The Minnesota Wild, which entered the NHL this season, is in a situation similar to the Blue Jackets. It set an NHL expansion record for average attendance with 18,327 per game, but if it hadn't set the record, the Blue Jackets would have with 17,452. It's numbers like this that keep Bettman beaming. People said that hockey was an easy sell in Minnesota,'' said Doug Risebrough, the Wild executive vice president and general manager. That's true to an extent.
People here know hockey.
They love hockey. But there were people here who swore off the NHL forever when the North Stars left. We've brought a lot of them back into the fold, and the response in this city has been tremendous. There's no reason to think it won't continue next season. But if the Wild don't progress, or if they regress, they, like the Blue Jackets, could see a dip like Nashville or Atlanta.