Article: The Ghost of Playoffs Past Still Haunt the Wild

[Luke Sims]

View full article

[TCMooch]

Looks like this core can’t get it done either…

 

Hoping Billy the GM uses cap money to overpay bottom 6 grinders that are good locker room guys. We need more of those.

Edited May 2 by TCMooch

[Will D. Ness]

When playing a team constructed like Vegas, the margin of error is pretty small, and basically the Wild stupidly made enough mistakes to barely slip past that margin and hand the series over to a plodding galley of a team.

From a green rookie's flailing stick to an aging Swedish veteran's leisurely stroll to a top Russian virtuoso feeling the pressure, we just couldn't get it done.  

With that said though, it is unfair to compare this team mistakes to past teams inferiorities.

[Dean]

Good article. I disagree that the coaching was fine. Playoffs are about adjustments and John simply lost that battle . Great the ek kappy Boldy line did good for 3 games against Eichel line. Then Vegas made adjustments  to slow the kappy ek line down and won the next 3 games. 3 games for John to make adjustments and he didn’t . Game 6 John has last change and he plays kappy right into Vegas adjustment of Carlson on wing with Eichel and stone.  Split ek from kappy  and put ek on Eichel and then put kappy with hart and zucc. He should have got kappy away from Eichel !!  5 forwards on pp when you got exposed defensively?  Fred moving around making every line gutless ? Merrill for Zeev? Nyquist over ohgren ?  The last period of 6 and your gassing kappy by putting him out against Eichel then  back out with Fred. Just wasting his energy with Fred . Rossi scores twice yet sits on 4 th line . When they moved Rossi around he didn’t better than Fred . Why is Fred even in the lineup? Devin shore would have given you more at center with physicality over whatever Fred was or wasn’t doing. 
    John got out coached it’s why his record is what it is. He was to conservative, not a next generation coach . Was it because of guys contracts or the fact we traded for them he played guys when he shouldn’t? Or is it bad coaching? Idk. They really might have got out of this round if they had a forward thinking coach vs a curl up in a ball and hide coach. 

[FredJohnson]

The Wild are the first team in the four major sports history to make the playoffs more than eight times in 10 years, but lose in the first round every single time. 

The asinine playoff seeding putting us up against the West’s best teams every playoff makes this more logical.

[ArizonaWildFan]

If I remember correctly, the Wild outscored VGK 19 to 18 through the six game series. Minnesota's top line was better than Vegas's and Gustavsson was better than Hill. Those two things alone should have been a recipe for success.

I think Hynes is a good coach, but not a great coach. A great coach shows the courage to do what it takes to win. Even if it means bucking your boss, the GM.

There's no way that a great coach would have played Rossi for limited minutes on a fourth line with non-complimentary wings. There's no way a great coach would have kept Nyquist in the lineup. There's no way a great coach would have played Gaudreau as high in the lineup and for as many minutes. Zuccarello was a non-factor in the series because of line pairings and situational use. A great coach would have figured that out.

A great coach coaches to win and doesn't coach to not lose. A great coach tells his GM that he's going to scratch an underperforming trade deadline acquisition, a great coach tells his GM that he's not going to bury a key player on the fourth line for limited minutes, a great coach tells his GM that he was hired to win and that's what he's going to do. Hynes could have been a great coach this series but chose instead to stay aboard a sinking ship with his GM.