Wild Living on the Playoff Precipice, As Usual

The season was 2003 and spring fever has been in the atmosphere. The Minnesota Wild, in only their third season, had not just escalated the Western Conference playoffs, but Jacques Lemaire has guided his team of largely has-beens and thank-their-lucky-stars-for-expansion players past the favorite Colorado Avalanche and Vancouver Canucks and again in the Western Conference Final.

Head Coach Jacques Lemaire and Assistant Coach Mario Tremblay, Minnesota Wild, May 14, 2003 (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images/NHLI)

Wild fans, who’d sold from the Xcel Energy Center to a nightly basis after seven years with no NHL hockey, were being rewarded for their patronage whilst being reminded of just much better spring is if it also involves hockey.

Year 3 had been great to the Wild. They started 8-1-2 out of those gates October, and never return. They made the playoffs for the first time ever with a listing of 49-29-10-1, which landed them in third place in the Northwest Division.

Bringing Down an Avalanche

The Wild’s reward for overachieving has been a first-round matchup from the favored Avalanche. After the Wild dropped behind they rallied to win in Game 7 when Andrew Brunette defeat Patrick Roy in overtime to get rid of the Avalanche.

DENVER – APRIL 22: Andrew Brunette #15 of this Minnesota Wild pushes the puck past goalie Patrick Roy #33 of this Colorado Avalanche to get a purpose in the second period during game seven of their initial round of the Stanley Cup playoffs April 22, 2003 in the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. The match is tied. (Photo by Brian Bahr/Getty Images/NHLI)

The second circular followed a familiar script. This time around the Wild seen the Vancouver Canucks a 3-1 series edge that was similar before putting up to win Games 5 and 6, sending the string to a seventh and deciding match in Vancouver.

In Game 7, the Wild dropped behind the Canucks 2-0 before rattling off four unanswered goals to become the first NHL team to ever rally from 3-1 deficits twice in the same postseason.

Running On Empty

It was this point that Wild fans became convinced this motley crew had been transformed into a team of destiny. The one thing standing between the Wild and the State of Hockey’s trip back to the Stanley Cup Final since 1991 was another team hoping to write their own Cinderella story.

Marian Gaborik (THW Archives)

The then-Anaheim Mighty Ducks has entered the Western Conference playoffs seeded seventh among eight groups, 1 place lower than the Wild. It was at this stage that the cost of playing with series caught up together with all the Wild in a major way.

JSG Plays Big

Anaheim goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who was explained by one Minnesota sportswriter as “essentially sporting a picnic table to get equipment,” shut out the unexpectedly punchless Wild in not just one, not two, but three successive games and surrendered only 1 goal within an eventual Anaheim four-game sweep. (from ‘Giguere’s Pads Are at Issue Again,’ LA Times, 11/24/2003)

Jean-Sébastien Giguère. (mark6mauno/licensed below CC BY 2.0)

However, Wild fans were optimistic. With a celebrity in Marian Gaborik, they guessed the team was not able to make the playoffs an annual rite of spring. They were incorrect.

Living On The Edge

Considering that the Wild’s most improbable rush to the Conference Final in Year 3 the team has never managed to venture this way. Since that run, the Wild have just managed to create the playoffs 8 times in 15 seasons, plus theyrsquo;t only been able to get past the first round losing in the Conference Semifinals in both 2013-14 and 2014-15.

Minnesota Wild forward Eric Staal celebrates his goal with defenseman Ryan Suter (Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports)

What has come to be a convention for the Wild, whatever the head coach or general manager, is the habit of loitering near the bottom of the playoff contenders before handling to slide at the last moment, just to slide right back out until the ice is off the roads.

Same Old Story

The Wild had made the playoffs in six of their last seven seasons. The exception was 2019 when they were removed from contention on April 2, with two games.

Minnesota Wild Zach Parise and goalie Alex Stalock celebrate (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)

Even though Wild fans might not be knowledgeable about postseason success, theyrsquo;t had more than the this franchise toying with their feelings each March. From Chuck Fletcher to Paul Fenton and Bill Guerin, from Lemaire to Mike Yeo to Bruce Boudreau and to Dean Evason, the roster varies but the song remains the same. Come March you will locate the Wild, flirting the seventh or eighth playoff spot in the west, with a couple of matches to proceed.

Playoff Worthy?

This season is no different. In an effort to salvage this time, first-year general director Billy Guerin sacked head coach Bruce Boudreau on Feb. 14, and ever since that time, interim head coach Dean Evason has published an 8-4 record while the Wild have played better hockey at both ends of the ice.

Minnesota Wild defenseman Matt Dumba and St. Louis Blues center Jaden Schwartz (Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports)

Ice homes have been removed from Minnesota’s inland seas, and those on northern waters must go by March 16. You know exactly what this signifies, playoff time is coming, and once again Wild fans are starting to get excited.

Really? Haven’t we learned our lesson ? While I’m equally excited as anyone about Kevin Fiala, this current Wild staff is idiot ’s golden, destined to break your soul. Again.

However, gosh Irsquo;d really want to be wrong for the following.

The article Wild Living to the Playoff Precipice, As Usual appeared on The Hockey Writers.

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