2009-10 Game Twelve: Wild 3, Predators 4

This Minnesota Wild team will get better. They will play hard for 60 minutes, and apply a strong offense. They will have a forecheck to be reckoned with, and the goaltending will be stellar. The defense will help out, and the stars on the team will be allowed to shine.

But right now, and until that happens, watching the games could be difficult for more fair-weather fans. Part of what the previous regime did to the Wild through consistent competitiveness is to strip the cupboard bare, and the Wild aren't keeping pace with other teams when it comes to young talent. Add to that an extremely road-heavy schedule to start the season, and it isn't much of a shock that the Wild had barely any fire, even after a goal-scoring flurry in the second period. The team needs a win badly, and they need some confidence, but they're skating on tired legs after having lived on a plane for the first month of the season. The tide will turn, but how long will Wild fans give the team before the sell-out streak ends?

Game pluses:
- Owen Nolan. The oldest member of the team is still showing that he wants to get the Wild going in the right direction, and his skate-to-stick play leading to his goal was an example of what kind of puck handling skills he can possess.
- John Scott. The big defenseman almost put the puck in the net, most notably during a scrum in front. The fact that Scott was heading to the goal mouth is a great sign. Hopefully, the rest of the Wild pay attention to this.
- Opening of the second period. For three minutes, the Wild showed just what kind of team they can be. However, after firing off three quick shots, getting three goals, and chasing the Nashville netminder, the Wild sat back on their heels, waiting to give the lead back.

Game minuses:
- Niklas Backstrom. Plenty of times this young season, Backstrom has kept the Wild in games. Against Nashville, he was one of the big reasons that they were out of it, giving up three relatively soft goals, which is something he doesn't do often.
- James Sheppard. While the officials certainly didn't help, Sheppard once again showed a lack of awareness of his surroundings, or what he was doing with his stick.
- Possession. The Wild couldn't keep the puck on their sticks. One of the more glaring times came when Marek Zidlicky got his pocket picked on the way to Nashville's game-winning shorthanded goal, but none of the Wild seemed to have a good handle on the puck.

Next up: The Wild have their work cut out for them, but they get to stay home through Friday, when they take on the New York Rangers. Former Wild star Marian Gaborik is currently sitting with an injury, so he may be out of the line-up, which would be a bit of a blessing for the Wild, given that Gaborik is leading the Rangers in scoring thus far.

Zherdev goes home

As soon as free agency started, it was clear what the Minnesota Wild were looking for. They needed to pick up some defensemen to help cover the holes left by free agency departures, and that was largely taken care of with the acquisitions of Greg Zanon and Shane Hnidy. They need another elite center, as was proven with their (ultimately fruitless) chase of Saku Koivu. They also need to add some more scoring on the wing, not only to replace Marian Gaborik's offensive upside, but to simply add goals to a team that struggled to put the puck in the net last year. Grabbing Martin Havlat helped take care of the first piece of the wing puzzle, but the second piece has been left unanswered.

Enter the New York Rangers and Nikolai Zherdev. The Rangers and Zherdev went to arbitration, and a value of $3.9M was set down. New York decided to walk away from the table, allowing Zherdev to become an unrestricted free agent. Rumors started swirling about where the talented young skater would end up, with some fans in Minnesota thinking that he might solve their offensive woes.

Today, the Wild faithful should be glad that GM Chuck Fletcher didn't take a chance on Zherdev. Fletcher had to have looked at the $3.9M dictated by the arbitration hearing, and wonder if the value for Zherdev was truly that high, especially with where Minnesota sits in regards to the salary cap. True, Zherdev can be an electrifying player, and can provide an offensive spark, but was he really worth almost $4M per season? The numbers from the second half of last season seem to point to a definitive "No". After a quick start, Zherdev flagged at the end, and didn't tally a single point in the playoffs. Not really a guaranteed offensive answer, especially with other prospects potentially being made available in a month or so. As for the other reason why Fletcher may have backed off? Zherdev was seen as a player with a risk to flee the NHL and play in the Russian hockey league, the KHL. According to reports, that's exactly what happened.

Ultimately, if the Wild had taken the risk on Zherdev, they might be left in the same boat they were at the beginning of the summer with Marian Gaborik. They would have the knowledge that they might have a game-breaking player on their roster, but they'd also know that they face a high likelihood of losing that player for absolutely nothing in return.