Wild players promise a better effort, starting tonight against Vancouver
After a spirited workout that concluded with a few laughs Monday night, members of the Wild retreated to their dressing room recognizing that the team's progress, or lack thereof, will be measured in upcoming games beginning tonight against the Vancouver Canucks at the Xcel Energy Center.
This is a Wild team that plummeted nearly out of sight early last season, and a 1-2-1 beginning to the new season has not produced the necessary consistent effort and focus, according to coach Todd Richards.
Richards was so unhappy with his team's play Saturday night in a 3-2 home loss to Columbus that he ran the troops through an intense "bag skate" without pucks Sunday morning.
Asked if it's too early to try to light a fire under the players, winger Brad Staubitz shook his head.
"Sooner than later," he said. "Why wait? We know what's expected."
The message was sent, "and I think the players got it," Richards said Monday. "They understand. But again, we'll see tomorrow; tomorrow's the real test. Ultimately, the message coming out of the practice yesterday wasn't to have a good practice today. It's about being ready for tomorrow night's game."
The Wild started 3-9 a year ago, and while attempting to climb back into playoff contention, they often let a period skate past without the kind of effort Richards espouses.
Although it happened again against the Blue Jackets, forward Chuck Kobasew says it's not a trend.
"Last year is behind us," Kobasew said. "We've got a different group of guys in here. We're not thinking about last year. We have to create more offensively, and that starts with our work ethic; that starts with being good in our own end."
One of the new guys is Staubitz, who believes these words are not lip service. He looked around the dressing room after the loss to the Blue Jackets and got a sense that players are determined to do things differently.
It's about accountability, he said. Players need to get up each day and be able to look in the mirror and feel good about their effort, "and not only yourself, but look at your teammates. Look across and know that they laid it out there for you and you do it for them.
"That's what it's about."
Richards talked Monday about moving forward.
"You send 'em a message," he said, "but it shouldn't be this dark cloud hanging on top of their heads. They have to understand what went wrong on Saturday and what we have to change, what we have to address on Tuesday."
At the end of Monday's workout, players and coaches lined up in the neutral zone for potshots at an empty net in a little friendly competition.
After Sunday's drills, Richards said the players mostly kept their mouths shut when he rifled a shot wide of the net, but noted, "It would probably be pretty safe to say, if they had to pick anybody to lose, I would have been at the top of a lot of lists."
Briefly: Forwards Matt Cullen and Martin Havlat and defenseman Nick Schultz missed practice Monday because of illness. Richards said no decision was made by early afternoon about bringing up another player or two from Houston of the American Hockey League in case someone is ill tonight.
Defenseman Brent Burns returned to practice after missing a day with a lower-body injury. Burns took a shot off the skate late in the game Saturday night.
