Jim Souhan: Lemaire holds it down at the X better than anyone

There is a breed of Wild fan that chafes when Jacques Lemaire's name is mentioned, because Lemaire is the kind of coach who can hold scoring down -- for both teams on the ice.

Marian Gaborik is turning down Wild contract offers, perhaps because he'd like to play for a more offensive-minded coach. The Wild never has signed a superstar offensive player in free agency. There are nights when Lemaire seems to prefer tying 1-1 rather than taking a chance on winning 6-5.

All of which is true, but so is this: Lemaire is the perfect coach for this franchise.

As long as the Wild is going to rely on young, developing players and no-names, as long as the Wild is going to avoid becoming a major player in free agency, as long as Chris Simon is considered a key trade-deadline acquisition, this franchise needs a coach who can keep games close and low-scoring.

Lemaire is the perfect coach to disguise this organization's flaws. The Wild isn't talented enough to consistently win 6-5, so Lemaire holds scores down enough that a hot goalie or a bouncing puck can win him more games than his team might deserve.

Thursday's game at the X proved the point, even though the Wild lost 4-3 in overtime. The Wild actually took a 3-1 lead on a strong Sabres team before folding down the stretch. What was more notable than the loss was the fact that the Wild could start 4-0 despite having lost Brian Rolston and Pavol Demitra, and despite injuries to Gaborik and Owen Nolan.

Is Lemaire satisfied with a 4-0-1 record so far? "Oh, yes, definitely," he said. "What I really liked is the way we played tonight. I liked pretty much every player tonight."

There are more exciting coaches than Lemaire. There are coaches who are better suited to running teams determined to put butts in the seats with spectacular scoring.

The Wild doesn't face that problem. Wild fans show up no matter who's wearing the home jerseys with the amorphous varmint on the front, and the ones who buy the tickets seem to be just fine with seeing gritty 2-1 victories and knowing they're sitting in one of the best buildings in hockey.

Lemaire has become as much of a fixture in the X as the "Let's Play Hockey" balcony.

Lemaire's teams don't always keep you awake for three periods, but his style and attention to detail can mask the flaws of many of his players, and those of his front office.

The Wild is the oddest sports entity in town.

The Wild, at least when it comes to its paying customers, seems to engender feelings normally reserved for favored relatives.

Here the Wild is this season, having jettisoned perhaps the fans' favorite player (Rolston) and planning to trade the best player in franchise history (Gaborik), and yet it's still selling out high-priced tickets to a fan base that considers expensive team jerseys to be formal wear.

Maybe the Wild has it figured out, figured better than anybody else in this market, maybe better than any franchise north of Wrigley Field. Maybe the Wild should stand as the model for all sports franchises.

Maybe providing a clean, well-lighted place, a safe and ambient sporting venue filled with athletes who generally avoid getting arrested, matters more than winning a Stanley Cup or catering to star players. Even if the Vikings won a Super Bowl, you'd rather take your kid to a Wild game than to the Metrodome.

We base so many of our judgments on whether we believe a team is progressing toward a championship, but let's be honest -- most championships are happy accidents.

The next coach might be able to deliver similar competitiveness, but don't count on it.