On Nov. 17, the Minnesota Wild fell to last place in the NHL. With just seven wins in their first 20 games, no team had fewer points (16) than Minnesota.
The Wild were looking like a veteran team weighed down by too many bloated (and regrettable) contacts. Their big free-agent acquisition, Mats Zuccarello, wasn't producing. Goaltending looked suspect. It appeared Minnesota was much closer to entering a rebuild than it was to contending. General manager Paul Fenton had been fired in late July, less than 15 months into the job. Bill Guerin, who won two Stanley Cups as a player and two more as a member of Pittsburgh's front office, was hired as a replacement in August.