How Can The Wild Maintain Their Record Pace?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It was on this day, one year ago, that the Minnesota Wild fired coach Mike Yeo.
A year later, they are the toast of the Western Conference.
Now 55 games in, the season is at the two-thirds mark. And the Wild already have 80 points, still with 27 games to go.
You always want to be optimistic, but could coach Bruce Boudreau have envisioned things going this well, when he took the job?
"Yeah," Boudreau said matter-of-factly. "When you go into the season if you look at it like geez, man, I hope to make the playoffs, then I think you're defeated before you start. I think you shoot for the moon and you think of the best things that are going to happen and you try to achieve those goals. There's no sense in putting goals in front of you that are easy to achieve."
Just how good have the Wild been? They're currently on pace to finish with 119 points. For some perspective, that has been done only three times in the last 20 years. One of those teams -- the 2009-10 Washington Capitols -- were coached by none other than Boudreau.
"We're in the driver's seat right now," forward Charlie Coyle said. "We have control. And if we want to stay where we are and keep climbing it's up to us."
Of course, here in Minnesota, we're conditioned to brace ourselves for the eventual let-down. So when things are going so well, how do the Wild avoid getting lulled into complacency?
"Bruce has done a great job all year of staying on us," goalie Devan Dubnyk said. "Regardless of win or loss, it's about what we're doing and how we're playing, and that's been a huge part of why we've had success."
"He's just been there before," Coyle said. "It seems like he's seen every situation, pretty much. So he's able to address it before it becomes a problem, and I think that's what he's good at."
In other words, the answer is once again: Bruce Boudreau.
