Wild players get an early wakeup call from coach Todd Richards
Todd Richards was in no mood for cruise control the morning after his team's first victory of the NHL season.
Barely six minutes into the Wild's practice Friday at the Xcel Energy Center, Richards halted the workout and loudly unleashed a few expletives at his team, the final one in the middle of the directive: "Turn on your (expletive) brains!"
The second-year coach, who during his first season waited until March to "bag skate" the players through drills without pucks after a less-than-spectacular losing effort the night before, had no problems with the way the Wild played in a 4-2 home win over Edmonton on Thursday.
And though the players should come to the rink feeling good and expecting to have fun during their workout, he noted, "Today's a new day. There's lots of lessons in that about getting ready."
When Richards looked around the ice at the start of practice, he said he failed to see "a purpose" behind the team's early drills.
"We weren't prepared and ready to go," he said.
Did he get their attention?
"Yeah," he said. "Better, more focus."
Defenseman Brent Burns said it wasn't the first time a coach blew his whistle and blew his top, "and it won't be the last. You've got to stay focused and try to get better every day."
During his rookie season as a coach, Richards at times seemed to feel his way around. When he had something to say, he often pulled a player aside for a one-on-one chat. It's evident in Year 2, however, that he won't hesitate to speak out.
"I don't want to have to do that," he said with a smile, "but sometimes you do.
"They did respond."
For the defense: By killing four consecutive penalties in the first period against the Oilers, the Wild kept Edmonton from pulling away.
"You don't want to play as much PK as we did last night," captain Mikko Koivu observed, but "the way we killed was very important."
Richards talked about the invaluable additions this season of John Madden and Matt Cullen to join Koivu and Kyle Brodziak at the center position so he can roll different PK units out with no loss of quality.
Such balanced manpower, assistant coach Rick Wilson said, presents "a comfortable feeling."
Richards saluted Wilson's handling of defensive assignments and the penalty kill, but Wilson waved off any praise.
"It's probably unwarranted," he said, "because all we're doing is picking up exactly where he left off."
After the win over the Oilers, Richards said the defensemen showed their smarts by staying back if there was no one to cover for them. According to Burns, Wilson frequently goes over video with the defensemen, emphasizing details and "staying honest."
A longtime assistant with the Dallas Stars who's in his first season with the Wild, Wilson said defensemen need to be aggressive in the other team's zone, "but we don't want to lose position. That's an easy thing to say, but it's difficult to read in the flow of a game."
Defenseman Cam Barker noted that the Wild have "a lot of offensive guys back here. Guys want to score goals, want to help out, but you've got to realize you've got to do it at the right times."
The defensive corps, Wilson said, seems to be meshing at both ends of the ice and the players are "getting excited about the success we've had of late. We started kind of rocky. It doesn't take much for a PK unit to break down, just one guy out of position. But they're coming around."
