Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Minnesota "Wild" Over Backstrom

Nicklas Backstrom came into last season as a relatively unknown goalie from Europe, but ended the season as the Wild's undisputed #1. They are so confident in him, that they decided to trade away Manny Fernandez to Boston. It's the same old story with critics, any goalie who plays with Jacques Lemaire as their coach will have their stats skewed, but anyone who has seen Backstrom play knows that he is there whenever the Wild need him most. He has a very relaxed style, and seems to never be out of position. He would love to rival Miikka Kiprusoff for the best goalie from Finland title. Josh Harding should be the backup. He spent most of the season in Houston of the AHL, but when Fernandez sprained his ankle in late January, he got a call up and went 3-2-1 with a 1.16 GAA in that limited time. He is still young and has potential to be a #1 sometime down the road. I believe he has finished his stay in the AHL, and I bet he hopes so too.

The Wild signed Nolan Schaefer in the offseason, and he should be their AHL starter. He has immense talent, but struggles with consistency. If he was able to fix the consistency problem, he would be able to start in the NHL, but unfortunately for him, it's a fairly big issue. There's no doubt he has talent, and he will try to prove himself playing for Houston. Miroslav Kopriva should battle Schaefer for playing time in Houston. He spent time last season between Houston and Texas of the ECHL, but most of the time (19 games) with Texas. He is only 23, but hasn't shown anything special since becoming pro. He'll certainly get a chance with Houston, but Schaefer should get the bulk of the load. Backstrom will be manning the net in Minnesota for the foreseeable future, with Harding as a possible future starter. Schaefer and Kopriva will battle it out for the third-string job.

7 comments:

Greg Balloch said...

Sorry 'bout the pun :D

ForeverFlyer16 said...

Great work here on the entire Blog, 'Everything Hockey'... the set up is wionderful with all the professional touches, and your goalie features is tremendious.

My only complain is that I cannot place my vote on the question; it will never let me -- I do realize that it is no fault of yours tho -- one other bothersum bug is that it ask me if I want them to remember me on this computer... but never does.

Please keep up the great work on developing this site; it is top notch already and I flattered to be associated with it.

Avsfan19 said...

Hey FF, do you regularly clear your cookies?

ForeverFlyer16 said...

NOPE

Greg Balloch said...

I don't have any control over the Remember me thing, you'd have to talk to the people at blogspot.com.

The vote thing is very faulty, as it's allowed me to vote numerous times (although I haven't), and you should take the results with a grain of salt

Avsfan19 said...

I'll say, there's more than 0 people who think Edmonton had the best offseason.

anthony bremond said...

Dear Mr,

I'm an intern with startup widget 1000 and I created a news widget for Minnesota Wild News.
It's updated every hour with Minnesota Wild headlines from several different sports websites like ESPN, FOX Yahoo,etc. (Take a look: http://www.widget1000.com/)

Can we add Minnesota Wild blog to the widget,too? That means that every time you post to your blog the headline of the post will show up on the widget and link directly to your post.
Anyone who puts this widget on their start page or on their website will see your Minnesota Wild posts too. It's a powerful and free way to publicize your site.

Finally, would you add your Minnesota Wild News Widget to your site so that others can see it?
Everyone who grabs the widget will automatically link to you so it's great for your search engine rankings. Plus, it shows a lot of stories about Minnesota Wild and since it's updated every hour it is fresh and will make your site even more appealing than it already is.

What do you think?

Go Minnesota Wild

Anthony Bremond