Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

All Craig Leipold

04/10/2017 at 10:22am EDT

from Dan Myers of Wild.com,

DM: You became the majority owner of the Wild in 2008. After a few years outside the playoffs, the club has now reached the postseason five straight years. Would you say the bar has been raised for this franchise, in terms of your expectations for it on a yearly basis?

CL: The bar is higher. I mean, five in a row, comes within what we consider to be "elite status." There aren't many teams that have done that. Even though our history has been really good, and our present is great, the next five years look to be phenomenal as well. We've got a great, young core of players and we've got young guys, prospects coming up that look like they're going to be outstanding NHL players. So we're all excited. The bar is higher for us, not only for our fans, but for our team, the players, the bar is higher and for management, the bar is higher.

DM: After a historic regular season and with a bunch of guys coming off career-best years, is this as excited as you've been heading into the playoffs?

CL: Yeah. Playoffs are crazy. All teams step up and there's a great formula for being successful in the playoffs: staying healthy, having great goaltending and scoring goals. If we can do that, and I think this is certainly the best team I've ever had here, we have that kind of organization and teamwork that I feel really confident in. We can have a lot of fun this year and make a lot of noise.

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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