So Far, It Has Been a Really Wild Ride

The NHL standings aren’t upside down. The Minnesota Wild, in its third season of existence, leads the league with 20 points.

“The fact that we’re at the top of the league is confusing,” General Manager Doug Risebrough said Monday, adding a laugh. “People look at us and say, ‘They’re a new team and should be at the bottom of the standings.’

“This team has always worked hard and been resilient, but they’re seemingly able to take some games that a year or two ago would have been losses and turn them into wins. Some of those games were so close that even if we’d lost, I’d have felt good because we played well. We might fall short in some of those games as we go forward, but we’re still on the right track and playing the right way.”

The “right way” is a disciplined, comprehensive game. Much of the Wild’s early six-game unbeaten streak, which ended Saturday with a loss to Vancouver, was based on the exceptional goaltending of Manny Fernandez and a solid defense. But Coach Jacques Lemaire also encourages offensive creativity, capitalizing on the team’s outstanding speed and the skill of winger Marian Gaborik, who scored three goals Monday in a 5-2 victory over the Kings.

“He’s a talented kid and he’s in a good group,” Risebrough said of Gaborik, the third overall draft pick in 2000. “We’ve got the right mix of veterans who can take the pressure off. We don’t have to rely on him all the time. There are others who can score.”

Nor has the Wild suffered because of the NHL’s crackdown on obstruction, as was anticipated.

“This team can skate and they work hard within the rules,” Risebrough said. “Jacques hates bad penalties, so we’ve always been low in the penalty department. The new rules help us. We didn’t change our style. We kept playing the same way.”

Getting to the top, of course, can be easier than staying there. And how the Wild fares on its first long trip of the season, which began Monday against the Kings at Staples Center and continues to Phoenix and San Jose before ending Sunday in Anaheim, will test its character.

“For the first two years, I was kind of disappointed in the way that we handled games or handled teams,” Fernandez said last week. “We went to Detroit, big teams like that, [and] we kind of broke down before the game even started. I don’t see that this year. We play a different way. We play with confidence. I’m happy to see that.”

Off the ice, the Wild has been a success from the beginning.

Smart enough to build community ties through its support of high school hockey and the Twin Cities Marathon, Minnesota has sold out all 98 regular-season and exhibition home games. In a clever move, the team sells rush tickets, which allow buyers to sit in any seats that aren’t occupied 10 minutes into the game. Wild jerseys are the NHL’s top seller, according to Bill Robertson, the club’s vice president of communications and broadcasting, and its merchandise sales rank second to the Detroit Red Wings’.

“People are just embracing us,” Robertson said. “Our philosophy is building for long-term success.”

Playing in the talent-rich West, the Wild faces a tough challenge in trying to make the playoffs this season. Stranger things have happened, though, and Risebrough believes the team is built to weather slumps and prosperity.

“Regardless of what happens, we’ll work hard,” he said, “and if we don’t get the few breaks that we got early, that’s OK, because we’re playing the right way. We’ve made a lot of strides toward establishing ourselves. That’s opened the eyes of some people and, more importantly, confirmed in the eyes of our players that we’re on the right track for success.”

Justice, NHL Style

Colin Campbell, the NHL’s punishment czar, acknowledged that after looking at a side view of Thrasher defenseman Andy Sutton’s knee-on-knee hit on King center Jason Allison last Tuesday, “It looks like he stuck his knee out.”

But when the Kings contended that Sutton had led with his knee, Campbell re-examined the play from another angle and decided it didn’t warrant a fine or suspension. However, he asked Atlanta General Manager Don Waddell to tell Sutton the NHL might not be so lenient the next time.

“I think it was, pardon the pun, a knee-jerk reaction to being beaten,” Campbell said. “The guy, in that situation, is moving up in the neutral zone and is about to be beaten by a pretty good player [Allison]. I did see it from behind and I did not think he stuck his knee out.... Kneeing is the act of a player leading with his knee and sometimes extending the knee. We felt there was no intent [to injure].”

Intent or not, Allison, who was the Kings’ leading scorer, is expected to miss seven to 11 more weeks.

“We’re not advocating that players check other players with the safety cog in their back pocket of having their knee out,” Campbell said. “We had a number of people in the hockey operations department look at it. Andy VanHellemond [the director of officiating] felt it was a tripping penalty and that’s it, not a kneeing penalty.... [Sutton] leaned and tried to hit with his shoulder, but Allison made a quick move to try to avoid the shoulder check and their right knees collided. It’s unfortunate for Jason and I feel bad for him.”

Not as bad, though, as Allison feels.

Numbers Game

The new focus on obstruction and quick line changes made distinct impacts on the NHL in the first 150 games of the season, through Oct. 31.

According to NHL statisticians, scoring was up slightly, to an average of 5.6 goals a game, compared to 5.4 goals for the same number of games a year ago. However, the number of shutouts plunged from 21 to 10.

Slightly more than half of the 2,133 penalties called were for obstruction, up from 39.8% of 1,983 penalties last season. But the average number of penalties a game was 14.2, one more than in the same period last season, and teams averaged a combined 32.2 penalty minutes, up slightly from 30.9 last season. The number of power plays per game is at 11.6, up from 10 last season.

Games are averaging 2 hours 19 minutes, 16 minutes shorter than last season. Which means everyone goes home at a reasonable hour, a welcome change.

Slap Shots

Detroit captain Steve Yzerman’s recovery from knee surgery is going well enough to anticipate his return before January, which was when he originally was expected to play again. He skated last week, several weeks ahead of schedule, and reportedly planned to skate again to begin rebuilding his strength.

Playing alongside Mario Lemieux has transformed many a journeyman into a scorer. But there might be more than that behind the success of Alexandre Daigle, who was the No. 1 overall draft pick in 1993 but was out of the NHL for two seasons and playing in a Los Angeles beer league a year ago. Daigle, signed as a free agent by Pittsburgh last summer, wasn’t ready for the pressure that accompanied the five-year, $12.5-million deal he signed as a rookie with Ottawa. He’s now playing for less money -- $750,000 plus bonuses -- but enjoying it more.

A word of praise is due Flyer Coach Ken Hitchcock. Derided in Dallas as a drudge for promoting defense and stifling creativity, he’s building around his players’ strengths in Philadelphia instead of forcing them into his mold. Of course, an injury-free John LeClair -- seven goals, 11 points in 11 games -- makes it all work.

The New York Islanders have given the starting goaltender’s job to Garth Snow, leaving Chris Osgood to work out his early-season struggles. Islander Coach Peter Laviolette, hailed last season for the team’s improvement, is trying to instill more on-ice discipline and keep players out of the penalty box.

Congratulations to Roger Neilson, Bernie Federko, Rod Langway and Clark Gillies, who were inducted into the hockey hall of fame Monday. Maybe hall executives have a sense of humor, because Neilson was depicted on his plaque wearing one of his trademark ugly ties.