Merry Christmas Coach Yeo!

“It’s like Christmas Eve” is how new Wild head coach Mike Yeo described Friday, September 16, 2011, media day at the Excel Energy Center. Like a kid who knows he is about to get a brand new, shiny toy car, Coach Yeo appeared relaxed, confident and ready to get on with his first NHL pre-season.

With a plan in place, the coach is ready to get this season going. From video to on-ice drills, Coach Yeo will attempt to instill what Todd Richards could not in the Minnesota Wild: how to play fast paced, up-tempo hockey.

How will he accomplish this? With speed and toughness. “We want to play a fast game. In order to do that, you need guys that can skate and you need guys that are gonna play a physical game and bring a physical element and also have the speed to get there and be able to match up.”

He refers to it as their “north mentality”. “Get in the offensive zone quickly by getting the puck back up in our forwards hands and always keeping the play in front of the Wild defensemen.”

How will the Wild play this year under the new coach? “We want to play a real structured game, but a very aggressive game with that. For me, I always want the other team to feel like their under pressure, but at the same time I want them to feel like they have no options, no out with the puck. If we’re doing our job well, then whatever zone we’re in we should be putting them under pressure and hopefully arriving there with a bad temper and putting them through the glass.”

“Defensively, we should be playing structured and aggressive. Offensively, we should look real fast going north into the offensive zone as quick as possible and we should have the puck a lot, we should be playing long shifts in the offensive zone, we should be grinding teams down and playing the type of game where you can take the game over in the third period.”

“It’s a demanding system, there’s no question, especially for the forwards. It requires an awful lot of work from the forwards, whether it’s on the track back into our own zone or whether it’s on the forecheck, their going to have to do a lot of work.”

“The players should expect high tempo practices and a lot of the time, we’ll be getting the guys in shape even when they don’t realize it.”

“From the first drill to last drill we will be doing things that one way or another are trying to build or re-inforce the way we want to play”

“I believe it’s my job to make sure that each and every day we’re trying to improve, we’re trying to grow, we’re trying to become a better team and we have an understanding of what we’re doing when we’re winning games and why we’ve lost games.”

“It’s a good feeling coming to the rink feeling like you’re in control. If we do the right things, we’ll be in control of our fate here.”

By now, some of you may be thinking that Mike Yeo sounds an awful lot like his predecessor, Todd Richards. While Coach Yeo was careful not to talk about Coach Richards on this day, he did comment on the Wild’s play last year and how it compares and contrasts with what he is trying to do this year.

“Playing in the offensive zone, I think that was a strength of this team (last year). I don’t think that it was a strength in terms of how much they played there, but when they did get there, I thought they could do some good things.”

“It will be a change of mentality: Getting there and staying there for longer periods of time.”

“If this team is committed the way we should be to getting into the offensive zone and playing there, we have a lot of guys that can do some damage there.”

“I’m not focusing on production or results (of certain players like Heatley or Setoguchi). The goals will come if the players focus on playing the system the right way and having the right attitude. If they do that, then they will score goals because that’s who and what they are.”

As such, Coach Yeo is focused on preparing players the right way on the ice and off the ice and looking at things like chemistry, conditioning, executing at a real high speed, players learning the system, teaching the players and developing the right habits, to name a few.

However, Coach Yeo is not unrealistic about what he is attempting to do with this Wild team. Many Wild fans still remember when Coach Richards strode into the Xcel Energy Center and attempted to deprogram the Wild players from what they had learned under Jacques Lemaire in order to try to become a "fast paced, up-tempo team".

Coach Yeo stated: “I do anticipate early on in the season that there will be some inconsistencies, but I hope I’m wrong with that.”

“It will take time to build routine in figuring out how to play (this new brand of) Minnesota Wild hockey.”

“Whenever you’re starting over, starting fresh, you’ll go out and play a great game and then the next game, forget what you’re doing or within periods of a game you will see that.”

Suffice it to say that Coach Yeo is preparing for the worst (struggles learning and executing his system), but hoping for the best.

Coach Yeo summed things up best with the two following quotes, one at the end of his comments, while the other was at the beginning of his comments:

“We want winners here, people who love to win and are willing to pay the price. Winning brings you together, there’s no doubt about that.”

“I love the game and I love to be around people that love the game and there’s a real excitement around the city right now and I think there’s a buzz about our team and people much like myself are very anxious to get this going.”

And while there is excitement in the air surrounding the new additions to this season’s Wild team, there remain the not too distant memories of struggles, mishaps and non-playoff appearances that happened the last time GM Chuck Fletcher brought in a fresh face. If anything from that experience, we learned that Owner Craig Leipold wants to win and he wants to win now. Although, as he stated to me at this year’s draft in St. Paul, this is not a one year process. It’s a two or three year process. As such, he appears realistic and shouldn’t lose his mind if the Wild struggles longer than it’s coach is hoping they do and if they, yet again, fail to make it to the playoffs.

Notwithstanding, hope springs eternal at the beginning of each NHL season for fans of each team and Wild fans are no different. Like all fans, they are hoping to see a return to the promised land, the NHL post-season/playoffs.

Merry Christmas Coach Yeo. Now go get the fans the present they want: The Stanley Cup!

Time will tell. However, a team that competes night in and night out and challenges for a playoff spot this season is what this writer is hoping for this season.

Go Wild!!!!!!!!

Join the Discussion: » Comments » Post New Comment

» Post-Season and Player/Position Thoughts (Koivu Must Go?)

» We've Been Here Before Haven't We?

» Everything Going According to Script. Only Question, Which Script?

» Wild Proves They Can Play With The Best. Now It's Time to Beat the Best.

» Enough About the Refs. We Ain't Dead Yet. Remember 2003!