The Chicago Blackhawks were the better team on paper coming into their series with the Minnesota Wild, and they certainly showed it throughout the four games. Chicago is Minnesota’s measuring stick. They are likely to see each other yearly in the playoffs in the current iteration of the NHL playoff format. But if Chuck Fletcher thinks his team is ready to take the next step, his first move has to be to replace his coach Mike Yeo.
Wild coach Mike Yeo on the hot seat in St Paul? – File photo by Lewis Bleiman
On its face, there’s nothing wrong with the Wild losing to the Blackhawks. Even after getting swept out of the playoffs last Thursday night in St. Paul. Despite momentum — or the appearance of it — being on the Wild’s side after beating St. Louis in Round 1, they weren’t really the better team coming in.
Who does Minnesota have to match up with Patrick Kane or Jonathan Toews? Kane scored five goals in four games and Toews is among the game’s premier defensive forwards. Throw in Marian Hossa (scoring only an empty-netter in 10 playoff games so far but playing unbelievable defense), and defensemen Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, Chicago had at least the five best players in the series. Consequently, in 240 minutes of hockey, Minnesota led for NONE of it.
The end of Game 4 was frantic, and the Wild never gave up despite a 4-1 deficit late in third. A pair of goals and a late flurry in front of Corey Crawford made for a tighter finish than Chicago fans would have hoped.
But at the end of the day, as Minnesota got outclassed by Chicago, Yeo got outcoached by Joel Quenneville. He’s not the first and won’t be the last — Quenneville is one of the finest coaches in the game. But Yeo is playing checkers while Quenneville is playing chess.
Yeo made no line adjustments in Game 3 in a tight 1-0 game. And despite getting the advantage of last change, Quenneville managed to out-maneuver Yeo. He got the players he wanted onto the ice against Minnesota’s lines, and Yeo never countered. It wasn’t until they were down 4-1 in Game 4, that they showed any real urgency in their two home games in the series.
Yeo was let down by several of his marquee players. Ryan Suter was on the wrong side of a number of highlight-reel goals by the Blackhawks and Game 2 was a collection of uncharacteristic mistakes. Has Yeo worn him down? His average ice time per game has jumped 2:34 from his last year in Nashville, and in his three years in Minnesota, he’s playing over six minutes more per game on average than his seven seasons with the Predators.
Suter has never been a high-volume goal scorer, but he managed two regular season goals (his lowest total since he was a rookie), and only three playoff assists. He finished the 10 post-season games at -8 with only one game as a plus-player.
Team captain Mikko Koivu (with three years at $6.75 million per year left on his contract) has scored two goals in his last 28 playoff games. The last time he scored more than one in a playoff series? When the Wild were eliminated in the first round by Colorado in six games back in 2007-08.
Then there’s the Thomas Vanek problem. Vanek is on the books for another two years at $6.5 million per year. Minnesota outbid themselves to sign him, and then when it mattered most, he was on the ice for 10:49 and 15 shifts. He has five goals in his last 27 playoff games spanning two seasons — as many as Kane had in the last six days — and none in his last 17 games.
Unfortunately for Minnesota, the franchise never bottomed out like Chicago. The Blackhawks took Toews and Kane in back-to-back drafts. Yeo and Fletcher are paying for the sins of the past; its best pick was 4th in the 2005 Draft, in which the entire draft was determined by lottery due to the lockout. They took Benoit Pouliot 4th, while Carey Price went 5th to Montreal. The previous year, they took A.J. Thelen, a defenseman from Michigan State and a Minnesota native, with the 12th pick. Drew Stafford went the next pick to Buffalo, and Thelen is one of two first-rounders that year to never appear in at least one NHL game.
Yeo seems like a nice guy. He’s got a solid regular season record, but that has never been a guarantee of playoff success. Plenty of teams have fired coaches who got teams to a certain level, but couldn’t get them over the top.
Bryan Murray had the exact same winning percentage in Detroit from 1990-93 that Yeo has in Minnesota (.568), when he was removed as coach despite three straight playoff appearances. Dave Lewis won 67 percent of his games as Detroit’s head coach from 2002-04, winning two division titles. A 6-10 record in the playoffs meant he wasn’t getting a chance at a third division title. The guys who replaced Murray and Lewis are Scotty Bowman and Mike Babcock — two of the most well-respected coaches ever to stand behind the bench, and each led Detroit to Stanley Cup victories.
Minnesota is going to be in a tough spot next year. Big contracts that are immovable, roster spots that will need filling on the blue line and in goal, and free agents who will want to get paid. In the salary-cap era where big-market teams can’t bully the little guys, the most important change that can be made is the voice leading the locker room.
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