Coach’s patient approach guides Minnesota into conference semifinals

St. Paul — On the day he was introduced as the third coach in Minnesota Wild history, Mike Yeo used the words aggressive, physical, detailed, structured and smart to describe the terms he wanted used when people spoke about the Wild from that point forward.

That was June 17, 2011 and now, a little more than 46 months later, each of those attributes was in play as Minnesota eliminated the St. Louis Blues in six games in their best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff first round series.

With a 4-1 win over the Blues on Sunday at Xcel Energy Center, the Wild closed out a playoff series — a victorious one — at home for the first time in franchise history.

The win comes two games after a 6-1 loss at home in Game 4 which sent Minnesota headed back to St. Louis for Game 5 having lost the home ice edge it had seized by splitting the first two games on the road.

But Yeo managed to maintain his team’s focus and confidence level enough to right the ship and avoid a trip back to Scottrade Center for Game 7.

The Wild rebounded from the blowout loss to outscore the Blues 8-2 over the series’ final two games and advance to face Chicago in the Western Conference semifinals.

“I think his ability to keep an even keel, his ability to understand what the team needs at certain points and provide that is invaluable,” Wild forward Matt Cooke said of Yeo. “I think he’s done a remarkable job dealing with this group and handling us through trials and through successes.”

In an ironic twist, one of the candidates Yeo beat out for the Minnesota job four years ago is St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock who is likely to be back on the open market soon after another disappointing early playoff exit for the Blues.

Yeo has seen the Wild through tough times in his tenure and, depending on who you want to believe, may have come perilously close to being replaced himself more than once. Admittedly, in early January of 2014 I had Yeo’s Wild coaching obituary already written with only the name of his replacement to be inserted.

But as was the case this season, Minnesota went on a remarkable second-half run to not only make the playoffs, but advance past the first round. While the acquisition of Devan Dubnyk is given most of the credit for this season’s turnaround, it could not have happened if Yeo hadn’t maintained the trust of his players in the dressing room.

Forward Jason Pominville, tied for second on the team in scoring in the series with five points (2-3–5), said that comes from Yeo’s is his ability to listen to his players.

“His approach is great with the players,” he said. “He’s a coach that the players enjoy playing for and I enjoy the way he listens to what the guys have to say. If you have something you can go talk to him and he’ll take note and he’ll listen to what you have to say.”

Assistant captain Zach Parise, who scored two of Minnesota’s four goals in Game 6, praised Yeo for his patience with the team.

“I think he’s done a good job of just keeping us level-headed, whether we’re playing really well or whether we can’t win a game,” Parise said. “The systems haven’t changed, the ideas, the approach hasn’t changed. He gives you the blueprint and we know it works when we do it well.”

Yeo said he considers himself “a lucky guy” to be surrounded by the coaching staff he has and said everything starts with the team’s leadership in the dressing room.

“Our leadership group is outstanding but we’ve got a bunch of guys that I consider winners,” Yeo said. “They’re willing to do the little things, things that go unnoticed, but they’re willing to do those things to win hockey games.

“There’s a lot of pride in that room.”

The post Yeo’s even keel stabilizes Wild appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Minnesota comes back again but Flyers ultimately pull away

SAINT PAUL – It seems like eons ago when the Wild opened the season with a 5-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Oct. 9.

They outshot the Avs 48-16.

The GOALTENDING was perfect, a shutout that Darcy Kuemper duplicated in a 3-0 victory at Colorado two days later.

Minnesota started the season 7-3 and yielded just 18 goals in those 10 games.

A very good team looked super, partly because of that factor known as GOALTENDING.

The early play of Kuemper and Niklas Backstrom helped silence critics who wondered throughout the summer if the strange and mysterious malaise surrounding Minnesota’s net play throughout much of the 2013-14 campaign would haunt the Wild again this season.

Even the preseason off-ice broken foot suffered by third goalie Josh Harding, whose career is hanging by a thread because of multiple sclerosis, seemingly had little affect.

But 10 games was way too soon to judge.

The Wild figured they added strength and depth by picking up Thomas Vanek over the summer, and the decent preseason play of Kuemper and Backstrom allowed them to cut tryout goalie Ilya Bryzgalov loose.

Now, as evidenced by a 5-2 home loss to the Philadelphia Flyers Tuesday night, Bryzgalov might look every bit as good in a Wild sweater as he did while he was helping rescue Minnesota’s playoff effort last spring.

That’s because the elephant in the room for the Wild is once again GOALTENDING.

Backstrom was supposed to start against the Flyers, but was clobbered by illness.

Kuemper came in and was clobbered by the Flyers.

Minnesota, accustomed to falling behind for most of the past month, trailed 2-0 before the Wild were even able to record a shot on net.

Philadelphia scored on two of its first eight shots.

“Same story,” Wild winger Zach Parise said. “I don’t have any answers.”

Parise, Mikko Koivu, Charlie Coyle and Matt Cooke each took a shot at addressing what might have been the Wild’s poorest effort of the season both up front and with the GOALTENDING.

The Wild have lost four in a row, yielding 19 goals in those four games. They keep falling behind early.

They’ve lost five of their past six and six of their past eight.

“The results,” coach Mike Yeo said, “match what we’ve shown.”

Yeo labeled his team’s execution “terrible all night.”

Even Koivu, who looks for positives after every game, found very little to praise.

“I don’t think we got even close tonight to where we should be,” he said.

Yeo said a team’s play is a reflection of its coaching and admitted that he, as well as the players, has to be better.

Although he didn’t point fingers (because 10 fingers might not have been enough) one obvious move came when he dropped Vanek off the top line in the third period.

Vanek, who has five goals, is not alone in lackluster play: Coyle scored his first goal since Oct. 23 and just his third of the season; Koivu also has just five goals and Erik Haula has just three goals and was a healthy scratch Tuesday.

He left Kuemper in the game, allowing the youngster to finish just the second of his past six starts at home, not because Kuemper was outstanding but because Backstrom went home and minor leaguer John Curry was on hand as the backup.

Kuemper faced 29 shots and gave up four goals not counting an empty-netter.

His save percentage slipped to .901, the same as Backstrom. Kuemper now ranks 55th in that department and Backstrom 56th.

After the game, no one seemed interested in laying blame, especially not on the team’s GOALTENDING.

The word never came up.

“We’re supposed to be a band of brothers that goes out each night and lays it on the line for each other,” Cooke said. “We found that last year, but just because we had it last year doesn’t mean it’s here this year. We have go out and earn the trust of each other night in and night out.”

Yeo termed his team’s play last season and earlier this season “completely irrelevant.” He noted that whether the players do some soul-searching over the NHL-mandated two-day Christmas break or forget all about hockey and simply clear their minds, they had better bring a different mindset with them when they return to competition on Saturday because they cannot sit around and wait for last year’s winning formula to reappear.

Yeo, whose job was in peril late last season, has tried ripping players, cajoling players and urging players.

He can only do so much, he said, and the rest “is up to them.”

Koivu, Parise and Coyle noted that frustration in the Wild locker room is overflowing.

Cooke doesn’t see it that way.

“I don’t think it’s frustration,” he said.

What is it?

“I’m not 100 percent sure,” he said after a thoughtful pause, “but we’d better figure it out.”

Some folks who questioned this team’s stopping power in the summer might well believe today that the key difference might be found in one word: GOALTENDING.

The post Wild can’t stop losing ways appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Matt Cooke’s return sparks 4-2 Game 4 win over Hawks, guarantees at least one more home game. 

SAINT PAUL—The Xcel Energy Center will host at least one more Stanley Cup Playoff game this postseason.

The Minnesota Wild ensured that on Friday night with a thrilling 4-2 Game 4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks in front of 19,405 screaming faithful in St. Paul. The series is now tied 2-2 as the teams head back to Chicago for Sunday’s Game 5.

Ilya Bryzgalov, who made 18 saves in winning his second straight start, was not especially strong on goals by Patrick Sharp and Michal Handzus in the first two periods. But he finished strong with a huge right pad save on a Sharp breakaway late in the second followed by another big stop on Jeremy Morin in the third.

Chicago’s Corey Crawford finished with 27 saves and never looked comfortable in his crease, although that may have had something to do with the deafening sound of the home crowd repeatedly chanting his name in mocking fashion.

Sparked by the return of forward Matt Cooke from his recent suspension, Minnesota outshot the Blackhawks 31-20 and won for the fifth straight time at home this postseason, outscoring opponents 16-5 in the process.

“He’s a playoff performer,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said. “He was brought in here to do a lot of things and help you get to the playoffs, but the experience that he has, the way that first goal was created, that’s what we’re looking for.”

Cooke, whose knee-to-knee hit on Colorado’s Tyson Barrie in Game 3 of the Wild’s first-round series against Colorado cost him seven games, set up Justin Fontaine’s first career postseason goal to open the game’s scoring at 7:24 of the first period.

“He’s a playoff performer,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said. “He was brought in here to do a lot of things and help you get to the playoffs, but the experience he has, the way that first goal was created, that’s what we’re looking for.”

The physical winger played nearly 16 minutes in his return and led the team with five hits and three blocked shots. Cooke indicated his energy level should not be surprising.

“I should have fresh legs,” Cooke joked, referring to his layoff. “So I’ve got to go out there and lead the way and hopefully my energy is contagious and I felt like we were ready to go tonight right off the drop of the puck.”

Cooke delivered his first hit 20 seconds into his first shift and appeared to pick up right where he left off. He said his focus during the suspension was on making sure he was ready to step right back into the lineup and contribute for his teammates who, by beating Colorado without him, gave him the chance to play again this season.

“They helped me a lot and I wanted to go out and return the favor,” he said. “Part of that was me staying ready. So I think that going out and having the energy that I had, and being ready, I felt that right off the get go that I was in game shape. That benefited me a lot.”

Wild captain Mikko Koivu said the team took note of Cooke’s effort.

“He’s been there, he knows what it takes to win,” Koivu said. “It’s not easy to come out after seven games. Great effort by him to go out there and lead by example.”

Jason Pominville, Nino Niederreiter and Jared Spurgeon also scored for Minnesota and the Wild continued to stymie the high-flying Hawks offensively in limiting them to 20 shots on goal. Minnesota has held Chicago to 22 shots or less in each game of the series but allowed just two goals at home after surrendering nine in Chicago in Games 1 and 2.

“We’re always making them come through five guys, and that gets frustrating,” Zach Parise said. “We’ve been on the other side of that and it’s tough to play against a team like that. I think we’re working hard, we’re making it tough and we’re just playing a good defensive game.”

That defensive game has cut down on the transition goals the Blackhawks capitalized on at home, something Minnesota will have to continue to limit to have any chance of stealing a road game and advancing to the Western Conference Finals.

“The first two games there was a lot of things that we were doing that were similar to what we’ve been doing at home, but it was just making that one big mistake,” Yeo said. “What we’ve been trying to do, what we’ve been trying to build on is the things that we’ve been doing well but limit the mistakes that we’re making and our guys have been doing a good job.”

The Wild and Blackhawks square off in Game 5 at 8 p.m. CT on Sunday night in Chicago on CNBC.

The post Home Cooke’in Ties Series appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Columnist Dave Schwartz says Matt Cooke ought to be judged on who he is rather than who he was.

Let’s not ostracize Matt Cooke just yet.

Yes, he has recently shown that he still has a bit of a mean streak to him. But let’s also not forget that he hasn’t been suspended in more than 18 months and has been routinely commended by his coach and others for his transformation of his play.

In game three he executed a knee-on-knee hit to Colorado’s Tyson Barrie. The NHL’s department of player safety suspended him for seven games. While I disagree with the leagues stance and suspension that is not my point of this article (I know he should have been suspended, but seven games was a bit much).

What bothers me most about this is that Matt Cooke will never get free of his past reputation, not from the NHL and not from the court of public opinion. The league says in the CBA that past transgressions will be wiped clean after a period of 18 months without a suspension, when considering the size of the fine assessed. However, there is also an excerpt in which Commissioner Gary Bettman states that the union can make an argument for a player who has a history of past suspensions BUT has cleaned up their act (by rule of the 18 month clean period).

In light of the recent “Cooke Conflict” (yep, I gave it a name) I am not quite sure that he was ever considered anything other than his old self. I mean, what is the point of having this so-called “repeat offender” reprieve period if, even after its over and the player has been without a major infraction, the player’s past is still a mitigating factor in a current ruling? In the suspension video from the department of player safety they routinely talk about Cooke’s past playing a part in this suspension.

Don’t get me wrong, Matt Cooke has a history of thuggery comparable to Al Capone, but until this incident with Tyson Barrie he has not been suspended since 2011. Cooke has worked very hard to try to rehabilitate his image and this style of play. In talking with him when he first arrived in Minnesota it was clear he knew something had to change in the way he played or he would not stick around in this league.

Since his last suspension in 2011 his highest penalty minute total for a season is 54 minutes. TOTAL. IF you add up the past three seasons the total is only 11 minutes more than what he had in the 2010-2011 season alone. He did this all while maintaining a consistent amount of points as well. This year he has been a huge asset to the team on the penalty-kill and as a veteran voice in the locker room.

Still there are those that believe that the new Matt Cooke doesn’t belong in the league, no matter how much he has changed. Former Golden Gopher Erik Johnson had some strong words for Cooke implying that he should no longer be in the NHL because of hits like this.

I implore those who also feel this way to consider another view. Look at the statistics and look at what he has done this year for the Minnesota Wild. Cooke has made good on his second chance. He HAS cleaned up his act. The hit to Barrie was an isolated incident in what has been an otherwise clean and clear career in Minnesota. And frankly, had Barrie not tried to jump out of the way, or had this been another member of the Wild, not only would the suspension have been less we probably would not have been talking about it.

It’s too late to change this NHL’s view of Cooke. Like Al Capone, they’ve locked him up on an island. In this case it’s a series long (and maybe more) suspension instead of Alcatraz. But Wild fans don’t have to agree with it. I know there are a lot of you that think this one slip-up was exactly what you were expecting of Matt Cooke when he came here and you may be right. But it’s what you weren’t expecting that should have you giving him another chance: his production, his passion and his leadership. Cooke made a mistake, I hope that the Wild and their fans don’t make one as well and cast off a player who can be of great value to this franchise for a few more seasons.

The post A Knee-Jerk Reaction? appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

SAINT PAUL—In what should have been a game to remember with plenty for players to celebrate, the Minnesota Wild won’t soon forget Tuesday night for all the wrong reasons.

Minnesota blew a three goal lead at Xcel Energy Center to last-place Edmonton before ultimately falling in a shootout 4-3.  Mixed with the way things went down, the second consecutive shootout loss and first loss to the Oilers in three games this season stings in spite of the extra point.

Even in the grind of an 82 game season, a loss like Tuesday’s sticks out. It’s not just the point lost during the season’s closing stretch that is on the mind of Minnesota.

“You get the lead and you’re playing a team that’s kind of loosy-goosey and [Edmonton isn’t] as desperate as we were. It almost felt like we fell asleep with the way we were playing. It’s not good enough for the situation we’re in right now, fighting for playoff positioning,” Wild forward Jason Pominville said about his team, which is three points ahead of Dallas for the first wildcard berth. “We’ve got to be desperate and it wasn’t good enough tonight.

“Good start, but not good enough in the second half.”

Tuesday night began with plenty to celebrate at Xcel Energy Center. Forward Matt Cooke, playing in his 1000^th NHL game, was honored with a pregame ceremony and silver stick by Wild owner Craig Leipold.

Jason Pominville #29 and Zach Parise #11 of the Minnesota Wild celebrate after scoring a goal against the Edmonton Oilers during the game on March 11, 2014 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn/NHLI via Getty Images)

Zach Parise, meanwhile, playing in his 600^th career game, got Minnesota on the board 11:07 into the team’s 500^th franchise sellout with his 22^nd goal of the season.

Parise’s goal came on the power play when he tapped his own rebound past Viktor Fasth. Jared Spurgeon doubled the lead minutes later when his shot deflected off of Oilers defenseman Justin Schultz and Jason Pominville put the Wild ahead 3-0 with a second effort even strength.

Still, despite scoring three goals in a 4:16 span against the last-place Oilers, Minnesota head coach Mike Yeo wasn’t entirely happy with his team’s play during the first period, saying, “I thought that we were, to be honest with you, a little lucky to be up 3-0.”

“You can tell we weren’t on it right away,” added Yeo, whose team was out-shot 5-0 in the first 5 minutes. “I thought that we took advantage of a power play early and then got a couple quick ones, but you could tell we weren’t on top of our game.”

It didn’t change as the Wild’s quick blast on Fasth, who made 28 saves, was evened out throughout the rest of Tuesday’s game.

What should have been a spark of momentum following a comeback shootout loss to league-leading St. Louis, what should have felt like another Edmonton game, was treated like one. The outcome was taken for granted. Words like “complacency,” “no urgency” and “lack of energy” were thrown around. So were second guesses.

“Going into the third period, you’ve got to take it to them. You can’t sit back,” Minnesota defenseman Ryan Suter said. “I thought we sat back and they were throwing pucks through the net.”

Oilers defenseman Jeff Petry made it 3-1 with 3:55 remaining in the first when his pass to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins kicked off Jonas Brodin and into the net. Following no scoring in the second, an out-shot Edmonton team scored twice in the third by out-working the Wild defense.

First, Andrew Ferrence found a streaking David Perron in front of Darcy Kuemper with 8:54 remaining. Then Edmonton’s Jordan Eberle became the beneficiary of being in the right place for the right bounce and was left all alone to tie the game at 3 with 4:53 remaining in regulation.

“He quickly turned around and I recovered, but it kicked out to obviously the wrong guy to give it to there,” said Kuemper, who made 23 saves Tuesday.

Mixed among the goals was Minnesota, having 1:24 with a 5×3 advantage, only mustering one shot on net. A 1:51 4×3 power play to begin overtime netted none, frustrating the 18,650 fans in attendance.

They weren’t alone.

“The 5 on 3 sucked, but it goes way beyond that. If you’re up 3-0, you can’t give up three straight,” a dejected Parise said.

Taylor Hall completed the comeback with a shootout winner in the fourth round. By the end of Tuesday night’s stretch of three games in four nights, Cooke’s ceremony and Parise’s milestones, along with the two points each member of the top line (Parise, Pominville and Mikael Granlund) had were an afterthought. They weren’t brought up at all; not even as a silver lining. There was no celebration and no one in Iron Range Red was smiling.

The moral victory of Sunday’s shootout loss was replaced with searching for a moral this time around.

While Yeo stated he didn’t want to overreact or pay much attention to what other teams do as momentum slips away. At the end of the day the Wild, which, spiral aside, does have points in 13 of its last 16 games, are going to remember the effort against Edmonton in the two games remaining in this homestand.

As a team that made several moves at the deadline and bringing in Matt Moulson to stave off complacency, Tuesday was a reminder to do the same on the ice.

“I felt like this was a game that was there for us,” Yeo said. “We have to find a way to win those games.”

The post Oilers’ Slick Comeback Tops Wild appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.