Goon's Illegal Curve...

Here is an round table article that I contributed to on the illegal curve.

This season the Minnesota Wild have played all but two games without super
star Marian Gaborik, yet even without the super star the Minnesota
Wild have an impressive record of 11-4-1 and sit in third place in the
Western Conference standings.

It looks as if the Wild are going to be unable to sign Marian Gaborik and
are in the process of looking for a team to make a trade with according to
the rumors from TSN.

I am sure that Gaborik's big price tag; the fact that he is often injured,
and his current injury status will make Gaborik hard to move to another
team. These factors are going to make it difficult for Wild to get as much
for Gaborik as they would like. As I write this it appears that the Wild GM
Doug Risebrough might be trying to trade Gaborik to the Rangers.

Personally, I am getting tired of the Gaborik saga and I would like to see
the Wild get some closure on the Gaborik situation as soon a possible. If
Gaborik doesn't want to remain a member of the Wild, then so be it, then it
is time for Doug Risebrough to ship him off to a team that wants him. Let's
face the fact even if Gaborik can get healthy again, after June he is worth
nothing to the Minnesota Wild if they can?t get him signed to a deal.

The fan base in Minnesota seems to becoming tired of Gaboriks antics as well. Many of them are saying don?t let the door hit in the butt on the way out.

In Gaboriks absence the Wild have still got some solid play from these
three forwards; Mikko Koivo (3-13-16), Antii Miettinen (6-6-12) and Andrew
Brunette (6-5-11) have played well offensively and have kind of gotten the
fans to forget about their super star Marian Gaborik. To soften the blow of
losing Gabby, rookie forward Beniot Pouliot has also started to make a
contribution to the wild offensively and is second on the team in goals5-2-7
in 16 games this season.

The Wild are rock solid especially in net and need to get All-World goalie
Niklas Backstrom signed for the long term deal as soon as possible. It would
be an understatement to say that Niklas Backstrom is the bedrock of the
defensive minded Wild hockey team. Backstrom has been that good and it makes
it possible for the Wild to win 1-0 and 2-1 games.