Minnesota Wild: Time to Let Go of Yeo?
Jan 11, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; Minnesota Wild head coach Mike Yeo during a break during the second period at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
The Minnesota Wild have had their season spiral out of control, and Mike Yeo is finding his seat hotter by the day. The question is, should his job be in jeopardy?
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Sadly, it is starting to seem more and more like this team needs to go in another direction behind the bench.
Most of you have probably heard of and seen Yeo losing his mind at practice this past Wednesday. If somehow you have not, here it is:
I have no problem with what he did during that practice. If anything, it probably could have happened sometime sooner during this awful season. What concerns me is what has happened since his tirade. The hope would be that it would serve as a wake up call to the squad and they would play their best hockey afterward.
So, what happened?
Well, the effort was there Thursday night against the Chicago Blackhawks in St. Paul. Unfortunately it did not matter, and the Wild lost yet again, by a score of 4-2. Since, they lost to the Nashville Predators 3-1 at home and got shellacked in Chicago tonight, 4-1, bringing the losing streak to five games.
It seems fair to question if Yeo is running out of ideas. Here is a quote from an exasperated Yeo:
"“Listen, they’re the ones out there performing. I’m not trying to say that I’m not responsible for this. I always believe that a coach is … what you see on the ice is your responsibility. At the same time, there have been a lot of attempts, a lot of different ways and at some point it has got to come from them, too.”"
Pretty bad, right? Clearly, he sounds like someone struggling to find ways to reach his players. What’s most troubling is that, according to Judd Zulgad of 1500 ESPN in the Twin Cities, that quote was uttered after the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Wild on December 23rd. This is not a slump. It is a complete, weeks-long collapse, with seemingly no end in sight.
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The Wild have to decide if Yeo is largely to blame for this train wreck, and if there is anyone out there better suited to fix it than he is. Strangely enough, Yeo’s former boss, Dan Bylsma, is the biggest available coaching name out there. There is no way of knowing if the Wild would be interested in him, if Bylsma would be willing to take over for an ousted Yeo, or if the players would respond any better to Bylsma than they have to Yeo.
Certainly, the lion’s share of the blame goes to the players, as they are the one’s who have not been winning on the ice. Still, it is fairly easy to replace a coach, but takes years to overhaul a roster. If Chuck Fletcher starts to feel his chair heat up, he may well decide he has to move on from Yeo before Craig Leipold moves on from him. My opinion is that if Yeo could fix this he would have already. That said, simply firing him in favor of someone else certainly does not guarantee any improvement.
Regardless of the outcome, no one expected this from the Wild, and certainly none of us wanted this to be the topic of conversation in January.