"During a tough transition season in 2009-10, the Wild learned one big lesson: They are a team that either plays on its toes or gets its butt kicked. That's the blue-collar identity coach Todd Richards says his guys struggled early to find during a get-to-know-you phase among players and new management, then forgot when a playoff berth was out of reach. In the end last season, Minnesota simply wasn't good enough, general manager Chuck Fletcher admitted. The 27-week skate to rectify that begins when Minnesota and Carolina open league play with the 2010 NHL Premier game at 11 a.m. (CDT) today at Hartwall Areena in the capital of Finland, a hockey-mad country with 5.3 million citizens and 74 indoor hockey rinks. This is the Wild's critical second season under Fletcher and Richards, and team owner Craig Leipold wants the Wild in the playoffs in April. "I'm not a patient man," Leipold says. After last season's disappointing 13th-place finish in the Western Conference, Fletcher contends he successfully addressed his top three priorities over the summer, giving his team the personnel to climb into postseason play. Wednesday afternoon, a day before an opener that's listed as a home game even though it's 4,380 miles from St. Paul, Fletcher grinned and confessed he was fluctuating between excitement and nervousness. "You always worry," he said, "about everything in the world." " http://www.twincities.com/wild/ci_16272249?nclick_check=1
