By Tony Abbott -
The second was the Wild were playing with a short bench all game, forcing the Wild to double-shift players on the fourth line. This didn't lead to anyone playing an absurd amount of minutes, but it did consistently scramble the lines with none of the new combinations producing a shred of offense. This kind of line-shuffling is often caused by an injury, but this wasn't the case in Minnesota.
The Wild played with a short bench because of Yeo's decision to play Gabriel for little more reason than to start a scrap with the physical Jets. It's not a problem to play a player because he can fight or play especially physical, but it is an issue when you have to hide that player because you can't trust him to contribute elsewhere. If you have last change and still can't trust a player with more time than he spends in the penalty box, you're probably doing it wrong.
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