Wild 2015-16

roosterrouster wrote:

Correct…Yeo was a terrible choice to give the job to. A head coaching position in the NHL is one of the top 30 positions in the world (in the game of hockey…). I never felt Yeo had the resume for the job. Kinda like a guy that is currently coaching HS hockey doesn’t have the resume…RR

What should be on that resume for a head coach if Yeo was a poor choice or he doesn’t have it?
Jon Cooper has a very similar resume, actually no prior NHL experience unlike Yeo. He led his team to the Stanley Cup Finals.
The Flyers hired Hakstol in the offseason. No prior NHL experience. No Coaching experience beyond NCAA either yet he gets the gig?
We can agree that the Wild may need a change. The challenge becomes from WHERE do they find a replacement because there isn’t a glut of experienced coaches sitting there looking for work.

Goodness nobody thought that Cooper was going to do what he did. It was an awesome story but Tampa found the needle in the haystack. It does not happen often like that. If the guy isn’t out there right now to take the helm for the Wild than wait but don’t just make a change for the sake of making a change. Get the right guy with a background and resume that screams ‘winner’ and ‘NHL coaching history’. If he’s not out there now he will be after we lose to the Hawks…Again! We have seen this team get that 8th spot in years past. I fully expect them to do it again this year…RR

I look at the roster in its state now with all the under achievers and aging veterans on the decline, I wish we would tank.

I feel like this rosters chance was last year and this year and predicated on the younger guys stepping up.

Maybe something to think about as far as Yeo as a coach.

How many overachievers has he coached in MN?

Players don’t seem to get better in MN now days like they did under Lemaire. Yeo seems to always seems have underachievers and once some players leave here they seem to get better. Every championship team needs a few overachievers. The more I think about it the more I want him gone.

Doing it right now likely won’t have a lot of positive impact but I’m sure I won’t miss him.

Lucia could be the guy……..he would continue the tradition of players not improving.

Matt, my bros say the same thing. I need examples of players who got better when they left after being coached by Yeo. Zucker and Nino weren’t under achieving last year. Coyle is playing better now he is playing wing.

I’m a little baffled that in all the PP woes, he doesn’t give Zucker PP time.

I’d also like a lot less PP time for Suter. We have better offensive minded defensmen.

Is Granlund over-rated or under achieving?
Are Brodin, Dumba, Coyle,Haula where they were projected to be at this stage of their careers?

Dutchboy wrote:

Is Granlund over-rated or under achieving?

Is there a difference?

Sorry Mike, after doing some actual halfassed research I found the players I was thinking of were just before Yeo. Some of the others really haven’t changed.

mplspug wrote:

I look at the roster in its state now with all the under achievers and aging veterans on the decline, I wish we would tank.

how crappy would that be if we did win the draft lottery and we would miss out on the high 2nd and 3rd round picks…I guess getting Mathews would lessen the sting though….

Dutchboy wrote:

Is Granlund over-rated or under achieving?
Are Brodin, Dumba, Coyle,Haula where they were projected to be at this stage of their careers?

. Granny needs a sniper to truly take advantage of his skillset, the closets we have to a player like that is Zucker and I don’t believe they’ve ever played together? Parise is a skilled grinder who gets the dirty goals, Pomminville just sucks…The other guys mentioned are still improving and are all very young still… Haula was a great find in the 7th round, the fact he’s even playing in the NHL is a draft success story…

mplspug wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>roosterrouster wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>TheFamousGrouse wrote:</div>
Rumor has it that Walz has said he won’t leave his high school team until they are done for the season, so this means 3 more weeks of Yeo. Ug.

Grouse

You’re kidding right?

I was more confused by wanting a former player coach…like Yeo

To be clear, the only thing I want is the door of the Xcel Energy Center hitting Yeo in the @ss on his way out. The irony of the fact that this is happening 400 long days after it should have should not be lost on Yeo.

Comparing Walz to Yeo by calling them both “players” strikes me as vaguely insulting. To Walz, obviously. Mike Yeo never played a game in the NHL as far as I can find.

I’m certainly not saying I want Walz as the permanent head coach. His name mostly seems to be put out there as a caretaker coach to get the Wild to the end of the season. The idea being Yeo can be dispatched cleanly at the earliest possible moment.

One thing I could say in favor of Walz is how much worse could he do? OK, and another thing. I doubt as a former REAL NHL payer, he’d stand there with a stupid look on his face sipping water while his team played the way the Wild are playing now.

Grouse

biggill wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Dutchboy wrote:</div>
Is Granlund over-rated or under achieving?

Is there a difference?

Sorry Mike, after doing some actual halfassed research I found the players I was thinking of were just before Yeo. Some of the others really haven’t changed.

That’s a better response than Burns and another guy, Buflyn (sp), who never played for us lol.

I’d say Haula has been a great find. He regressed a little last year. Coyle is still on a slow ascension, typical of power forwards. I have no complaints about our defensemen progress.

Fontaine showed he might be a diamond in the rough, but has faded. Granlund has been a disappointment and has seemed to have plateaued. He still seems to be working hard though.

Nino and Zucker unfortunately both seemed to have regressed or at best been very inconsistent this year. That’s the most troubling. One of those guys had to keep progressing. Having them both slumping this year has killed us.

The biggest problem, bigger than any youngsters play, is the power play. That is something that has followed Yeo from Pittsburgh. Without a good PP its hard to win.

Huh, I thought Yeo played some games in the NHL. I knew it wasn’t a long career, but I thought he played some games.

If Yeo goes, you never know, they’ll have to go with a coach with extensive experience as a coach.

I know Mike Yeo played in the AHL and rumor has it he was quite the fighter. I remember Russo talking about some fight that Yeo got into against one of the predominant “fighters”, but I cannot recall who it was and when Russo asked Yeo about it he didn’t have much of a comment.
I don’t think I would be in favor of bringing in Walz unless he was seriously considered to be the next head coach. I mean if they are looking for someone to just bridge the gap when they can Yeo, why wouldn’t they just hand the reigns over to Brunette? One could argue he certainly has more coaching experience than Walz who has been coaching girls and boys.
Id say even Wilson would be a better bench boss to tide things over than bringing in Walz. I like Walz, I like how he played the game and he is very cerebral. I am just not sold that he would be any better than what we already have.

I was looking back through the past Wild draft picks and the one thing is that many of the recent ones are still with the Organization. Unlike those by Risebrough almost all of them are gone either out of the league or with another organization.
I think Fletcher and his scouts have done a much better job than Risebrough did BUT, giving up all those picks hurts. Its what I have said before with the trades made for Pominville (1st and 2nd Rd picks prior drafts), Moulson (Two 2nd Rd Picks), Stewart (2nd Rd pick 2017), Bergenheim (3rd Rd 2016) it wasn’t so much the players we gave up, but the draft picks. Pominville has at least been with the team. The rest of the guys moved on so it was really very short lived for what we gave up.
What we have on the roster and in Iowa right now is really what we have to work with for the next couple years. We have some other young guys drafted, but I don’t see any one of them ready to come in next year or the year after so they will spend some time in Iowa.

Good info CaptMsky…Our future (that includes a new head coach…) is in free agency. Iowa is not going to save the Wild anytime soon…RR

Well, the schedule isn’t giving the Wild any breaks. The Texass Team Rustlers tonight. The Wild are going to need to show up and play all 60 and then some to come out of this with a win.

The Wild have to figure out a way to win with what they have. As others pointed out, it was working before, there’s no reason it can’t work now. There just isn’t any more future we can afford to mortgage for a quick fix.

Also, I have to question with the relative strength in the west this year, would there really be any point in trying short term fixes to game your way into the playoffs? Rumors of Chicago’s demise after last summer’s sell-off were greatly exaggerated to say the least. Dallas, St. Louis, etc, etc, there’s just so many tough teams that spending a lot of money and burning draft picks only to get beat in round 1 strikes me as a terrible more this year especially. Either do it with what we have or don’t do it.

Grouse

I wouldn’t say the Wild’s prospect pool is completely void of talent (yes Iowa is, but our college and overseas prospect pool is shaping up nicely) the last few drafts have been pretty good (Olfson,Tuch and Erikson Ek should be with the Wild in the next 1-2 years) Tuch scored the Beanpot winning goal in OT last night, Ek was one of the youngest players in the World Junior tourney playing major minutes for a contending team… There will always be the draft picks that got away and trades that are 1 sided (Nick Leddy) and every now & then you get lucky with a late round pick (Haula/Graovac) but at least Fletcher has the balls to take a chance…You really can’t say that’s ever the case with MN sport teams…

Leddy is nothing special. Yes, it was a terrible trade, but as it turns out Leddy being gone is nothing to lose sleep about. The team is a disaster now, and I will sadly be at two games this week. The wild are in serious trouble in my opinion, due to the salary cap not rising at a level that was expected because of the weak Canadian dollar. That and too many long term contracts, I doubt they can get out of. I laugh at the comments just trade this guy or that guy. They need to turn around this team with the pieces they have. I didn’t want to believe that the players would give up and stop playing, but I think that is the case. Over priced children not happy playing for their coach, so they are willing to tank the season in order to get the coach fired. I believe that is the case after watching the ranger game and scandella not even trying to cover to stop an odd man rush.

JoeMX1825 wrote:

I wouldn’t say the Wild’s prospect pool is completely void of talent (yes Iowa is, but our college and overseas prospect pool is shaping up nicely) the last few drafts have been pretty good (Olfson,Tuch and Erikson Ek should be with the Wild in the next 1-2 years) Tuch scored the Beanpot winning goal in OT last night, Ek was one of the youngest players in the World Junior tourney playing major minutes for a contending team…

Oh, I agree we have some talent coming, but in my eyes we cannot look at them as the “savior” for a couple years at least. By that time all of our veterans will have one foot in the pasture.
At least after this year Backstrom is GONE! That will help in more ways than one. Case in point, the Wild brought up Graovac for a spark on Saturday, but he was sent back down due to Spurgeon’s injury AND the fact we have 3 goalies on roster so no flexibility. Grrr.
I have no doubt that he did this intentionally to us the last two years to screw us over. The late surgery last year meant we couldn’t buy him out or trade him (doubtful). So that led us to have less roster flexibility and change guys in and out as often.
I do like the looks of our prospect pool. Tuch I think will be a good NHL player. Nick Seeler on the Gophers looks to be a real physical guy with some offensive skills from the point. Similar to a Scandella, but I think has better puck handling.
I really liked what I had seen from Olofsson this year and Reilly seemed to improve each game he was here.
Kahkonen led Finland to the WJC with some great goal tending too.
Chuck gets a lot of flak, but I think there could be some gems sitting there, but we are so tight right now with the cap and some of our guys we hoped would take the next step, but didn’t.
Im sure glad we didn’t do a big deal for Granlund. That will give him another year to prove something or he gone.
I enjoy watching hockey too much to want them to tank, but at the same time I kinda wish they would but they would need to be in the top 3 (bottom 3) to really have a shot at a stud.

IT is going to be interesting to see how Zucker responds tonight. I’d like to see him light it up and get back on track. If there is one person who could get hot and make us forget about this stretch, it is him…unfortunately that is tough playing 3rd line minute and no PP time.

That’s the big thing that bothers me about Yeo. The PP stinks. You have Zucker there. Yeah, his game is a speed game, but he also isn’t afraid to shoot. Something that our PP needs to do.

As for Vanek’s response, I hope it just teaches him to be more careful with his crazy passes, but at the same time, not giving up on those crazy passes.

I’d also like them to stop passing on breakaways. Just shoot in all instances and the off wing break to the net on the shot for a rebound. Far too many times they waste an odd man chance by forcing passes on a rush.

IF this team breaks out of their funk, it will have to be by the Koivu line. Those guys are the biggest threat and the best puck possesion line we have.

I am ready for them to turn this damn thing around.

Lastly, I was a huge Backstrom fan back when he was the starter. Unfortunately he had some injuries, but I am not happy with him milking the contract. I wonder how much this has affected the team. I can’t imagine it is fun being Backstrom, he has to be avoided and a paria in the room.

I can’t wait for the quotes when eh is gone.

Exactly Pug, a few years back he was a stud. He really saved the team when we had Harding go down that one year, but unfortunately the distaste in my mouth is from the last thing I put in there, not the giant piece of T-Bone that was the first thing.
I think Zucker will respond tonight. He is in a contract year so he is fighting for every penny right now and has to have a lights out ending the season.
Vanek’s quote today was kind of funny: “I don’t need to be benched to know my game needs to improve”. It has to be a bit frustrating for him to get benched when Pominville has certainly been far worse and he still sees time on #1 PP and not benched.
There is clearly something going on within that locker room. Doesn’t make sense to keep Pominville out there unless Yeo doesn’t have a choice in the matter.

Boy, if I could wish for one miracle, it would be that Pominville gets strong on the puck and finds his game. That would have a huge ripple effect. That makes the whole line better. He doesn’t even have to get strong on the puck, let Parise and Granlund do the dirty work. Just start finding soft areas, crashing the net for rebounds and finishing. All of a sudden our opponents matchups become harder. I know, its not going to happen, but that’s why I said I was wishing for a miracle. But I also have a hard time believing his game has fallen off this much.

I also was digging through his stats and saw he was 33…I thought he was Parise age 31. For a lot of players that is when their game starts falling off. It takes a special player, especially a forward, to play well after 33.

Its kind of weird how it doesn’t seem to be as hard for defensemen. They take longer to develop, but are also able to extend their careers.

Play Zucker with Granlund and Parise….Granny feeds Zucker who shoots and Parise cleans up the garbage… has Yeo ever tried that combo? My god I would be trying anything right now…

Both are left wingers. Some guys can play either wing comfortably, but it is pretty rare. So essentially you would be forcing one of the 2 to learn on the fly. But I’m not saying it wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

I was looking closer at the Wild’s prospect pool and my god do we have some big boys coming up through the system… of those who will actually play in the NHL someday, Tuch is 6’4″, Greenway is 6’5″, Erickson Ek is 6′ 2″ and still growing… that’s alot of size at the forward position…

Nice feed from Vanek and a nice backhanded goal from Haula.

Yeah…but I’m dreading the 2nd.

Faith young Grasshopper, Haula and Fontaine in the same game? Put it in the books.

Definitely a good sign and it should boost vaneks confidence.

Koivu line looks good. They should pot at least one tonight.

In other news, Zucker -1. A shorty by him would be huge.