Wild must use the Predators as a franchise model.

If they do, the Wild will be the class of the NHL for years to come.

Tom Schreier covers the Wild for MinnesotaSNN.

Follow him on Twitter @tschreier3.

Email him at tschreier3@aol.com.

The post Wild Must Use Nashville Predators Model in Order to Succeed appeared first on MinnesotaSNN.

Facing the beat up Pittsburgh Penguins at home on NBC, the Wild were handed an opportunity to curtail the pain of their putrid start by defeating a perennial contender on national television.

But they flopped, losing the game 4-2.

The Penguins played the game without cornerstone players Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Tyler Kennedy, Kris Letang and Brooks Orpik and still the Wild gave up four goals while only mustering two of their own.

Losing to the Pens without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin is like losing to Tampa without Steven Stamkos and Martin St. Louis or the Capitals without Alex Ovechkin and Mike Green.

Crosby and Malkin became staples in the Pittsburgh lineup after the lockout.

And still, the Wild left the rink without a point in the standings.

Newcomers Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi, who were supposed to provide offense to the anemic Wild, have not clicked with set-up man Mikko Koivu. The three have combined for three goals and broken up during the contest.

Setoguchi joined Matt Cullen and Guillaume Latendresse on the second line midway through the game. Cullen, 34, is aging, but has spent his career supplementing talents like Teemu Selanne in Anaheim and Eric Staal in Carolina. Latendresse was projected to be an elite scorer when he was drafted by Montreal in 2005.

It shouldn’t be far-fetched that Setoguchi, a first-round pick who had a 30-goal season with San Jose in 2008-09, and Latendresse, who had 25 goals in 55 games after arriving from Montreal two years ago, should shed the underachiever tag placed on them while skating alongside a veteran playmaker.

That hasn’t happened either. Combined, both players have produced three goals in six games this season.

The Wild need to show their fans and the hockey community that they are serious about competing in the playoffs for the first time since winning the Northwest Division in 2007-08.

This is a team that plays in a new arena full of fans every night. A start like this is unacceptable.

Certainly, on the coasts teams like the Sharks and Lightning are shaking their heads at their starts and the Stars and Avalanche probably will not lead their divisions throughout the year, but the Wild are missing a big opportunity if they miss the playoffs again this year.

Sports fans in Minnesota need a panacea.

The Twins lost 99 games. The Vikings are going to miss the playoffs two years after reaching the NFC Championship.

People will eventually notice that the Wolves aren’t playing.

The Wild have the talent to compete in the West.

Koivu is an elite playmaker. Setoguchi has shown flashes of brilliance in San Jose and his production should rise with more ice time in Minnesota. If Latendresse can score 25 goals in 55 games, he should be able to reach 40 in a complete season.

Latendresse scored against the Penguins. He is capable of scoring 40 goals this season.

Heatley has had two 50-goal seasons in his career.

Winning would make them the talk of the town. The Excel Energy Center would be packed with standing room only fans, reminding the city of the excitement surrounding the team when they joined the league in 2000.

The team could set the tone by competing with the up-and-coming Blues or the established Blackhawks and Red Wings—teams that may become division rivals next season when the NHL re-aligns.

The Wild do not appear to be ready to take the next step, however.

Tom Schreier covers the Minnesota Wild for Minnesota Sports News Nightly.

Follow him on Twitter @tschreier3.

Contact him at tschreier3@aol.com.

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Dany Heatley Returns to Ottawa as a member of the Minnesota Wild.

I go to school near San Jose, California and got to cover the Sharks when Dany Heatley returned to Ottawa for the first time as an opposing player.

I remember the hype around the game. Although it landed on the same day that LeBron returned to Cleveland (which, obviously, was a bigger event that day), both players and fans in San Jose were anticipating Heater’s return to Canada’s capital.

It was a disappointing night for the former Senator. His team won handily, 4-0, but Heatley recorded only an assist.

His return with Minnesota felt less significant.

Although he had the same impact in the game, he recorded an assist (and still was booed every time he touched the puck), his team lost 4-3 in a shootout.

The fact that the Wild lost, however, had little impact on the significance of the event.

Heatley just wasn’t the biggest part of the Minnesota-San Jose trades this year.

When he asked out of Ottawa, an upstart team that he had joined following an incident where he crashed his car and killed Atlanta Thrasher teammate Dany Snyder, he was not far removed from a President’s Trophy season with the Sens and was breaking up the CASH (Captain Alfredsson, Spezza, Heatley) line that was among the NHL’s most productive forward trios.

Dany Heatley had his most productive years in Ottawa.

He was seen as the missing piece in San Jose.

However, since then he’s floundered.

Last season, the two-time 50-goal scorer only found the twine 26 times in 80 games with the offensive-minded Sharks and disappeared in the playoffs.

Certainly a 50-goal scorer is welcome in Minnesota, but I don’t think that’s what management expects of him when he was traded for.

It just appeared to be a logical move for the Wild. Martin Havlat wasn’t who he was supposed to be (a short-term replacement for Marian Gaborik) and both 30-year-old forwards were looking for a change in scenery before they passed their prime years.

The most important element of the Minnesota-San Jose trades this year was the younger players that were swapped.

James Sheppard, on paper, looks like he should be a superstar. However, the 9^th overall pick in 2006 never panned out in Minnesota and, like Heatley and Havlat, needed a clean slate.

The Wild, in essence, swapped 23-year-old Sheppard for 18-year-old Zach Phillips who’s well trained (he is a member powerhouse St. John Sea Dogs in the Q) and will fill a relatively bare cabinet in the team’s minor league system.

Then, wanting to get some value for 26-year-old Brent Burns, who will be an unrestricted free agent next year (something they didn’t do with Gaborik), they swapped him for Devin Setoguchi, 24, a former first round pick that frequently shoots the puck—something the rest of the roster is reluctant to do.

Teammate Devin Setoguchi may be a bigger part of the Minnesota-San Jose offseason trades.

It seems like at the end of the negotiations Minnesota GM Chuck Fletcher told San Jose GM Doug Wilson, ‘Hey Havlat’s been a disappointment. I’ll give you him for your disappointment, Heatley,’ and Wilson was like, ‘Sure, why the hell not?’

The Wild are going to contend if their players under 25—namely Guillaume Latendresse and Setoguchi—become major scoring threats.

By that time Dany Heatley may be playing for another franchise.

Tom Schreier covers the Wild for MinnesotaSNN.

Follow him on Twitter @tschreier3.

Email him at tschreier3@aol.com.

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