Philly, Sheppard, Captaincy, Etc.

The Wild beat Philly tonight 5-4 in a shootout. Fortunately, I was able to watch it on the Flyers' website. Since it was the first time the "A" squad was together, I will look at the win as a positive. There were many things they did well, but, as expected, there were a few times that the Wild looked like they had no clue what they were doing.

To start, I like the forechecking. The forecheck caused some problems for the Philly defense and allowed the Wild to get a few scoring chances. I also thought some of the transitioning through the neutral zone was great--something I have not seen from the Wild since they started in 2000. Clutterbuck, Butch and Mittens have some great chemistry. The powerplay moved the puck surprisingly well, but there is no way Nick Schultz can be on the second powerplay unit. I also thought that all of the forwards did a great job of backchecking.

The defense was outright brutal in my opinion. They made stupid passes right to the Flyers, were beat outside too many times and just seemed confused. Every one of the defensemen made a bad pass that led to a odd-man rush. I guess that is and will continue to be a part of adapting to a new system. I do like Burns/Zidlicky/Johnsson jumping into the play...hopefully Schultz isn't as aggressive in the regular season because he simply doesn't have the offensive touch.

Overall, I think tonight just solidified the fact that the Wild will be much more entertaining to watch. But, us Wild fans will have to be extremely patient because it is going to take a few months for the Wild to be conditioned to react to situations within Richards' system rather than Lemaire's.





Sheppard: It seems that he has been really working on faceoffs with Nolan in practice. He has been much better the last 3 games, not only in the faceoff circle, but being involved offensively.



Captaincy: There is no way Richards cannot give the "C" to Koivu. Brunette won't be here in two years; Nolan might not be here at the end of this year. Koivu is the future and there is no reason to delay the inevitable when Koivu is clearly ready to lead this team. I acknowledge that we need to give time to Richards to implement his new system...but, if he doesn't name Koivu the captain, that will make a bad first impression on his judgment.