Outsiders see it, too: Wild shows positive signs

BRANDON, FLA. - Last month, in the heart of the Wild's struggles, there were times it was difficult to ascertain what the team was trying to accomplish.

The players didn't come up the ice as a group of five. Defensemen were all over the place. Forecheckers didn't support. Players were caught in between two systems.

There was lots of confusion and little cohesion.

Fast-forward to Wednesday, and listen to what Tampa Bay Lightning coach Rick Tocchet said after watching the Wild's recent games: "They're starting to play the new system real well. To me, it didn't seem the coach panicked. He said, 'This is the way we're going to play. This is my system,' and you can tell, they're reaping the benefits.

"You watch the way they've played the last two weeks, they're starting to get it."

Tocchet, in his second year coaching the Lightning after replacing Barry Melrose 16 games into last season, can relate to what Wild first-year coach Todd Richards went through last month. He is still trying to get the Lightning to play the way he expects, and Tampa Bay is showing signs (6-4-5 after finishing 29th last season).

Richards arrived in Minnesota promising up-tempo, aggressive hockey. He revamped original coach Jacques Lemaire's system and the Wild lost nine of its first 12 games.

"But as a coach," Tocchet said, "you have to believe in your style and your system. If you show the players any hint that you're changing certain things because you lost the first month and are panicking, I think you lose the team."

Richards didn't lose the team. He never contemplated tinkering "because we saw in spurts how we could play. It was just getting the players to trust that if we play this way, we can be a good, effective team."

The Wild has won four of its past five games, and Richards credits his "leadership group" (captain Mikko Koivu and alternate captains Andrew Brunette, Owen Nolan, Martin Havlat, Kim Johnsson, Greg Zanon and Nick Schultz) for being an extension of himself.

Now, he's not trying to pretend the Wild has completed the transition to becoming a Todd Richards-style hockey club. The Wild is still last in the West. But "we are seeing progress. It's coming," Richards said. "It seems like it's coming natural to them now. Even in practice, when I yell out the drills, instead of going to the board and having to draw it, I just yell it and they know it. There's no hesitation.

"And I think it's the same with our system. They don't have to think anymore, 'Do I have to be here? I'm supposed to go there.' They're starting to get to their positions and play the game."

Lightning assistant coach Wes Walz played for the Wild for seven seasons, so he still pays close attention. The Wild's slow start didn't shock him.

"If people thought he was going to come right out of the gate and go 10-2, it just doesn't happen that way," Walz said. "It takes time. The most important thing is having guys in the dressing room who can keep the room together while this is all taking place.

"With guys like Bruno, Mikko, Schultzie and Bax [Niklas Backstrom], the good guys they have in there, they buy time for the coaches, which buys time for the organization to get the thing turned around. Because it doesn't happen overnight."

Brunette said it never got to the point where players stopped buying in. But the overwhelming frustration is history.

"We were frustrated with the results, and uncomfortable that we were caught in-between," Brunette said. "But everybody has taken on this challenge of playing Todd's kind of way from where we played before.

"I never got a sense that we had a bunch of guys that wanted to throw that all out the window. But we definitely knew we weren't performing, and now, we're starting to get there. That doesn't mean there won't be more bumps in the road and aches and pains, but we are getting there."

The Wild -- at $210 million -- is the 12th most valuable team in the NHL, according to Forbes magazine's annual survey. The Toronto Maple Leafs ($470 million) were No. 1 for the fourth consecutive year.