| 15 August 2010
A subtle but important job skill to possess is interpersonal awareness. For those of you not aware of what that is, it means the awareness of knowing your surroundings and the people your with. It also means an ability to 'read between the lines' and find the hidden meanings in what people say. For example, you're terminated from a job and the reason the company gives for your firing as "personal differences" which really means they did not like you very much. Sure at times you can read too much into what people say, but usually actions have an underlying message to them. It can drive you crazy at times as you analyze in your mind over what they were really trying to tell you. For others its much more simplistic, living either in a state of ignorance or not caring what that person may have been trying to say to them and accepting their words for what they are. To each their own, but when the Wild hired long-time NHL assistant coach Rick Wilson should we as fans read more into this than just taking it as a simple coaching addition?
Why? A year ago the Wild brought in Crystal, Minnesota-native Todd Richards to be the team's 2nd bench boss in franchise history. Many felt that Richards, who never failed to have qualified to make the playoffs in his coaching career which included stints in the AHL (Wilkes-Barre and Milwaukee) and with the San Jose Sharks would bring an up-tempo style where defenseman were taking a greater part of starting up the offensive attack. Afterall, Richards was star offensive defenseman for the Minnesota Golden Gophers from 1985-89 so why wouldn't people expect him to push for more contributions from the team's blueline? Well it didn't work out that way last season. All too often Minnesota's defenseman; especially Brent Burns and Marek Zidlicky were far too reckless in their sojourns to join the attack and that led to odd-man chances and the result was the team gave up around 40 more goals than it did the season before and the Wild (as well as Richards) found themselves out of the playoffs. So much for the new 'exciting' up-tempo play. So where is all of this reading between the lines I mentioned earlier?
It has been speculated by Minneapolis Star Tribune's Wild beat writer Michael Russo in a blog post he made on August 6th, 2010 were he stated, "I think former Wild center Darby Hendrickson is the guy Richards really wants. But Hendrickson makes good money as a Northwest Division rep for the NHLPA and I'm told by multiple sources that he's been offered the Gophers' color job from Fox Sports Net-North. Plus he works for FSN as a Wild analyst. So Hendrickson has a lot of options to weigh through. But I'm sure Hendrickson would be very intrigued by a unique coaching opportunity with his hometown Wild. So we'll see where this goes with time." Ok, so Todd Richards perhaps wanted Darby Hendrickson who cares? Well listen to what Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher says as the rumors started to spread the team was looking at Rick Wilson to be an assistant coach in another Russo report that was filed the same day. Chuck Fletcher stated, "As you reported, there’s (three) teams here (with Tampa and Dallas) Just because there’s more parties and more people involved, it just takes longer. If everyone was at their desk, you’d get this done in two days (laughs). But I think it should work out. We’re assuming it will." Isn't that interesting? The coach wants Darby Hendrickson, but the GM doesn't seem to care and picks someone else. See what I mean by reading between the lines? Could this be a sign of a rift in philosophy between Richards and Fletcher?
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If you check out the Star Tribune article regarding the signing, Todd Richards told the Strib's Kent Youngblood, "The list got really small really quick, You talk to people, you spend time with him, you look at his track record. I didn't have to look very far past that." Interesting choice of words from Richards. He almost makes it sound like he has the decision making authority but at the same time it sounds like he wasn't his first choice either. Yes I realize that there was speculation the team might bring in Todd Richards' former mentor Claude Noel before he ended up taking a head coaching position with the Manitoba Moose (AHL), or if it was John Torchetti or Craig Ramsey who also took coaching gigs elsewhere earlier this summer, but were the Wild coaches comments more an acceptance of fate rather than an endorsement? Wilson has terrific coaching credentials, after playing his college hockey at North Dakota and 3 NHL seasons during the early 1970's he went onto be an NHL coach almost entirely as an assistant for the New York Islanders, Los Angeles Kings, and then the majority of his career with Minnesota North Stars / Dallas Stars organization until this year where he was an associate coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Many have credited Wilson with the development of defenseman like Sergei Zubov and Darryl Sydor who is now an assistant coach with the Wild's AHL affiliate in Houston.
Is the hiring of defense-guru Wilson a sign the team has lost a little faith in Richards' and his system to win games? Mike Ramsey, who was the outgoing defensive guru noted philosophical differences as part of the reason for deciding to step away as part of the Wild's trio of coaches. So far nothing public has been stated that really points to a rift but Fletcher clearly is willing to place who he wants above the desires of the head coach. I know that many Wild fans steadily began to question Richards' decision-making especially after holding an optional practice after a particularly paltry effort the night before. So could upper management be wanting Richards to be on the hot seat unless the team shows some real improvement? Maybe, because the franchise is finally feeling a bit more pressure from hockey-mad fans as demonstrated by the struggles to sell season tickets, especially in the lower bowl where you can now purchase 10, 20 and 30 game season ticket packages for the first time in the history of the team. The best cure for those sorts of woes is winning and I think Richards would be foolish to think he would not catch some flak from the ownership if the team again finds itself mired in a mediocre season. The fact of the matter is the team is spending near the cap ceiling, and Wild owner Craig Leipold is going to want to see some return on that investment. I think many Wild fans are wanting the same thing, and they're hoping to avoid a complete rebuild even if that really may be the best solution in order to achieve long-term success.
I am totally fine with Rick Wilson being named the Wild's new assistant coach and if he can do what he did in Dallas with the team's defense would be a huge improvement. I think it was painfully obvious was the fact the Wild had a defense that seemed to be a constant state of flux, from Brent Burns' sad attempts to be like Bobby Orr and take every opportunity to try to rush end to end, or the generally lost style of play of Cam Barker. It will be interesting to see if Richards allows Wilson the latitude to shape the defense as he sees fit or will he insist they continue to force the play even if it comes as a detriment to team defense. There may be nothing to this decision and perhaps I am reading too much into it. Yet I would keep an eye on this Wild fans. This could be a sign of the team applying pressure to Richards to start showing some progress now. The grace period is over the question will be if Richards really has what it takes to right the ship or will he steer directly for that iceberg that looms off in the distance if this team suffers another season as a bottom dweller.
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