Who knew?

Minnesota's wild start surprising to everyone

More in this column: * Snub a dub-dub * Feast or famine for Feaster * Rumor mill * Worth noting * Shameless plug

Raise your hand if you thought the Minnesota Wild would be the best team in hockey one month into the season?

OK, Doug and Jacques, please put your hands down.

Not even Minnesota's bench boss and front office architect could be trusted if they told you they thought October would yield a bountiful harvest of 18 points.

"I wouldn't have believed it," general manager Doug Risebrough said Friday. "We are on a roll. But if you had told me that our team would be competing against all the teams that we played to date, yes, I would've believed that. Or that we would be playing hard -- yes. Or that they'd be close games -- yes. I think the difference is that all of those things have happened and some of those close games have gone in our favor."

The Wild have developed a winning attitude around the organization thanks in large part to the 18 Stanley Cup rings won by head coach Jacques Lemaire, GM Risebrough and assistant coach Mario Tremblay. Poor assistant coach Mike Ramsey has empty fingers, losing as a member of the Red Wings to Lemaire's Devils in the 1995 Stanley Cup finals in his only trip.

But a winning attitude is taking over in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. And credit that to the amount of jewelry owned by the key members of Minnesota's hockey operations department.

Lemaire won eight rings in 12 NHL seasons as a player and one in nine years as a coach, while Risebrough and Tremblay each won four in a row while teammates with Lemaire on the 1976-1979 Montreal Canadiens. Risebrough also owns a ring from being an assistant coach on the Flames' 1989 team, and he captained Calgary in its 1986 loss in the finals to Montreal.

But like so many others around the league, Lemaire and Risebrough had their styles honed by the winningest coach in NHL history, Scotty Bowman. And one thing they took from the Habs' glory years was a fondness for defense.

"We had the best offensive team in the league," Risebrough said. "But the only thing Bowman ever talked about was defense. So defense comes from discipline. It binds players to do the same things. It creates a camaraderie because they all have to do it. If we all don't do it, it doesn't work."

Minnesota has used a fierce forecheck and excellent speed and skating ability to force teams into turnovers. By sending one man deep into the offensive zone and then jumping on the recipient of the first pass out of the zone, the Wild has been able to goad teams into making dangerous passes up the middle and create excellent scoring chances on the counterattack.

"It's basically five guys playing a tight positioning and it doesn't really matter where they are," Risebrough said. "Obviously the defensemen play back and the forwards play up, but you could interchange all five guys if you wanted to. The approach of it is to tighten the lanes so the passes are harder to feed through. But you have to have good speed to tighten the lanes, because if the defensemen can't get up the ice fast enough, they can't close it. If the front guy can't get up the ice or the middle guys can't react to where the front guy is, then you can't tighten the lanes."

Minnesota has overcome the notion that it is strictly a trapping team by taking more offensive risks. With 38 goals, the Wild rank third in scoring behind the Penguins (40) and Lightning (39), two other teams that have also adapted well to the new sped-up game and enforcement of obstruction by being efficient on the power play.

Twenty-year-old left wing Marian Gaborik and 28-year-old goaltender Manny Fernandez are the two biggest reasons for the solid start. Each was among the dozen finalists for the NHL Player of the Month award for October that went to Mario Lemieux. With six goals and eight assists in 11 games, Gaborik has again proven he is the best all-around player under the age of 21. Gaborik leads 19-year-old Ilya Kovalchuk 54-35 for the goal scoring lead among those who aren't able to yet legally tip back a libation in this country.

Gaborik became the youngest player to record a six-point game when he torched the Coyotes for a half dozen in Minnesota's 6-1 win last Saturday. At 20 years, 254 days, Gaborik passed Quebec's Owen Nolan (20 years, 22 days), who tallied one goal and five assists in a 10-4 victory over Hartford on March 5, 1992. Gaborik is just the sixth player in the past six seasons to tally six points in a game, but the Wild are more concerned that he continues to play within the team system and grows as a player.

"He's a young guy who we don't want to put a lot of pressure on," Risebrough said. "We want him just to develop. He's going to have games where he's not going to be really good. Experience takes time. You can't play two games in one. To get 200 games of experience, you have to play 200 games. To get meaningful games experience, you have to play key games."

Fernandez is back on the upswing after a down year in 2001-02. With a 6-0 record, 1.48 goals-against average and a .949 save percentage, Fernandez has been one of the best goalies in the NHL so far and certainly has to rank as the biggest snub on the NHL's All-Star ballot. Among regular starters, Fernandez leads in GAA and save percentage and is tied with Martin Brodeur for second in wins behind Nikolai Khabibulin.

"We had a good speech last year at the end of the season saying we would raise the bar," Fernandez said. "I think every player kind of understood that. We came to camp ready to work. I don't think there's a key somewhere where you can say, 'This is what happened.' We came in, we gained a little confidence in exhibition games. From there, we haven't stopped working hard and trying our best."

The Wild are careful to temper the enthusiasm that a quick start has fostered in hockey-crazed Minnesota. After all, Calgary started 13-2-2-2 last year and then slumped to finish just 32-35-12-3. Despite sitting five points behind the Wild in the Northwest Division, the Avs can probably still be considered the favorite to win their record ninth straight division title. Colorado has lost just one game in regulation and may close the gap with Minnesota if the Avs can get their struggling power play in order.

"Realistically I think they have a lot more experience and a lot broader base than us," Risebrough said. "We are just competing in what I think is a very positive division for us. I've always believed that this is probably the fastest division in the league."

And it could result in another Stanley Cup ring for Lemaire, Risebrough and Tremblay -- and a first one for Ramsey -- a lot sooner than anyone would've predicted.

"We're sitting in a car that is rolling," Lemaire said. "We don't know when we're going to hit a bump. We're all sitting in it, going down the hill. Let's see how far we can go."

Snub a dub-dub

While Fernandez stands out as the most glaring exclusion, several other players who are off to quick starts were also left off the All-Star ballot which was released on Thursday. These players are hoping to follow in Jarome Iginla's footsteps and mount an impressive write-in campaign with their hometown fans after Iggy got 23,254 votes despite not being on last year's ballot.

Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis is tied for second in the league in scoring with 15 points, the same total as established stars Mats Sundin, Alexei Kovalev and Alexander Mogilny. But you won't find his name on a punchcard near you.

St. Louis' teammate, Dan Boyle, is third among defensemen in scoring with 11 points, trailing only Norris Trophy candidates Sergei Zubov (one goal, 11 assists) and Nicklas Lidstrom (five goals, six assists). Yet another Lightning missing from the ballot is Vaclav Prospal, who has four goals and eight assists to tie for 12th in scoring.

And Lemieux's right wing, Aleksey Morozov, isn't on there, despite having seven goals and seven assists to tie for sixth in the scoring race.

Anaheim's Steve Rucchin (three goals, 10 assists), Florida's Olli Jokinen (five goals, seven assists), Buffalo's Chris Gratton(three goals, eight assists), Boston's Nick Boynton (one goal, four assists, plus-13), New York's Tom Poti (one goal, nine assists), Philadelphia's Eric Weinrich (one goal, five assists, plus-13) and Calgary's Toni Lydman (two goals, three assists, plus-8) are having seasons worthy of All-Star Game consideration.

In nets, Carolina's Kevin Weekes (5-2-1, 1.93 GAA, .939 save pct.), Pittsburgh's Johan Hedberg (5-1-2, 2.74 GAA, .915 save pct.) and Philadelphia's Robert Esche (3-0, 1.68 GAA, .926 save pct.) all could be understandably upset for not seeing their name on the ballot.

Feast or famine for Feaster

Lightning general manager Jay Feaster staked his reputation -- and perhaps his job -- on a couple of offseason moves that some thought were head-scratchers at the time.

A quick look at the scoreboard a month into the season shows Feaster 1, Pundits 0.

The Lightning went into the offseason hoping to get a top-six forward and a top-four defenseman via trade. Feaster dealt for Ruslan Fedotenko from the Flyers and Brad Lukowich from the Stars. Tampa Bay sent the No. 4 overall pick in the 2002 Entry Draft to Philadelphia for Fedotenko and a second-rounder, which they then traded to Dallas for Lukowich. At the time it may have seemed like a lot to give up, but with the Lightning tied with Philadelphia atop the Eastern Conference at 16 points, it now seems like a good deal.

Feaster told me in the first week of September that his calculated risk of those two deals would be the make-or-break moves for his club.

"I'm certainly willing to let my reputation rise and fall on those two guys," Feaster said at the time. "We added two very good hockey players. We discovered some underutilized talents, and they can both be more than what they were allowed to be with their old franchises."

Lukowich has one goal, four assists and a plus-8 rating. He has proved that he can be a top-four defenseman, something he was never asked to do with the Stars. Fedotenko has four goals, four assists and a plus-4 rating, including two game-winning goals. Getting significant power-play minutes for the first time in his career, the 23-year-old Russian has been one of the team's most consistent forwards. Fedotenko's emergence, along with the surprising efforts of St. Louis and Prospal, has given Tampa Bay three good scoring lines for the first time in its history.

Sports Illustrated ranked the Lightning as the worst team in the league, prompting Feaster to say that he would cancel his long-time subscription. Our CNNSI.com preview was more cautiously optimistic, while Darren Eliot predicted Tampa Bay to finish third in the Southeast and 11th in the East.

While I don't work in SI's customer service department, I am imploring you to reconsider about your subscription, Jay. You are winning now. We are saying nice things about you because you are winning. That's the way it works. Maybe the kind folks on the hotline can get you a free shoe phone and a good rate if you reconsider about your subscription.

Rumor mill

Curt Fraser's job is safe for another day after a Thursday tie in Toronto. But names that may interest Thrashers general manager Don Waddell if the team doesn't get in the win column soon include Ron Wilson, Ted Nolan, Ron Low, Walt Kyle and Alain Vigneault. ... It seems as if the Habs are finding it difficult to dump Donald Audette and the $9 million left on his contract. Audette's up-and-down week featured him as a healthy scratch on Tuesday, logging first-line time in practice with Saku Koivu and Richard Zednik and now likely moving to the fourth line with Chad Kilger and Randy McKay. ... The Islanders aren't pleased with the early-season play of netminders Chris Osgood and Garth Snow. General manager Mike Milbury has a fine option at AHL Bridgeport in 2000 No. 1 overall pick Rick DiPietro, but Milbury told Newsday that he'd give it until Dec. 1 before making any changes in goal. ... Rumors persists out of the New York area that the Devils are interested in the Panthers' Valeri Bure. Other names that New Jersey may be interested in are Los Angeles' Steve Heinze (logging time on the farm in Manchester), as well as Calgary doghouse dwellers Rob Niedermayer and Savard. The Devils have defensemen Andrei Zyuzin and Mike Danton to dangle, since their blue-line corps is deep and both have been healthy scratches. ... Fred Brathwaite is available now that St. Louis has signed Tom Barrasso to back up Brent Johnson. ... The Rangers are trying to move D Sylvain Lefebvre, perhaps to clear a regular spot for Mike Mottau or Tomas Kloucek.

Worth noting

Congratulations to this year's Hockey Hall of Fame inductees who will be inducted on Monday in Toronto. Bernie Federko, Clark Gillies and Rod Langway are going into the Hall in the player category, while Roger Neilson is being enshrined as a builder. The Boston Globe's Kevin Dupont and Gilles Tremblay of La Soiree du Hockey are the media honorees. ... Mark Messier will tie Larry Murphy for second on the all-time games played list on Saturday in Boston at 1,615 games. Gordie Howe's record of 1,767 appears safe unless Mess can squeeze in two more full seasons. ... Dave Andreychuk is one power-play goal away from tying Phil Esposito for the most ever at 249. Andreychuk needs just three goals to also become the 14th player in NHL history to reach 600 and four to tie Jari Kurri (601) for 13th place all-time. ... It was great to see Steve Yzerman back on the ice this week, skating alone for about 15 minutes in his first spin on skates since the Wings won the Cup on June 13. ... Penguins left wing Martin Straka hopes to return next week, though with his injury luck of late, let's wait until he's in uniform to believe it. Straka could move right on to the top line with Lemieux and Morozov, which would allow Kovalev to return to the second line with Jan Hrdina and Randy Robitaille. But do the Penguins really want to break up the league's best trio? Their top line is averaging 5.21 points per game so far this season. ... Red Wings rookie Henrik Zetterberg will be back in the lineup on Saturday after missing three games with a strained groin. ... Jarome Iginla is off to a considerably cooler start this season, but his respect level with his teammates is at an all-time high. Iggy dropped the gloves with Dallas' Bill Guerin last Thursday after Guerin bumped Marc Savard pretty good. Tough guy Bob Boughner came over to keep Iginla out of the fight if Iggy had opted to, but he pounded Guerin pretty good in a battle featuring $58 million worth of scoring superstars. ... Kudos to some generous players for their kind charity donations of late. Chicago's Steve Sullivan and Jocelyn Thibault bought a suite at the United Center to allow various youth groups to use this season. And José Théodore purchased a private suite at the Bell Centre for the next three seasons to give underprivileged children from the Ste-Justine Hospital and Montreal Canadiens Hospital the chance to go to Habs games.

Shameless plug

Do you ever get so sick of your job that you just want to chuck it all and go after some half-crazed dream of yours?

Gary Sande, 31, of Mission, British Columbia, did just that in the summer of 2001 when he decided to open Sande Hockey after spending seven years running his own security alarm installation company.

Sande has developed his small hockey equipment company to fight the good fight as a little guy in the crowded hockey equipment game against such giants as CCM and Bauer. He believes in strong customer service and innovative products to help his fledgling company continue to grow. He employs 17 people as reps, but is growing quickly with plans to introduce several new products in the coming months.

After starting with three high-end gloves, the company has now developed pants and will release the Infinity one-piece composite stick on Dec. 1 and the innovative new Max-Q gloves on Feb. 16. The new mitts will look like a traditional Sande glove but have a tweaked look and more limited graphics. It will feature a built-in removable wrist guard and a secret new feature that Sande is waiting on a patent for and couldn't discuss.

The new stick will be a true one-piece rather than two fused pieces. At around 480 grams it will be heavier than the industry-leading Easton Synergy, but Sande says it has additional Kevlar in it to make it stronger and will have a heavier blade to allow it to swing like a pendulum.

"This year is just going to be an unbelievable year with our new products," Sande said. "It's just going to be great. I expect the big guys are going to be so impressed that they will phone me for the licensing rights to these gloves."

With retail prices around $140 for the stick and close to $150 for the glove, Sande Hockey is going after a high-end niche in market.

Jon A. Dolezar covers the NHL for CNNSI.com.

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