Minnesota Hockey Journal

March 2017

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M I N N E S OTA H O C K E YJ O U R N A L . CO M // MARCH.2017 28 RUSSO'S RANTS PRESENTED BY They score so much because of relentlessness and tenaciousness, which makes for fast, exciting hockey. "These guys we have can all just skate and they get in everybody's way, and they're like little gnats," Boudreau said. "But they're very, very effective gnats." 5. Hiring of Scott Stevens: Other than Boudreau and Staal, the Wild's next great pickup was Stevens, named in January as of one of the NHL's greatest 100 players in history. The Hall of Fame defenseman, who captained the New Jersey Devils to three Stanley Cup championships and four Finals in a nine-year span, played 22 years for the Capitals, St. Louis Blues and Devils. A Norris Trophy finalist multiple times, Stevens was the 2000 Conn Smythe Trophy winner as playoff MVP and played in 13 All-Star Games. He was one of the heaviest hitters of his era and his knowledge of defense is unsurpassed. He immediately commanded respect in the Wild locker room and has done wonders for defensemen like Brodin and the Wild's penalty kill. He absolutely adores a Wild blue line led by Suter and Jared Spurgeon. "I don't think there's an awful lot of egos on our team," Boudreau said. "It's pretty hard to have an ego when you've got a Hall of Fame defenseman with no ego behind the bench working just as hard as any of the players." 5 Keys to the Cup 1. Health: This is paramount. No matter how good the Wild has been this year, injuries can derail everything. Because of the compressed schedule this season due to the World Cup of Hockey before the season and the implementation of "bye weeks," the Wild play 20 games in the season's final 35 says. That's a nutty schedule that can cause injuries and fatigue going into the postseason. The Wild must avoid that. Just look at how Parise and Thomas Vanek missing last season's playoff round against Dallas altered things. Ryan Suter leads a deep, talented defensive core for the Wild. Can Dubnyk continue his stellar play into the postseason? 2. Dubnyk: As good as Dubnyk has been this regular season, teams cannot travel four play- off rounds without exceptional goaltending. Playing with a broken finger, Dubnyk wasn't great against the Stars last season and he gave up some tough goals the year before that in the second round to Chicago. The Wild will need stingy goaltending. 3. Balanced scoring: What has made the Wild so tough to play against this season is the Wild can get scoring from any player and any line. At the All-Star break, the Wild led the league with eight double- digit goal scorers and seven 30-point scorers. That must continue in the postseason. 4. Getting over the Game 7 hump: If the Wild gets to a Game 7 in any round, Boudreau and the team will have to ignore all the Game 7 talk that will follow Boudreau around until one of his teams gets over the hump. His undoing in Washington and Anaheim was Game 7s. He has lost seven in his career, including four straight with the Ducks. The good news? The Wild has never lost a Game 7 in franchise his- tory, several Wild players were part of the Wild's Game 7 win in 2014 in Colorado, Staal's biggest win in history was in Game 7 of the 2006 Stanley Cup Final and Stevens has been part of several. 5. Overcome the Chicago demons: From 2013-15, the Wild was eliminated by the Blackhawks in the playoffs. The Wild is 0-7 in Chicago in the postseason. Its best players seem to have a mental block going up against Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa and Duncan Keith. If the Wild wants to get to where it wants to get to this season, it almost surely will have to face the Blackhawks at some point. That's when we'll know if there's really something special going on with this exciting team. Michael Russo covers the Wild and National Hockey League for the Star Tribune. He co-hosts a podcast on mnspn.com and can be heard weekly on KFAN (100.3-FM) and seen throughout the hockey season on Fox Sports North. Follow him on Twitter at @russostrib.

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