Vote: Most memorable moment in Minnesota Wild history

[yave1964]

  Today we are going to kick off a series of the most memorable moments in the history of each of the 30 teams in the NHL, beginning with the Minnesota Wild

 

  The Wild have been around since the 2000-01 season, replacing the Stars who had left for Dallas after the 1993 season. There have been some ups but a lot of downs for the franchise,  here are what I feel are the greatest moments in the history of the franchise.

 

GABORIK SCORES FIVE GOALS IN ONE GAME AGAINST LUNDQVIST December 20th 2007

 

"One time I got five goals when I was playing back home for a pro club back there, but this is just totally different," Gaborik said. "You score five goals in the NHL it's just a totally different experience. To reach it here with these guys in front of our fans is just unbelievable."

Gaborik had a hat trick less than 26 minutes into the game and finished with the first five-goal outing since Sergei Federov did it for Detroit on Dec. 26, 1996, in an overtime game against Washington.

 

ANDREW BRUNETTE GAME SEVEN OVERTIME WINNER AGAINST HEAVILY FAVORED AVALANCHE

 

 In only their third season of existence against the heavily favored Colorado Avalanche the Wild were expected to be a tuneup for the real playoffs but the team, led by coach Jacques Lemaire who told the team to believe in themselves throughout against the Hall of Fame lineup of the Lanche, the team forced game 7 and won on a goal by Andrew Brunette sending Patrick Roy into retirement.

SUTER AND PARISE CHOOSE MINNESOTA!!

 

  The Wild had not one but a pair of top free agents choose Minnesota as their destination following the 2011-12 season. A team stuck in mediocrity and missing the playoffs for the 4th year in a row, the Wild made a serious splash with identical 13 year and 98 million dollar contracts.

 “When you’re dealing with free agency, ultimately the players have the choice of where they want to go,” said Minnesota GM Chuck Fletcher. “Zach and Ryan deserve a lot credit. They made the decision to come to Minnesota. We worked at it. We’re just very fortunate to be the beneficiaries of their decision.”

WILD UPSET AVALANCHE (AGAIN!) IN PLAYOFFS

 

In 2014 in Patrick Roy's first season as the Avalanche head coach the team won the rugged and finished second in the West, they squared off against the 7 seed Wild in what they figured would be a easy tuneup for the second round.

Ahem.

  Once again the Wild showed they had the Avalanche (And Roy's) number in the post season, defeating the favored Lanche in 7 hard fought games.  History repeating itself.

 

 There have been many others of course, thank you for reading, please feel free to cast your vote and any input as to your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

I had it narrowed it down to the Gaborik 5 goal game and the signing of both Parise and Suter to mega contracts in the same summer.

 

In the end though, I had to go with an actual on ice game moment in time....and they don't come any more exhilarating (at least for fans of the Wild...certainly NOT the Rangers ), than that 5 goal / 6 point performance that saw Marion Gaborik go absolutely bonkers on future Vezina winner, Henrik Lundquist.

It was remembering performances like these that made it all the more painful to see Gaborik constantly sidelined with injury...to the point where Minnesota finally gave up on him and allowed the prolific scorer to walk once he became a UFA. I imagine had Gaborik proved more durable, the Wild certainly would have given him a multi-year contract, and who knows, perhaps Minnesota would have been more of a playoff contender earlier on in the franchise's history because of it.

 

Memorable moments are certainly subjective, and I don't want to downplay Minnesota's upset of the Colorado Avalanche in 2003 and their subsequent run to the Western Conference Finals that year (many Wild fans I know certainly would rank that as one of the most memorable). The Wild were definite underdogs that year, a collection of muckers and grinders who probably had no business making the playoffs that year, much lesss beating a powerful Avalanche squad, yet there they were, doing just that.

But from my perspective, while I was a hockey fan, I wasn't a Minnesota Wild fan then (that came around 2005), so while I am sure longer tenured Wild fans may vote that, for me, 5 goals against the Blue Shirts is it!

 

The signing of both Suter and Parise definitely was a 'wow' moment as well, buuuuut, IMO, until the Wild actually win a championship with those guys on the team, I can't say the signing was the MOST memorable. Get back to me if and when Minnesota wins a Stanley Cup, then perhaps I can go back and say, "You know, that all started when Minnesota signed Zach Parise and Ryan Suter!"

 

LOL...sorry, @yave1964 , but this past playoffs defeat of the Colorado Avalanche does even come CLOSE to ranking with some of the other choices on here.

Don't get me wrong, it certainly was a feel-good time to be able to beat a good Avs team and move on to face Chicago in the next round, but honestly, despite seeding, and despite media hype for the Avs last year, I really never felt the Wild were severe underdogs in this matchup.

I said from the start, the series was either a pick'em or perhaps a slight edge to the Avs (and I gave the Avs that slight edge just based on record)....but the play during the series often saw Minnesota outplaying the Avalanche...and Colorado's youthful inexperience could be seen shining through on many occasions.

 

Throw in some questionable officiating and that series between the teams, IMO, went longer than it should have. The result was what I believed was very possible based on play (Minnesota wins it), however, I still believe they should have finished off the Avs much sooner than the 7 games it took them to do it....and I don't care if they were led by Patrick Roy or not.

I gave Colorado 1 game as a legit 'win' where Minnesota simply was overmatched, but the rest? Mostly Wild with some big breaks going Colorado's way to keep them in it.

 

Let's hope that in the not-too-distant future, I can revise my 'most memorable moment' to one where the Wild win their Cup, beat some very good teams along the way, THEN I can look back and go "All that money Parise and Suter got...well spent!"

And who knows...when Minnesota finally wins a Cup, maybe instead of a Parise or Suter, the key to it all can be a guy like Mikael Granlund, Darcy Kuemper, Charlie Coyle, or even a guy who isn't even on the team as of last year, Matthew Dumba.

 

THAT would certainly rank as memorable for me: Minnesota winning it all and using guys they either home grew or mostly developed themselves to do it! 

[DaGreatGazoo]

Easy:   On June 25, 1997, the NHL announced that Minnesota had been awarded an expansion franchise, to begin play in the 2000–01 season.   :ph34r: 

[yave1964]

@TropicalFruitGirl26

 

Thank you, nice response. I am going to do one of these on every team, Minnesota being my guinea pig for trying to get the pictures posted and get it listed properly.

  i think i will personally go with the 2003 upset of the Avalanche. It was Paddy Roy's last year, with Forsberg, Sakic, Blake, Roy and the rest against a third year expansion team that was damn cheeky just making the playoffs nobody gave them much of a chance. i remember the series, Brunette stole game one, and then put the dagger in with the overtime winner in game seven. Game six was an overtime adventure as well, Richard Park won that one for the Wild. to me that series put wild hockey on the map. Before that they were just they guys who replaced the North Stars who had been stolen by the reviled Norman Green. That was the year that Lemaire cemented himself as an all time coach as well.

[hf101]

Or how about the 6-0 win against Mike Modano and the Dallas Stars at home in Season 1.      

 

Another really odd thing about the Wild is they rotated captains for 9 years before choosing Koivu as their first franchise Captain.  

 

Here are some of the early Highlights

 

 

As far as my choice for most Memorable I have to go with Brunette's OT game 7 goal.  

[jammer2]

  You know what I want to see *really* *really* bad???   The rebirth of this uniform as a Wild 3rd jersey.

 

 

 

I know, I know, the North Stars left and became the Dallas Stars....BUT...this jersey, (one of my favourite of all time I might add), it really belongs to the people of Minnesota. Since Dallas will never utilize this look, they should do the right thing and allow the Wild to utilize it as a 3rd jersey. What a classy wonderful gift that would be to the Minnesota fans. I can still see ol' Gump Worsley flailing around in the N with the little star!  One of the very best logo's anywhere!!

[yave1964]

  You know what I want to see *really* *really* bad???   The rebirth of this uniform as a Wild 3rd jersey.

 

 

 

I know, I know, the North Stars left and became the Dallas Stars....BUT...this jersey, (one of my favourite of all time I might add), it really belongs to the people of Minnesota. Since Dallas will never utilize this look, they should do the right thing and allow the Wild to utilize it as a 3rd jersey. What a classy wonderful gift that would be to the Minnesota fans. I can still see ol' Gump Worsley flailing around in the N with the little star!  One of the very best logo's anywhere!!

That N could easily be turned into a W for the third jersey, great idea!!

[hf101]

Like this?

It was the second choice for the Wild logo.  But the decision was made to go with a new look.  I used it as my avatar last summer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jammer2]

@hf101  I was wondering where I saw that before...lol.

[MinnyNorthernLights]

  You know what I want to see *really* *really* bad???   The rebirth of this uniform as a Wild 3rd jersey.

 

 

 

I know, I know, the North Stars left and became the Dallas Stars....BUT...this jersey, (one of my favourite of all time I might add), it really belongs to the people of Minnesota. Since Dallas will never utilize this look, they should do the right thing and allow the Wild to utilize it as a 3rd jersey. What a classy wonderful gift that would be to the Minnesota fans. I can still see ol' Gump Worsley flailing around in the N with the little star!  One of the very best logo's anywhere!!

I miss this logo so much! Had one of my relatives N*s jersey signed by a few of their players from the late 70's at a signing a few months ago. Plan on framing it someday. But would absolutely love this as a alternate jersey. That W*s one is pretty cool to though.