Wild 2013-14: They Made The Playoffs. Now What?

Minnesota Wild (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Another up-and-down season for the Minnesota Wild was redeemed by its most extensive playoff run since 2003.  They defeated the Colorado Avalanche in seven games in the first round, only to fall to the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks in the next round in six games.

The Wild finished the regular NHL season with 96 points, which is good enough for fourth place in the Central Division and a wild card playoff spot.  Once again, they have done just enough to get by.

They did all this despite the lack of scoring, a constant carousel of goaltenders, and the inability to win on the road.

• The efforts of Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise, Ryan Suter and others notwithstanding, the Wild scored 207 goals during the regular season, which is par for the course unless you were expecting more.  Still, there were too many nights where one-goal games were the norm, and almost all of them ended in overtime and/or a shootout.
• There were at least four players who tended goal at various times this season:  Niklas Backstrom, Darcy Kuemper, Josh Harding and Ilya Bryzgalov.  (Did we leave anyone out?)  Because of injuries and illness to Backstrom and Harding, the stretch run and the playoffs fell to a young minor leaguer (Kuemper) and an NHL journeyman (Bryzgalov) who performed very well under the circumstances.  This can't happen again.
• You'll notice that the Wild won only once on the road during the playoffs, and that was Game 7 at Colorado.  That reflects what happened away from the confines of the Xcel Energy Center this past season.

Thanks to the playoff run, coach Mike Yeo will likely get a contract extension.  Should that happen, he'll be under more pressure to produce a winner.  Wild owner Craig Leipold will be more than happy to open up his vault and sign whatever free agent he can get his hands on.  The priorities, of course, are for more scoring and stable goaltending.  But having Thomas Vanek, currently enjoying playoff success with the Montreal Canadiens after having suffered in Buffalo and Long Island, might be too good to pass up for Leipold.

We can't say whether the Minnesota Wild will be a Stanley Cup contender in the near future.  It's more likely that they'll be the Midwestern version of the San Jose Sharks--a perennial playoff team that for some reason never quite got over the hump.  But the self-proclaimed State of Hockey won't mind, just so long as the Wild keep playing deep into the spring every year.