Wild's No. 1 fan holding steady despite slow start

RALEIGH, N.C. - If you ever stare into the center-ice suite at the Xcel Energy Center, you know how impossible it is for Wild owner Craig Leipold to hide his emotions.

He rolls up a packet of game notes and holds them so tightly, it's amazing his hands aren't full of calluses and paper cuts.

So it goes without saying the Wild's poor start to the season last month was hard on Leipold.

"No, it was gut-wrenching," Leipold said Thursday before the Wild's game in Tampa. "You wanted it for [coach] Todd [Richards]. I wanted the team to perform at the level Todd wanted and let Todd get his wins because I know how hard he's working at this.

"I wanted it for the players and for the fans. You don't like to lose, but you do lose. I wish it hadn't happened. But it did and I hope we're going to be a better team because of it. We have to remember how bad it felt when we lost so we don't have that again."

After dropping nine of its first 12 games, the Wild is 4-2-1 heading into this afternoon's game at Carolina. Leipold pays attention to his fan base, perusing blogs and message boards, so he knew there was a portion already calling for Richards' head.

As intense as Leipold gets during games and as disappointed as he is after losses, he is not a man who makes knee-jerk decisions -- he had one coach and GM in Nashville.

That's why rumors Leipold would pull the plug on Richards were far-fetched.

"Never. It never even crossed my mind," Leipold said. "Todd's got a three-year contract. I mean he was eight games into a 200-plus-game contract. He's fine. Never even crossed my mind that we may have made a mistake or he wasn't ready.

"In hindsight, he was by far the most compelling coach to hire. As we interviewed everybody for general managers, I was in great position to ask all these GM [candidates], 'Who would you hire as coach? Give me three names.' He was 1-2-3 on everybody's list, and usually 1 or 2.

"So he's well thought of, and there's no question he's the right guy."

Leipold knew the team needed to learn Richards' system, but that didn't make the string of losses any easier to stomach. The Wild owner didn't even want to talk about the games with his bosom buddies, who like clockwork called to console Leipold after every loss.

"I'd let it go to voice-mail, then listen to the message, and they'd go, 'Craig, I know you don't want to talk about last night's game, but, hey, tough loss last night,' and then they'd talk about the game!" Leipold said, laughing.

Leipold added, with a big chuckle, "My kids are the greatest at it. I get home after a loss, and if they're sleeping, they wake up the next morning and act like there wasn't even a game. Nobody even mentions it."

Thanks to the downtrodden economy, the Wild missing the playoffs last year, not advancing past the first round since 2003 and the slow start, the Wild is finding challenges selling tickets for the first time.

The team, however, has sold out the first 10 home games, including the preseason, and still has its league-high 375-game sellout streak intact.

"Now there are some games coming up, like Phoenix on Wednesday, that give us a lot of concern," Leipold said. "But you know what, we've had over 360 consecutive sellouts. We know this thing is going to end. And when it does, we're going to miss it by probably 300 to 400. And then we're going to have more sellouts immediately afterward."

Leipold believes the Wild's future is in good hands under the direction of Richards and GM Chuck Fletcher.

"We've got a good core of players, and we've got young players like [James] Sheppard, [Benoit] Pouliot and [Tyler] Cuma and [Colton] Gillies that we have to start getting the talent out of them.

"We just have to get it out. We've got to give them confidence to play hard and score. We've got to stick with them. They're our guys and we need those guys to step up in order for us to get to the next level.

"Otherwise, we may not be successful."