Last season, Calgary Flames GM Darryl Sutter was disappointed by his team's first-round exit at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings, and so he decided to take drastic action. He imported mercurial head coach "Iron Mike" Keenan to be the team's new bench boss, making the Flames a perpetual soap opera-in-the-making.

On Saturday night, Keenan will lead his troops to St. Paul, where they'll take on Jacques Lemaire's Minnesota Wild. Lemaire has gained an undeserved reputation as the innovator of the neutral zone trap, and though his teams have traditionally been more defensively focused, this year's Wild team happens to be one of the NHL's most exciting to watch.

Televised in brilliant 1080i on HDNet, this will be a thrilling Northwest Division battle that you definitely won't want to miss!

Flames to Watch

Captain Jarome Iginla and young defenseman Dion Phaneuf are prototypical Keenan players, highly skilled but also tireless workers unafraid to battle in the trenches. And it's no surprise whatsoever that both players are thriving in their first season under "Iron Mike." Iginla is leading the Flames with 20 points (to go along with a team-leading plus-11 rating), while Phaneuf is pacing the blue line corps with nine points and a plus-nine rating.

What is a surprise is that finesse forward Alex Tanguay seems to be acclimating nicely to life with Keenan. Often criticized for his soft perimeter play, Tanguay has been an excellent complement to Iginla and first-line center Daymond Langkow. Tanguay's success throughout his career has largely been a product of his situation; with the right linemates, he is a bona fide top-line player. And while it's often said that "anyone could score on a line with Iginla," in truth, it takes a special player to be able to excel alongside a talent of Iginla's ilk.

The jury is still out for Kristian Huselius, who feuded on a near-constant basis when the two were with the Florida Panthers. He has scored at a near point-per-game pace, tallying seven goals and 12 points, but his team-worst minus-two rating is cause for some concern. There have been numerous rumors that the Flames are in pursuit of Montreal Canadiens forward Alexei Kovalev, and should a deal be consummated, look for Huselius--and not Tanguay, as rumored--to go the other way.

One Flame who's struggled mightily this season is goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff, whose numbers aren't close to the standard he's established for himself in recent years. Acutely aware of the need for his star netminder to be on top of his game, Sutter inked "Kipper" to a six-year, $35 million deal earlier this week, making it abundantly clear just how important he is to the team's success.

Wild to Watch

The Minnesota Wild have taken another huge stride forward this season, emerging as one of the league’s best teams. And one of the key components to their success has been the strong play of young defenseman Brent Burns, who was drafted as a forward back in 2003. At the time, it appeared that Burns was selected too early, with many more high-profile players still available. But the Wild saw something special in Burns.

“I’ve learned a long time ago that if you like somebody, you’d better take them,” GM Doug Risebrough said on this week's edition of the Inside Hockey Radio Show. “If you want a player, take him when you can. Don’t try to outthink yourself. There was a lot of late development in Burns’ last year (before the draft). We knew that he’d played a little bit of defense, but we had no intentions of drafting him to play defense… we just wanted a big, strong guy who could play forward. I give (head coach) Jacques Lemaire tremendous credit, he’s the one who realized that Burns could play defense.”

By the time the playoffs arrived last spring, Burns was Minnesota’s best rearguard, seemingly improving by the game. Not only did he demonstrate an ability to contribute offensively on the power play, but his positional play was excellent as well.

“He could be the modern-day type of defenseman,” Risebrough said. “You need somebody who’s got skating ability, size, and range. You’ve got these new rules where you can’t grab onto opposing players, you have to be good positionally and you have to have lots of range. His size and skating ability are a big factor for him.”

Surrounded by tremendous talents like Marian Gaborik and Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Burns is in a great position to thrive. The Wild lineup is speedy from top to bottom, with balanced scoring depth and a top-tier netminder in Niklas Backstrom. Without question, they are one of the teams to beat in the Western Conference.

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