OK, that’s been used a lot this past week in reference to the Minnesota Wild’s uncanny ability to back right in to the playoffs. Overused or not, it’s still true.
For the fourth year in a row, the Wild will play in the postseason. This has got to be the least excited/most frustrated I’ve been with the team as it heads into the playoffs. They clinched because Colorado sucked more, basically.
I guess their passion for the golf course runs deeper.
If there was a ever a textbook way to head into/make the playoffs, this is not it. Exact opposite.— Heather Rule (@hlrule) April 6, 2016
The Wild got themselves in a pretty good position with a six-game win streak recently. Then this team did what it does best: It promptly lost four games. Once again, they don’t just lose. They take it to a jump-off-a-bridge kind of level.
Tuesday was just another example. The lineup – on game No. 81 – was shaken up with scratches and Iowa call-ups. The urgency was nowhere to be found. The result was a 3-0 loss to the San Jose Sharks and a restless Xcel Energy Center crowd that booed the hometown boys off the ice. Then they clinched their old friend the No. 8 spot in the West, thanks to an Avs loss.
I hope the Wild players carved out some team bonding time yesterday so they could all write some thank-you notes to their rivals.
To add to the frustration of last night, there were the postgame comments from the locker room and Coach Torch. Let’s just say these guys are living in a dream world. It’s like they think they’re going to fly on a magic carpet to the playoffs and simply show up to the rink in order to get wins.
Let’s take a look at what they had to say, shall we?
“I’m kind of disappointed how everyone is saying we’re backing into the playoffs,” Torch said. “How do you back into the playoffs going [15-10-1]? You don’t do that. The guys have done a great job. I’m proud of them. They could have folded when I got here too, so I’m really proud of them.”
My word, that’s like something Tim “I’m proud of our guys” Brewster would say.
Devan Dubnyk: “These four games really don’t matter. We’re there now. We worked our way to get there with a great march.”
Mikko Koivu said they should be talking about the recent six-game winning streak rather than Tuesday’s game. He was all about the positivity.
“If we’re in the playoffs, that’s great news for the organization,” Koivu said.
At least Zach Parise had this to say: “We’ve got a lot of work that we need to do. There’s just some areas of our play that aren’t good. That’s inexcusable in game 81. You can’t play the last four games the way we have.”
That’s for sure.
Then again, Parise also started blaming the media for being too negative. And I think Koivu joined in, too. There are a lot of things wrong with that.
Ryan Suter thought they played well against San Jose. He also had this to say: “Your goal during the season is to get into the playoffs, and we’re in the playoffs. And now our goal is to win the Stanley Cup.”
All together now: Are. You. Kidding. Me?
Look, I get players not wanting to be overly negative and walk that positive-spin line. But come on. Who do these guys think they’re fooling?
This is exactly why I would have been fine if the Wild missed the playoffs this year. Because they manage to sneak in, and now the entire regular season is just an afterthought. Never mind that they essentially quit and got their coach fired. Never mind that January was an absolutely terrible month of hockey for them. Never mind that, once again, this is a lineup that we thought should be contenders for top seeds and home ice advantage rather than resting at the bottom of the playoff picture.
Remember that the Los Angeles Kings won the Stanley Cup in 2012 as the No. 8 seed. So because of that, there’s this mentality out there that seedings don’t matter because in the playoffs “anything can happen.” There’s some logic to that. After all, this is sports. You just can’t use that as the go-time all the time however, like the Wild are apparently trying to do.
Sure, anything can happen. Like getting swept in four games. The Wild hasn’t shown it can be a playoff-caliber team. So excuse the fanbase for collectively scratching heads when this issue comes up.
I’m not really sure what to expect from these guys in the playoffs. You think you have them figured out, then they completely turn the tables in the blink of an eye. I guess I’ll just go with what my expectations have been the past couple seasons as well: Win two playoff rounds, and really, win the Conference Finals, too.
That’s where this team should be right now, you’d think. There were a lot of negative vibes on Twitter Tuesday night about this team, for good reason.
The Wild have a chance to prove us all wrong.
This was originally posted at WildXtra.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment