Chuck Fletcher held his season-ending press conference on Tuesday.

I wish he hadn't.

Instead of admitting that spending all of five games in the playoffs was a failure, Fletcher tried to put a positive spin on the season.

That's a mistake.

What's most interesting is trying to figure out why he's making this mistake.

Is he speaking directly to owner Craig Leipold and trying to bolster his job security?

Is he speaking to the players and thinking that positivity will help them win next year?

Or is he tacitly acknowledging that his roster is going to remain largely static and that he might as well try to put a happy face on his biggest problem?

I think it's some combination of the three, with the third factor being the most important.

I hate Fletcher's characterization. But I understand his problem.

With Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, Devan Dubnyk and Mikko Koivu eating up payroll and a bunch of young players failing to elevate the team during the playoffs, I'm not sure what magic move would make this team better,.

I only know that five playoff games is not good enough, no matter what Fletcher says.

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Our season-ending podcast with Michael Russo will be 6 p.m. Wednesday at Hell's Kitchen in downtown Minneapolis. Please stop by or find all of our podcasts at MNSPN.com https://mnspn.com/

We'll also run Sports From Hell on Friday at 4:45 at Hell's Kitchen with Michael and a guest to be named later.