A Wild way to pick a leader

A good month -- loosely defined -- earns a captaincy on the Minnesota Wild.

Minnesota is the only NHL team to rotate its captain each month, with Darby Hendrickson and Brad Bombardir as the permanent alternates.

"There's a reason why we give it to a certain guy," coach Jacques Lemaire said. "And it varies. It's not always the same people. It could be a guy who's getting a lot of points, it could be a guy who contributes to helping the kids -- the younger players -- all different types of rewarding for what they do."

Lemaire was asked if the rotating "C" gets more out of the chosen player.

"Let's just say I like it," he said with a smile.

The players like it, too.

"It's a great way to do it," Hendrickson said. "It's a compliment to the player who gets it, and he's proven that he's worthy of it."

The 2-year-old franchise's policy was a new one to Hendrickson.

"I had never heard of it," he admitted. "Maybe in Squirts they rotated the little arm bands, but we didn't know what it meant anyway."

Center Jim Dowd was the Wild's captain for October while defenseman Filip Kuba wore the C for November.