On how firing Richards won't solve all the problems: "We have to get better. We have to get deeper. Even as key and as important as Mikko Koivu is, you can't go from being one of the best teams in the NHL for 2 1/2 months to being one of the worst teams because your marquee player and leader breaks his [finger]. ... You have to develop players. You have to have a better system. You have to have younger players make significant contributions. We need players stepping up offensively, guys where if you looked a year ago, you wouldn't have necessarily have thought this would have been his year. We didn't have any 'wow' surprises."
On how there's hope: "We're developing good, young players. I believe completely in Chuck's long-term strategy. [Assistant GM] Brent Flahr and his staff had a great draft last year. And frankly, I think we now are in a position that we'll be relying on some of our younger players to come up, step up and be good. Next year we'll be better and the year after that, we're going to be even better, particularly offensively, with the guys we drafted last year coming."
Whether the Wild should bottom out to get better: "Edmonton had to live through years of pain of being the worst team in hockey to show fans they have a future. But that's a model I can't live through. ... I don't like losing. I hate losing. It's unacceptable. I'm not in this business to lose. ... If I knew for sure that we can lose and then as a result our first pick we'd get a Sidney Crosby, I might rethink that. I might go on a year vacation and then come back and get Sidney Crosby. But that's not how our world works. That model doesn't work for me personally, and I don't think it works for our market."
On his anger that he can spend $59 million and not make the playoffs again: "There's two reasons that I'm so disappointed in this year. No. 1, we're not winning. And no. 2, we're losing money. And I don't like either one of those. As a businessperson, losing money is painful, no matter what company you own. And I don't like losing money. So yes, the fact that we are a cap team makes it more painful. After losing to Montreal [8-1], I'm getting e-mails from fans, 'You don't care.' It's so upsetting because as mad and upset as they are, I'm as upset. Now you add on top of that just the financial aspect of what's happening. It's like the double whammy. So I'm sending e-mails back, 'Hey, you think you're upset, how would you like to be me?' It's disappointing and it's embarrassing."
On the fans' loyalty: "We had 25 of our 40 games as sellouts. We were at 97 percent of tickets sold. All the teams in league, unless in Canada, would love to have that kind of record. But that's our fans. And they're not happy with us. We have not met their expectations. We need to change that. We need to work harder to get the fans back. You have to do that by showing you have a plan, communicating what that plan is and then executing it. And that's what we need to do a better job of."
