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Minnesota Wild

NHL, the National Hockey League is a premier professional North American Sports League played in indoor stadiums. It’s divided into two conferences, each comprising of three divisions of ice hockey teams. The league was established in 1917 in Montreal, Quebec and it is composed of 30 teams out of which 24 teams based in U.S. and 6 in Canada. They have a regular season and playoffs leading to the Stanley Cup, which is the NHL Championship final.

The Minnesota Wild is a professional National ice hockey League team, founded in 2000, based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They play at the Xcel Energy Center. They are a member of the Western Conference in the Northwest Division. In 2001-02, the Wild would get off to a strong start by getting at least one point in their first 7 games. However the Wild would come back to earth and would finish in last place again. However, along the way their were signs the Wild were improving as 2nd year speedster Marian Gaborik had a solid season with 30 goals and Andrew Brunette led the team in scoring with 69 points.

In 2002-03, the Wild, in their first ever and to date only playoff appearance, make it all the way to the Western Conference Finals before being swept by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Previously, the Wild had beaten the heavily favoured and third seeded Colorado Avalanche. In the Western Conference Semi-Finals, the Wild beat the fourth seeded Vancouver Canucks. In the process, the Wild became the first team in playoff history to capture a seven game series twice after facing elimination in Game 5.

Minnesota's alternate logo is of the team's name emblazoned across a disc of green, red, and gold. In 2003-04, coming off a trip to the Western Conference Finals there was an air of optimism. However as the season started the Wild were short-handed with Pascal Dupuis and Marian Gaborik holding out. In a deep hole the Wild could not climb back into the playoffs despite finishing the season strong with wins in 5 of their last 6 games as they finished last in the competitive Northwest Division. Along the way the Wild began to gear up for the future trading away several of their older players that were a part of the franchise from the beginning.

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