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Their head coach: Bruce Boudreau. This was the perfect match of head coach and franchise. The one franchise who consistently loses in the first two rounds of the playoffs absolutely would hire the one head coach who always woefully underperforms in the postseason, wouldn't they? It's too bad Patrick Roy and Boudreau won't go at it as Avs and Wild head coaches. After the infamous glass-push from Roy three years ago when Boudreau coached the Ducks, it's clear the two of them don't send each other Christmas cards. Imagine if Roy did that to Boudreau as coach of the Wild, at the end of a 6-1 Avalanche win like it was during that night. The "State of Hockey" would clench so hard they'd be redder than Boudreau's borderline frightening rosy cheeks.
Their captain: Mikko Koivu. You know you have an extremely hatable team when one of the Koivus doesn't even come to mind as one of the players on the team that's hated. You think of Wild players that you don't like, you obviously think of Zack Parise, Ryan Suter, Matt Dumba, Jason Pominville, Jared Spurgeon, Erik Haula, Mikael Granlund, and OH MY GOD there are so many players on this team I just do not like. Why do I not like them? Well, they play for Minnesota. That's enough in my book.
Their 15-16 season: Same as most Minnesota Wild seasons. They started really well, played horrible in the middle of the season, had a decent enough finish to just skirt into the playoffs, and lost in one of the first two rounds. That's that.
How did they do against the Avs? Good, as usual. The Wild won every game but one, and even in that one game managed to pick up a point since the Avs won their one game against Minnesota in overtime. Nothing will ever infuriate me more in sports than the Avs blowing that 4-1 lead to the Wild on opening night. Jesus.
When do they play the Avs this season? In Denver on November 5th, in St. Paul on November 19th and December 20th, and back in Denver on April 6th.
Will they be good? Why does it matter? Like I said above, it'll be like every other Minnesota Wild season. They'll probably make the playoffs, most likely as a wild card, and they'll lose to Chicago, Dallas, Nashville, or St. Louis in the first round. By some grace of God (like playing Colorado in the 1st round), they'll make it to the 2nd round and lose then. I should copy/paste this blurb and use it for every other Wild article I write for the rest of eternity.
3 Questions with their SB Nation blog, Hockey Wilderness: I don't know why this surprised me, but Hockey Wilderness doesn't follow MHH on Twitter. Okay, well, we follow them, so don't say we don't respect their opinions. We do, maybe not as much as some other fans' opinions, but we respect them nonetheless. They obviously don't respect ours. Fine. More fuel to the fire.