Starting Slow

Mikko Koivu didn’t exactly have the greatest start to the 2014-2015 season. The captain of the Minnesota Wild scored only 2 goals in his first 24 games and lacked a dominant presence on the ice. His performance was so poor that some Wild fans started petitioning

for a Koivu trade and/or demanding he was stripped of the captaincy. Apparently this message has made its way to Koivu because his game has done a 180 over the past five or so games.

The Comeback Koivu

It’s common knowledge that Mikko Koivu plays a different kind of game when he gets fired up. Maybe he finally realized he wasn’t  contributing. Maybe he just got angry. I don’t know why the Captain turned his game around, but I’m glad he has. Koivu has managed to score four goals in the Wild’s last five games and had at least a point in all five. That’s pretty impressive considering Koivu was completely out of it for the first two months of the season.

Tuesday night seemed to be the pinnacle of Koivu’s season thus far, as he scored a goal, recorded an assist on a Jason Pominville goal, and won 22 of 30 face-offs. Koivu was awarded second star of the game, as well as FSN’s “Player of the Game.” Even without the stats, Koivu was much more of a force on the ice Tuesday than he has been in the past. For a guy that possibly had a strain of the mumps, that’s a pretty good game.

Not only has Koivu been showing signs of life throughout the past few games, but his entire line has seemed to come alive recently, which is a promising sign for the Minnesota Wild. Nino Niederreither and Thomas Vanek both had strong games for the Wild, as well. If Koivu can continue to play well, and the rest of the time can get fired up like they did against the New York Islanders, there’s no telling what this team can do. The only problem is the lack of consistency this team has experienced so far, but hopefully now that their fateful is back on track, the wins will keep coming. There’s nothing like a feisty Finn to get things moving in the right direction.

Author information

Allison Baker

Allison is a contributor covering the Minnesota Wild for The Hockey Writers. She is currently a journalism student at the University of Minnesota, a fan of all things hockey, and can be followed on twitter @allibaker23

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