The incomparable Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports Minnesota Wild head coach Jacques Lemaire has decided to return for another season.

"When you are younger, it's a lot easier to make a decision,'' Lemaire said in a statement released by the team. "At the end of the year, I said I wanted to ask questions of Doug (president and general manager Doug Risebrough). I wanted to make sure my boss is happy with the work I am doing and with the way I manage the team. This is what we talked about in our meetings. I am reassured of my work and I want to coach again. My satisfaction behind the bench is getting the team to play the best it can, individually and as a group. Success will come with that.''

Lemaire is the only coach the Wild have ever had. At age 62, he sounded after the season ended like a man who knows he won't be doing this coaching thing forever, but he didn't sound like a guy ready to hang it up.

Now the work begins. General manager Doug Risebrough may end up retooling the roster, as the Wild have 13 free agents. They had 14, but Petteri Nummelin has already decided to play in Europe.

Such a high number of contract-year players may have led to some selfish play during the regular season, but Russo has noted a couple different times that Lemaire was pleased with the team's effort during their first-round playoff loss to Colorado.

No one is making excuses for Minnesota's poor performance in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They were putrid offensively and average defensively, and lost in six games to Colorado.

One of the major factors in Minnesota's early exit was the struggle their star player went through. Marian Gaborik didn't score a goal and tallied just a single assist in the series, after scoring a franchise-record 42 goals in the regular season.

Gaborik elected not to play in the World Championships for Team Slovakia, citing a hip injury. We learned Friday that he has undergone successful surgery on that hip.

The surgery was to repair a torn labrum and relieve some pressure on Gaborik's hip. The injury will keep him from playing for Slovakia in this month's hockey world championships.

Gaborik, who is entering the final year of his contract, will spend 10 days to two weeks in Colorado and then return to the Twin Cities to continue his rehabilitation, Wild general manager Doug Risebrough said.

Risebrough went on to say that Gaborik had issues with the hip all season, but it didn't affect him during the playoff series. It does make you wonder what the guy can do when both hips are healthy.

This doesn't sound too serious, but when you consider Gaborik's injury history, it does bear watching.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

Things couldn't have been more different last night for the New York Rangers and Colorado Avalanche. Both teams were facing a sweep and the potential of Sunday morning tee times this weekend. Both also had superstars that could have been seeing their last shifts, helping to create what could make for a legendary Hall of Fame class in a few years (Forsberg, Sakic, Shanny and Jagr, oh my!). But two roads diverged in a wood and well, you know how that goes.

This wasn't necessarily the last game for Joe Sakic -- a class act as far as I know -- but, if for some reason it turns out to be just that for the 19-year NHL vet, it was the worst way in which his stellar career could have ended. The Avs were outmatched from the get go in this series. The injuries mounted and they were riding a ticking time bomb between the pipes. I'm not making excuses, but the odds were stacked against them. On the other side of the ice, the Red Wings -- still coming off that President's Trophy -- were given a scare in the first round from Nashville, one that likely shook them and woke them up in a cold sweat at 3 AM. That's what appears to have happened at least. Last night the Red Wings took it to the Avs, firing on all cylinders in front of the home fans in Detroit (whoops ... It was in Detroit) and came away with an 8-2 victory.

It's no secret that the 2007-08 NHL season didn't end the way New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur wanted it to. As if seeing his team flushed out of the playoffs in just five games wasn't enough, Brodeur also got to endure a public beatdown at the hands of winger Sean Avery. No, Avery never laid a glove on Brodeur. Instead, he did something far worse: Avery shamed him with his antics, something that Brodeur only compounded as he refused to shake Avery's hand at the end of the series.

It's also no secret that Brodeur is closer to the end of his career than even he wants to admit, but if he has his way in a meeting with some fellow players and general managers in a few weeks, he'll be sure to have a significant influence on the game for many years after he's gone.

What am I talking about? This morning, the NHL and NHLPA announced the formation of the Goalie Equipment Working Group, a body consisting of five players and four general managers. According to a statement from the NHLPA, the group will "examine the configuration and dimensions of goaltender equipment with respect to safety and performance."

"If the working group decides alterations to the rules governing goaltender equipment are warranted, and will not jeopardize the safety of the goalies, these recommendations will be forwarded to the Competition Committee for consideration," the statement said.

In other words, if there's any way this group can figure out a way to shrink the equipment in order to increase goal scoring without jeopardizing the life and health of goaltenders, they'll do it. Then again, taking a look at the members of the group, my guess is we won't be seeing any dramatic changes after that June 11 meeting.

Expectations were higher.

Even after Kurtis Foster was injured and Nick Schultz went under the knife, a first-round exit was simply not going to be tolerated.

Especially like this.

Minnesota lost Saturday to Colorado, 2-1, dropping their first-round series in six games. The Avalanche simply outworked and outhustled Minnesota for most of the series, using their forward depth to wear down Minnesota's depleted defensive corps.

It's the fifth straight year that the Northwest Division champion has failed to get past at least the second round of the playoffs. It's not a stat with a lot of meaning, as two Northwest teams (Calgary and Edmonton) have made the Stanley Cup Finals in that stretch, but it shows that a division title means nothing but lame t-shirts for the fans and pointless banners in the home arena.

The Avalanche await their second-round opponent, while Minnesota tries to find a teetime. The Wild were slightly better during the regular season, but were undone in the playoffs by Colorado goaltender Jose Theodore, who backstopped the Avs to at least two of the four wins they picked up in the series.

(He stole Game One and Game Five for them, while Colorado won the other two games by being the better hockey team.)

This site shows what lies ahead for Minnesota. It's a lot of uncertainty, and possibly the most significant offseason in the short history of the Wild franchise.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

When you take a look back at the FanHouse Western Conference Roundtable, there was a lot of disagreement. However, there was at least one point of unanimity, and that was the contention that the Dallas Stars weren't long for this world, especially as they were set to face the defending Stanley Cup Champs, the Anaheim Ducks, in the first round of the playoffs.

For us, the calculus was pretty simple: Dallas had lost 10 of its last 14 games and was going against an Anaheim team that seemed designed specifically for playoff success. Toss in an injury to superstar defenseman Sergei Zubov, and it seemed as if the Ducks were set to steamroll the Stars out of the playoffs.

Which I guess is why they play the games. With a 3-1 home win in Game Four last night, Dallas took a rather commanding 3-1 series lead over the Ducks. Anaheim threw 28 shots on Marty Turco last night, but didn't get a puck past him until only 7.6 seconds were left in the game. Heck, even Teemu Selanne ran Turco in the third period, but it wasn't enough.

Tuesday, I was very unkind to Denver Post columnist Mark Kiszla. He wrote a column in Tuesday's edition that I wasn't terribly fond of. Neither were many Minnesota fans, but I didn't expect them to be.

Kiszla isn't exactly popular in Denver (read the comments, and realize that not all of them came from Minnesota fans), so I'm sure even some Avalanche fans were mildly annoyed. Perhaps they'd prefer he hung around Rockies games.

Anyway, part of Kiszla's column focused on Minnesota's style of play. The point was made that the Wild were playing a very physical brand of hockey, and the Avalanche weren't allowed to play their beautiful, free-flowing game.

Based on what happened in Tuesday's Game Four, Kiszla was prophetic. Minnesota took over 100 penalty minutes, including six ten-minute misconducts (two on Derek Boogaard) and a fighting major (Stephane Veilleux, who should have been thrown out of the game for a brutal hit on Paul Stastny). The out-of-control Wild were pounded, 5-1, and bring a tie series home for Game Five Thursday.

Recently, you had a chance to read Tom Ziller's recap of the fine work of Woody Paige. Turns out he's not the only clueless columnist in Denver. Maybe it's the thin air.

Last night, the Minnesota Wild took the lead in their Western Conference quarterfinal series with Colorado. The 3-2 overtime win in Denver saw the Wild overcome another third-period deficit, again outplay Colorado down the stretch and in overtime, and their hard work was rewarded with a second straight win.

Kiszla, who is a bad columnist for the Denver Post, (seemingly) attended the game and filed a second hack-job on the Wild's style of play in the last five years.

In 2003, Kiszla dismissed the Wild's chances in a first-round series against Colorado, then watched in horror as the Wild won the series in seven games.

In that piece from five years ago, Kiszla took a shot at the Wild's threads, saying they were the "worst-dressed team in hockey". Perhaps Kiszla needs to become hip to the times, because in Tuesday's column, he says the uniforms "look as if designed by a toddler who randomly pulled two crayons from the box of 64 and began scribbling".

Dude, we have the internet. People read your crap in 2003 and, for some odd reason, they didn't forget much of it.

He didn't stop there. Kiszla wrote as if he attended the game, but his words would indicate he didn't pay much attention to what was going on.

The Minnesota Wild have this wonderfully goofy nostalgic streak, from their defiantly garish fashion sense to their official team theme song. What, you haven't heard the Wild Anthem, which is played inside the arena during home games and "is a continual reminder of the pride we have in the game of hockey and the communities and lives it touches throughout" the state of Minnesota? The song that gave the world lyrics like, "The game's in our blood/And our blood's in the game/Lay us down under/A frozen pond?"

Presented correctly, the Wild Anthem is a rather majestic and moving tune. Presented by the Wild fan below, it's about as majestic as a Derek Boogaard left hook to the chin. I'll give him points for energy, some more points for knowing most of the words, and a few extra points for fantastic use of props (both gloves and hat); but he gets a big fat demerit for even attempting to hit a high-note.

Every Thursday, Earl Sleek will conspire with his pen and scanner to bring you another installment of PuckToons. Hopefully you will find these amusing, relevant, well-drawn, or you're a person who is tolerant towards mediocrity.

Last night, on the opening day of the playoffs, the Minnesota Wild, the San Jose Sharks, and the New Jersey Devils all lost their home ice advantage, something they had battled all season to earn. The Pittsburgh Penguins were the only home team of the four to start their series with a win. The most surprising result, perhaps, was the Sharks' loss to the Flames, in a series where very few liked Calgary's chances. Kudos to Matt at Battle of Alberta for staying optimistic.

Of course it's still early, and momentum can turn over the course of a seven-game series. I should point out one aspect of last year's postseason, though -- in all 15 series, the first team to lose three games ended up eliminated. There's certainly time for game one losers to rebound, but it needs to happen quickly.

Which game one loser(s) do you think will take back their series? Perhaps more importantly, though: which comeback would make for the best cartoon?