.. but I don’t think I’d give the on-ice product an F, and I wouldn’t give the front office folks an A.

Some of the games this year were genuinely fun to attend – the come from behind home opener against Anaheim for starters. We had no business winning that game – we were lost positionally on the ice for 50 minutes until Scott dropped the gloves and the team adopted a “This is our barn!” attitude to close out the game. The wins over Vancouver, the Kobasew hat trick in the game vs the Avs, the Chicago 6-5 shootout comeback.. damn, they were fun. This team won a lot of games at home – which was good for the folks paying to fill the seats. For the true fans of the team, however, the dismal road record sucks and we deserved better than games like the 11 SOG apathy party vs the Panthers. I give the on ice product a solid C-. We’re not the Leafs, we’re not the Oilers, we ranked 22nd in the league — but we had injuries and our damn equipment truck caught fire!

As for the front office — I’m sorry, but I can’t give them an A. Havlat for Gabby was a bust. I’m not denying that Havlat is a player with skills, but the Wild without a true top 6 forward like Gaborik is a bit like the Blue Jackets without Rick Nash. Very little glimmer of hope. It’s also starting to become clear that Leddy was probably not our best option in the 1st round of the draft. I know Fletcher had to play the hand he was dealt from the existing scouting staff, but if people can throw the team under the bus for the early 0-9 road record then this move by Chuck is fair game.

I’m not a fan of Richards covering for his players — at least that’s my read on the situation. He went along with the “new coach jitters” excuse the reporters were giving him as an out way too long. Come on — he had head coaching experience in the AHL. There are times where it is admirable to play human shield, but after a while it just started to look like Richards himself lacked confidence. I’m longing for a press conference where Richards really gets snarky with the reporters. Even though it will never happen, I’d really like to hear him tell Bruce Brothers that kids don’t attend the press conferences and he can go ahead and ask grown-up questions.

I wanted more confidence out of the bench all year. I wanted Richards pressers to sound the way Barry Trotz looks. I wanted Koivu to adopt a “this is my fucking team!” captaincy with a take no prisoners attitude. I wanted Shepard to have more quality time in the press box with Russo.

I also want ice girls.. but that’s a whole other topic.

I’ll never say this enough, but you’re a damn fine writer and it’s always fun to read your stuff. It’s pretty cool that you got this Q&A with RLD! We’ve got to spread the news: The Wild are on their way…

A lot of people are pissed that we lost Fallstrom for Kobasew, but let’s not forget that we also got rid of Weller in that trade, which to me makes it a winner… We never know if Fallstrom’s going to become that good, same with Leddy. Right now, I think we should build for the present and get to the playoffs, while also building through the draft. We need to make the playoffs next season or else things might get ugly. Besides, with our brand new personnel, I don’t think we could draft much worse than we have the past 9 years…So here’s what I think. I think we’ve got some great prospects on D, we got some new college FAs, and we got more draft picks this year than we may ever have had in any other year, so can probably grab some good rookies at the draft and we ABSOLUTELY need some top line talent. If we need to trade our Pre-Fletch ’’prospects’’ like Gillies, Sheppard, Kalus, etc. to do so, then so be it.

so we can trade Shepp for Ryan straight up?

I would give the on-ice product and F as well.
We looked horrible defensively all season, giving up a 4 on 1! Seriously, how does a team give up a 4 on 1?! You actually have to try to suck to do that.
  
Our penalty kill was mediocre at best, which makes little sense considering that the previous years the PK was amazing with essentially the same roster. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I honestly though that Koviu should have coached the PK the same way Jacques did. At least we would have led the league in something positive.

And speaking of leading the league, how in the world did we give up so many short-handed goals? I know it’s only one year, but there were a LOT of flaws in the Richard’s system. I’m not a fan at this point, and he better have a much more disciplined team next year or I’ll be calling for his head.

As for Fletch and the front office, I give them a D at best. I understand that everyone loves Fletch for the Lats-Benoit trade, but that was really it.

I really don’t like the extension for Zidlicky considering he’s a -24 in two seasons, and a -16 last season. Only Marty was worse last year for us. I’m sorry, but that is beyond awful. A D-man should really not be that far in the hole in order to be successful.

Second, what about the trades that did nothing for us? Barker looked slow and lost on the ice at times, and doesn’t play on the top powerplay (which was the same problem in Chicago). I don’t like the idea of losing Leddy for a guy that gave us nothing. I understand the argument that Lucia sucks at developing players (I agree) but I think we should have at least kept him beyond his freshman year in college. Chicago was on to something if they dealt away Barker, who was supposed to add instant impact. I actually missed Kimmy J towards the end of the season and the minutes he ate up for us.

Kobasew had a whopping 14 points in 42 games, which averages out to a mind blowing 28 points. I know we didn’t give up a whole lot for him, but I didn’t see a massive return. Plus, he scored 3 of 9 total goals in one game. So that’s 6 goals in 41 games. Sorry, but I’m not buying his talent.

We signed Petr Sykora, and that did nothing, so I’ll move on…

Andrew Ebbett was pretty worthless through 49 games, posting an amazing 14 points. He’s been cut by the Ducks and the Blackhawks. I don’t understand how Fletch missed massive warning signs.

I think what hurt the most was hanging on to Owen Nolan. I still don’t get that move. He should have been gone to a true contender for a pick of some sort. Now we just watch another asset walk away FOR NOTHING!!!!

I guess I’ll have to wait and see what happens through the rest of the offseason, but I think the new regime is actually worse than the old. Consider this for a moment…

Doug and Jacques had us one win away from the postseason in the 2008-2009 season. We finished 11 points back this year.
We scored the same amount of goals last year in an “offensive” system as we did 2 years ago in a trap system.
We traded away our first-round draft pick.
We traded for a lot of players that had no impact on the team. I get the Lats deal, but that’s a lot of luck. Doug did bring in Brian Rolston and won us a Conference Championship, but we all roast him for the rest of his deals. Where’s the same standard for Fletch?

Next year better be a lot better product on the ice, or I’m going to have to switch back to Chicago. (I did cheer for the Blackhawks when we lost the North Stars)