By Sean Flick -
As a huge fan of 80s music, U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” kept coming to mind during the latest loss to the St. Louis Blues. I’m sure it’s because I spent my teen years listening to that music. That still doesn’t soothe the sting of hearing the New York Islanders play Queen’s “We Are the Champions” after they defeated the Minnesota North Stars in Game 5 of the 1981 Stanley Cup championship.
The Minnesota Wild’s loss to St. Louis comes after a 13-7-4 record over the last 24 games since the All-Star break. With 11 games left to go and 6 games over .500, frustration over Minnesota’s seemingly inconsistent play can drive one crazy. I was a bit shocked to see that they were over .500. However, No. 97 appears to be trying to carry the Wild to the playoffs on his own this year. As such, I’ll try to make today’s rant without naming names. I’m gonna try, but I can’t make any promises.
I can’t tell you how often my poor wife has to sit with me, listen to me yell at the TV, and try to calm me down because the Wild repeat the same mistakes. It brings to mind the guy who invented the foam brick in 1978. I wish I had one. However, living with three dogs would put that to an end because they love catching objects and ultimately destroying them.
The biggest thing I see is their play along the boards. Minnesota’s opponents are out-hustling, out-muscling, and outplaying them shift after shift. Seriously, any NHL coach just has to tell his team to pressure the Wild’s defense, and they will pass the puck around the boards in either direction. As long as there’s a forechecker, it will usually result in a turnover in the offensive zone and typically result in a shot on goal. Inconsistency.
Let’s talk about faceoffs. At the time of this writing, the Wild have a 47.6 faceoff winning percentage. Minnesota’s faceoff winning percentage seems to be a bell curve, starting lower in the defensive zone, climbing higher in the neutral zone draws, and then falling in the offensive zone. I might add that all three are below 48.2%, the highest in the neutral zone. That’s inconsistency.
Minnesota’s goaltending has been all over the place this season, but I don’t think it’s purely a goaltender issue. Hockey is a team sport. The greatest team sport in the world. However, with critical injuries to the defensive corps, you can expect that some of the other younger, less experienced, less skilled defensemen will cause an inconsistent outcome from game to game – especially against more talented teams with better forward lines. Good experience; it just causes inconsistency.
Lastly, coaching. What system is the Wild using? Dump and chase? Possession? Although I don’t see it nearly as often anymore, I see teams occasionally using the trap. I’m not a professional coach by any means. I have played in adult leagues. I’ve taken hockey clinics and coaching to improve (the outcomes are debatable).
I’ve studied hockey strategy and coaching. I’m not an expert. However, we are the State of Hockey and know a team is doing well because they are playing as one on the ice. That was evidenced by extended offensive zone play, causing the opposing team to be unable to substitute players and hoping their goalie would stop the puck mercifully.
The Wild can’t coach like Scotty Bowman throwing the Russian Five out on the ice and saying, Play however you want. They used to play with the puck for so long that the opposing team eventually gave up because the Russian players were having too much fun playing keep-away. Then score seemingly at will.
Teams can’t do that in today’s NHL. Every player needs to know how the team wants to play. Coaches pound that into them in the AHL so that they know what’s expected of them when they get to the big club. So again, I ask, What kind of system are they using in downtown St. Paul?
Let’s hope they figure it out. A good team can solve any of the issues I’ve raised above. Maybe the coaches need to drive the point home more on their expectations. I would love to see Marc-Andre Fleury stay for another year and take Jesper Wallstedt under his wing. Can you imagine the good it would do to have a first-ballot Hall of Famer as a mentor? Or bring him back as our goalie coach. That would help bring some consistency. The kids are coming. That will give the Wild depth, providing consistency up and down the lineup and in Iowa.
At the moment, though, they still haven’t found what they’re looking for.
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