First, an apology to Minnesota Wild coach Jacques Lemaire: Your team isn't nearly as boring as we all thought it would be.

Now, a question: What's up with the goalies?

Leave it to Lemaire to keep us guessing.

	CHIRPIN'
	"If there's no season after next year, I'm done. Just call when it's over for a managerial job." -- Detroit winger Brett Hull, on why he signed just a one-year contract extension. Hull, 38, said a work stoppage in 2004 would end his career.
	THE NUMBER
	547 That's how many career victories Colorado goalie Patrick Roy has, putting him 100 in front of second place Terry Sawchuk's 447
	WHO'S HOT
	Chris Osgood has looked good in a Blues uniform as he has gone 4-1-0 with a 1.79 GAA and a .935 save percentage. And to think many in St. Louis were worried.
	WHO'S NOT
	Claude Lemieux has not given the Stars the boost they had hoped for. He has no points and is minus-8 in the last seven games. He also has been a healthy scratch once in that span.

When he took over the expansion Wild three years ago and insiders said there was no way to win consistently on a skimpy budget, Lemaire promised wins. Heading into the weekend, his team is 12 games over .500.

When the NHL promised a crackdown on obstruction and we all (OK, not everybody) predicted certain doom for the Wild, Lemaire said bring it on. He described his as a "skating team," one that played aggressive defense and stayed away from the hooking and holding. Heading into the weekend, only New Jersey had yielded fewer power-play opportunities to the opposition than Minnesota.

And when we all (again, I stress just mostly we fools in the media) start predicting certain doom for any team that tries to alternate goalies in the playoffs, Lemaire seems to be a step ahead of us.

If the Hall-of-Famer wanted to point to the fact his two-headed goaltending experiment ranks fourth in the NHL in goals against and has the best save percentage of any team in hockey, he could certainly do that. If he wanted to point to a team that seems equally comfortable with Manny Fernandez or Dwayne Roloson in net, he could do that.

Instead, though, he continues to quietly run his experiments and look at his critics with the same bemused sneer. For the record, Lemaire has played Roloson in all four games against the Red Wings, their current first-round opponent. He went 2-2-0. For the record, Lemaire played Fernandez in all four games against the Stars, another potential first-round opponent. He went 3-1-0.

Hmm, that seems strange, doesn't it?

Fernandez played two games against St. Louis, going 2-0-0, played two against Vancouver, going 1-1-0, and played three against Colorado, going 1-2-0.

Roloson, meanwhile, played twice against the Blues, going 0-1-1, three times against the Canucks, going 2-0-1, and twice against Colorado, going 0-0-2.

Anyone else see a pattern here? While Lemaire says he just throws his goalies out there and lets them play on whatever date comes up, he has juggled the schedule perfectly to give his netminders equal opportunities against the contenders. If the Wild play the Red Wings, Roloson has to be the goalie. If it's the Stars, count on Fernandez in net.

If Minnesota draws Vancouver, Roloson will likely get the first start. If they advance to play the Blues, Fernandez will probably be the No. 1.

That's the way Lemaire does it. He leaves little to chance, he plans for every option, he has his bases covered. He might say he doesn't know what he will do with his goalies, but the way he has used them so far tells another story.

Would he let Roloson play a Stars team he hasn't faced this season? Would he roll Fernandez out for the first time against the Red Wings? Those are curve balls he could consider, but it's likely he'll go with a No. 1 against those teams and, barring meltdown, stick with that No. 1.

Against a division rival like the Canucks, Lemaire might play a few hunches. Still, his path in a potential showdown with Vancouver also seems pretty clear.

How Lemaire juggles his goalies could be one of the most important decisions made in the playoffs. The Wild ranks 24th in scoring and will almost assuredly play low-scoring games. A bad goal here or there and the post-season could be short. A few key saves and there could be even more praise heaped on the Wild.

But as we try to figure out exactly what Lemaire is thinking, ponder this statistic -- Minnesota is 7-1-10 in overtime this season, so maybe it's not how many goals they score; it's when they score them.

	Turco

Turco rebounds from ankle injury
It's sometimes a little difficult to judge the seriousness of Marty Turco.

The Dallas Stars goaltender was having a little chat with St. Louis Blues netminder Brent Johnson near the end of a game last Sunday as they watched their two teams brawl. Turco had just returned from a high ankle sprain, the same injury that sidelined Johnson earlier in the season, so the prying media asked what was said between the two.

Turco retold the story like this: "He just said, 'I can't believe you came back so quick.' And I said, 'Figure it out, I'm tougher than you.' "

He wasn't being serious there. Just like he wasn't being serious when he dragged his injured right leg through the locker room the following day like Igor in Young Frankenstein in front of coach Dave Tippett.

That Marty Turco -- he's a barrel of laughs.

Now, he was being serious against the Canucks on Tuesday when he nearly got into a fight trying to protect that injured ankle. And he was being serious when he showed true disappointment in allowing an overtime goal to the Flames on Thursday.

The two sides of Turco (intense competitor and class clown) might seem strange, but they also combine to make for a pretty interesting goalie. He appears unaffected by the pressure of the job and actually lobbied against a game-day media silence imposed by Tippett for all goalies (it takes away a prime opportunity to work on his stand-up act).

Yet, Turco also shows a burning desire to win a championship and support his teammates.

"The opportunity that I've been given, I haven't taken for granted," he said of his chance to become a No. 1 goalie at age 27. "The injury made you take a step back a little and realize just how important all of this is, how we have to stay focused on the goal of a championship."

MVP to come out of Northwest?

	Bertuzzi

The winners of the Hart Trophy, the Ross Trophy and the Richard Trophy could all come out of the Northwest Division. Vancouver teammates Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi entered the weekend with 100 and 94 points respectively, with Bertuzzi holding a 46-45 edge in goals scored. Meanwhile, Colorado forward Peter Forsberg had 97 points and led the NHL in plus-minus at plus-46.

That sets up an interesting showdown as the league heads into the final week of the regular season. Bertuzzi said he and Naslund haven't talked about the awards, but that the competition between the two has been a helpful, driving force.

Forsberg, meanwhile, continues to climb up a lot of the ballot sheets. He is drawing praise from the national media and might just be able to step in if Bertuzzi and Naslund split their ballot.

In fact, when asked to vote for an MVP who was not a teammate, both Bertuzzi and Vancouver center Brendan Morrison went with Forsberg.

Depth Chart