Minnesota Wild fire coach Mike Yeo
The Minnesota Wild are on the brink of becoming an afterthought of the 2015-16 National Hockey League season, and management has seen enough. On Saturday, the front office decided to move on from head coach Mike Yeo, who was in his fifth year with Minnesota. Yeo has been one of the more successful coaches in the league during his tenure, but it was not enough to save his job.
Many believed that the Wild would be a strong competitor to challenge the Chicago Blackhawks, who beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games in the 2015 Stanley Cup Final. Throughout the campaign, Minnesota has not been able to generate much and now is in the thrust of an eight-game losing streak.
The Wild are currently sitting 23-22-10 and 11th in the Western Conference, three spots out of the playoffs. It has been a rough year for a team with so much talent – and high-priced talent as that – including forward Zach Parise and defenseman Ryan Suter. For Minnesota, general manager Chuck Fletcher had seen enough after a 4-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday, despite previously stating that he stood behind Yeo. Yeo understood the move, however, per ESPN.
“I knew what he said the other day, and I’m a realist,” Yeo said to the media regarding Fletcher’s comments. “You can’t lose every game and expect to think that there’s not going to be changes. I’m operating under the assumption that I’m going to be the coach tomorrow, and I know what I’m going to do, and it’s going to be something different from what we’ve done.”
For the Wild, it has to be asked whether this team has already reached its heights and perhaps needs to be reshaped. Minnesota has been to the playoffs three straight years and has yet to reach the Western Conference Finals. The Wild have not been to that point since 2003, oddly enough when it was the seventh seed and lost to the eighth-seeded Anaheim Ducks.
The largest issue has been scoring goals, with Minnesota only able to rack up 135. It’s the lowest total in the Central Division, largely because only Parise is a legitimate star up front. The Wild are 22nd in goals per game and 20th on the power play, with only five players scoring goals in double digits. Mikko Koivu is leading the team in points, and has only 37 through 54 games played.
It’s time for Fletcher to look long and hard at his next head coach. It could be time to bring in a veteran coach with a proven track record. There are candidates out there, ranging from Mike Keenan and Ken Hitchcock, two coaches with rings and availability.
The Wild have to figure it out and fast, before this roster needs to be blown up.
