Don’t let the title fool you, I’m not talking about the Iowa Hawkeyes embarrassing 51-14 loss at the hands of the Minnesota Golden Gophers. While it was one of the most lopsided games in the rivalry’s history, this article is more about losing. Unfortunately, I can speak from experience on that subject. As I’ve shared with you before, I am a high school football coach and for the last 8 seasons our team has failed to qualify for the playoffs. Its immensely frustrating for all the hard work you put in prior to and during the season to come up short and finishing in mid-October. You end up questioning yourself, asking what went wrong and what needs to be changed in order to turn it around. For the players, there is an underlying sense that disaster or failure is just around the corner. Even when good things happen you almost have to reassure them that what they are experiencing is real and not just fate teasing them before a series of unfortunate events take place and the team finds itself on the wrong end of the score once again. It almost feels like a curse.
Is that what is going on with the Wild’s American Hockey League affiliate in Iowa? Has a culture of losing permeated its farm team to the point where its damaging the development of its younger players? The Iowa Wild finished with a 27-36-7 record last season which was last in the AHL’s Western Conference, and 28th in the league with 67 points. After a difficult opening season in Des Moines the team vowed to be better and took steps to reshape its roster and committed itself towards improvement. Currently, the Iowa Wild are again in last place in the Western Conference with a 2-9 record 11 games into the 2014-15 season. The 4 points the Wild have the team sitting at the bottom of the AHL’s standings. Should the Minnesota Wild be concerned?
The team added former Canucks’ 1st round pick to help carry the offensive load in Iowa. Mar 14, 2014; Washington, DC, USA; Vancouver Canucks center Jordan Schroeder (45) skates with the puck as Washington Capitals right wing Tom Wilson (43) chases in the third period at Verizon Center. The Capitals won 4-3. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
The team took real steps to change its culture as it parted ways with AHL veterans like Carson McMillan, Warren Peters and Jake Dowell and replaced them with Brett Sutter, Jordan Schroeder, Danny Syvret, Stu Bickel and Justin Falk. The team also went out and signed a number of undrafted free agents out of Canadian major junior and the college ranks like Zack Mitchell, Brady Brassart, Ryan Walters, Alex Gudbranson and Guillaume Gelinas. So you can’t say the team simply hoped for different results from the same roster. Yet this group seems to have just as much trouble winning as did last year’s squad. Beyond losses, the team is still plagued by a lack of scoring most nights and unless Johan Gustafsson or John Curry stand on their heads they don’t seem to stand a chance.
"“Losing stinks, but what we have to do is find a way to let this one go … find the way to come out on the right end of it,” ~ Iowa Wild Head Coach Kurt Kleinendorst after a 4-3 loss to Milwaukee in their home opener on Oct. 18th, 2014"
The above quote seems to be a variation of almost every post-game commentary with Iowa Wild Head Coach Kurt Kleinendorst these days. At what point do you start to look at the Head Coach and wonder if that is what needs to be changed next? I would say if you read between the lines after this post-game report by the Des Moines Register after the Wild’s 5-3 loss on Thursday its getting closer to that. Kleinendorst is not talking to reporters, then accusations that players aren’t showing up are all classic indicators of a loss of control of the team. In professional sports, when reports like that start to come to fruition the axe is usually pretty close to falling on the head coach.
Losing seasons in the AHL have another affect on NHL franchises beyond creating a losing culture within its younger players, it also is lost development time. The AHL playoffs provide additional opportunities to develop and play games that have meaningful pressure attached to them. Scouts often say playing those meaningful post-season games in April and May are important in preparing a player mentally for the pressure of playing in the NHL. So to lose the opportunity for players to hone their game in the AHL post-season deprives them of being put through that mental crucible of sorts. Afterall, current Wild Head Coach Mike Yeo got hired large in part with the way he helped guide the Houston Aeros to the Calder Cup finals back in 2011. Ironically, Kleinendorst was the coach of the Binghampton Senators team that won the AHL championship by beating Yeo’s Aeros in 5 games. The long playoff run was invaluable for the development of current Wild players like Jared Spurgeon and Marco Scandella.
Another caveat of the Iowa Wild’s struggles is the fact this team is owned by the Minnesota Wild. A team that chronically loses games typically does not do so well at the turnstile. Last season the Iowa Wild had pretty decent attendance despite failing to qualify for the post season. The AHL used to post attendance figures on its website but not anymore. Attendance hasn’t fallen off the map yet, as the Wild had 6,263 announced attendees in Saturday night’s 4-2 loss to Chicago. However, its naive to believe fans will keep showing up in such numbers to watch a team that has little to no chance to win the game. Less people buying tickets mean that hurts the Minnesota Wild’s bottom line and I can’t imagine that will go unnoticed by Craig Leipold and Minnesota Sports & Entertainment for very long. As the old saying goes, “First impressions matter” and what sort of first impression has the Iowa Wild made on the fans in the Des Moines area? While they might be a family friendly franchise, fans and those buying tickets want to know they might see victories more often than not.
Last season the Minnesota Wild’s injury situation prompted the club to make a lot of call ups throughout the season that meant the team had a hard time knowing just who would be available to them from night to night. That hasn’t happened this season and the results so far project a season that could result in even less wins. Are those struggles enough for the Minnesota Wild to prompt Iowa Wild General Manager Jim Mill to drop the axe on Kleinendorst or will the club just continue to ride it out hoping it turns itself around on its own? I think its safe to say that patience is starting to wear a little thin and it will be interesting to see if this team can recover. All Minnesota Wild fans have to do is think back to last season when the vultures seemed to be circling over the head of Mike Yeo only to be saved by an improbable run in December and January. Can the team help save Kleinendorst from being dismissed or will the team struggles continue? Only time will tell.