It was an entertaining game on Saturday evening as the Wild hosted the Leafs. That was the words echoed after the game by several personalities, describing the Wild's third straight loss.
It was almost like they were saying that the Wild played well enough to win, and if they continue to do so, they will win a whole lot of games.
That is absolutely ridiculous. The Wild seemed to be chasing that game from the outset and never appeared to be in position to step up and take it. Ultimately they came out on the short end on the scoreboard, where everything matters.
Once again the Wild have asserted themselves as a good team that can play with any team in the league, but the top teams will beat the Wild in the end.
Good team, not a great team...The Minnesota Wild, period end of story.
Saturday summed that up in one game.
Ironically, former Wild GM, Chuck Fletcher, is back in the NHL as a General Manager, with Philadelphia. Fletcher was notorious for making moves to better his club. His replacement, Paul Fenton still has roughly the same roster in place today that got Fletcher fired last Spring.
Now I am not saying Fenton should have made sweeping changes by now but, the better than expected start the Wild experienced through the first six weeks, should not have clouded his judgement either.
The fear is that the longer this drags on, the harder it will be for Fenton to make the kind of moves he wants to make.