Wild has a special memory within its grasp

The Wild stands on the brink of history. Not the most impressive history, but it's the only kind this franchise has.

If the Wild wins Sunday, Yeo's Bros. will have produced the second-most impressive postseason in the brief history of jerseys that look like Christmas trees and mascots of undistinguishable lineage.

Everyone has to start somewhere. The Montreal Canadiens had to win their first title before they could win a 24th, and who cares if it was over the Portland Rosebuds in 1916.

In 2003, the most memorable aspect of the Wild franchise might have been Jacques Lemaire's accent and malapropisms. Somehow, current Wild coaches Andrew Brunette and Darby Hendrickson and a baby-faced Marian Gaborik won two playoff series before being stopped by the Gumby-like gymnastics of Jean-Sebastien Giguere in the Western Conference finals. Forensic anthropologists still are trying to figure out how the Wild made it that far.

Other than during that run, the Wild hadn't won another postseason series until last year, when Nino Niederreiter's laser in overtime beat the Colorado Avalanche in Game 7.

If the Wild beats St. Louis Sunday, it will advance to the second round of the playoffs for the third time in franchise history. For the first time, it would advance in consecutive years. And this series victory would trump last year's.

Last year, the Wild faced a Colorado team featuring a tremendous young goal-scorer in Nathan MacKinnon and a hot goalie in Semyon Varlamov. Otherwise, we now know that the Avalanche was a fatally flawed team. It's surprising, knowing what we know now, that the Wild didn't beat the Avalanche more easily.

Colorado plays a flawed defensive style, is highly dependent on its first line, and faltered this season, finishing last in the Central Division.

Patrick Roy looked like a promising coach last year, but this season, with largely the same group, Colorado couldn't even make the playoffs. The Wild's tight series with Colorado last year was largely due to the Wild's goalie problems and inexperience.

Switching between Ilya Bryzgalov and Darcy Kuemper was not anyone's idea of a plan.

This year's team is facing a sterner challenge in the first round. The St. Blues feature a future Hall of Fame coach, a deep roster, and a bruising style that should match up well with the Wild's undersized players.

The Blues feature the most talented player on the ice, in Vladimir Tarasenko. They have dominated for long stretches of the series, including from the first moment of Game 4 until midway through Game 5.

If you were playing pickup hockey, Tarasenko, David Backes, Alexander Steen, Kevin Shattenkirk, Paul Stastny, T.J. Oshie and Alex Pietrangelo might have the talent to be chosen in the top 10 skaters. Ryan Reaves would be the top enforcer. And if you chose a coach based on depth of résumé, Ken Hitchcock would trump Mike Yeo.

The Wild's series with Colorado was close because the Wild was in the process of figuring out how to win. The Wild's series with St. Louis is close because the Wild's excellent play often has been matched, and sometimes surpassed, by the Blues' talent.

Beating the Blues in six games would rank as the Wild's foremost achievement since Brunette and the boys beat Vancouver in 2003.

Beating the Blues in seven games would require three road victories in one series, which also would stand as a seminal moment for the Wild's Zach Parise era.

A series victory also would be a triumph for Yeo. His boss, Chuck Fletcher, chose him over Hitchcock, in part because the Wild is trying to build a decadeslong winner, and Hitchcock tends to wear out his charges after a few years.

Yeo and his defensive system would be beating Hitchcock, and Hitchcock's superior talent, and Hitchcock's home-ice advantage, and probably sending good ol' Hitch on to his next post.

That would be quite a feather in the helmet for Fletcher, and Yeo, and Yeo's Bros.

Jim Souhan's podcast can be heard at souhanunfiltered.com. On Twitter: @SouhanStrib. jsouhan@startribune.com