Dear Wild

Dear Wild


I am writing you this letter because I feel like our relationship is at a crossroad. We've been through so much together that I thought I needed to express my feeling towards you.


When you walked into my life in the fall of 2000, it was love at first site. I was coming off of a bad relationship with my previous squad and was finally ready to get back into hockey. Man was it fun at first. That first win at home, and the 6-0 beat down of my ex was wonderful. You were so young, shiny, and new. I thought that this would be a life long relationship. Things kept getting better too. I didn't measure everything by wins. You were fun. I watched Gaborik grow into a superstar. I saw Matty Johnson beating up everybody. I was there with 18,000 plus every night. I listened as you told me about the future. We weren't building for a one or two year run. We were going to be competitive year in and year out. We weren't going to jeopardize our future with rent a players. You told me about the system. And man it sounded good.


That third year was the peak of our relationship. You showed me what a great system could do. The spring of 2003 is a time I will never forget. Coming back from 3-1 not once but twice in the same postseason. When Brunette scored that overtime winner ending Patrick Roy's career, I thought it couldn't get any better than that. The sad part is I was right it really hasn't.


Following that season, we had hold-outs causing us a last place finish.


The next year was cancelled due to greed.


We followed that up with another last place finish.


Then we started spending money and bringing in guys. We made the playoffs and it looked the future was bright. I was told about the great young talent we were producing. I was told system this, and system that. I believed in everything you said. We made the playoffs and lost to eventual Cup champions, the Might Ducks.


We went into the next season with high hopes. I was told all we needed was home ice. Then we went out and got it. Then we were up in the playoffs 2-1 to the hated Avalanche. I thought this was the beginning of everything you talked about. The annual success. The playoff runs. The system was working. That was just a mirage. We ended up losing to the lanche'.


We came into this year, and I didn't know what to expect. You turned down trade offers that included our so called young talent. At that point I was starting to doubt your intelligence in this area. Your young talent, was young, but I don't think we had the same definition of talented. I started wondering how you planned on winning games, when you didn't have guys that could score. Our best player was constant trade speculation, and then he went down with another injury. Then our next best player wasn't good enough. Yeah he did all of the little things so well. But the problem was he didn't do the big things well enough. We're a team that does the little things well, we are a team of almosts, and not quites. And now we come to find out our steady rock, our coach has had enough. He's been there since day one, and he wants nothing to do with you anymore.



So where does that leave us? What am I supposed to believe. Is our young talent going to get better, or just older? Will our best player continue have a peak of 60 some points. Why should I stay in this relationship? All you've done is taken. When will I see the return on my investment? I continue to support you, I have season tickets, I have your new home jersey, I have a your old home jersey. I have done everything you've asked of me. I don't want to hear about the little things. I don't want a guy to lead the league in hits. I want him to lead the league in scoring. You have a fighter that doesn't get into fights, and is a liability on the ice. I want 1 captain for an entire season. I don't want our forwards to be so willing to go into the corners, when they're not willing to go in front of the net. I don't stay at home defensemen. I want offensive minded defensemen. We're at a crossroads here. You're not the young, shiny, and new toy now. The NHL has changed, and so have I. So the question is when will you?

A citizen in the "State of Hockey"