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Boudreau Needs to Make Adjustments |
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The NHL is a young man's game!
Note to Wild head coach, get used to that fact or be gone.
I am a big believer in Boudreau as a coach and think that he has the ability to do some great things with the Wild. But with that said he must first embrace the fact that young players can and need to play more prominent roles for this team to realize it's true potential.
Let's start with the OT rules as they stand today. Overtime is played 3 on 3, so why does Boudreau start the trio of Koivu, Granlund, and Suter 100% of the time when the team goes to the extra session?
The record is atrocious, with several of the losses, like last night, a direct result of the two most trusted veterans Koivu and Suter making poor decisions. Last night you saw Suter enter the zone, then take his tour around behind the net, while Koivu went into traffic in the corner. As Suter ran out of options because the Devils took away any lane to Granlund, Suter throws the puck into the corner in hopes that Koivu could somehow beat two Devils and maintain possession.
That obviously did not work and the Devils gained control of the puck, were able to make a line change and quickly went down the ice to pot the game winner on a two on one as Suter and Koivu tried to get back into the play. In Boudreau's Wild tenure his team is 4-8 (0-2 this season) in OT, and 3-3 (0-1 this season) in games going to the shootout.
Last night's loss belongs squarely on the shoulders of the head coach, period.
The Wild controlled the play for almost the entire game. The Devils were completing a four game road trip and appeared to be just playing as if they wanted to get home.
The Wild on the other hand had very little in the way of killer instinct. That to me is on the coaching staff as they are the ones that should be seeing what is going on and making adjustments and coaching accordingly.
New Jersey was allowed to hang around in a game they had no business being in, and low and behold they got a couple of breaks and scored two goals, both off of Wild defenseman, Gustav Olofsson. So now the Devils were not just hanging around in this one, they had the lead and stretched it to a two goal lead in the third period.
Mikael Granlund got the Wild back to even first with a powerplay goal, (the Wild's 2nd PP goal of the game, 5th in 3 games) and then tied the game with Dubnyk on the bench for the extra skater.
A lot was made of the officiating, and yes it was bad, but not at all did it affect the outcome of the game. Adam Henrique had taken some liberties on more than one occasion but the referees decided to even the calls up on each occasion. With just under 7 minutes to play Nino Niederreiter decides to take matters into his own hands giving Henrique a rough ride into the glass and for good measure a couple more shots.
We all know what happened next. It was only Nino that received the roughing minor and now the Wild were forced to kill a penalty and eat up two precious minutes of clock as they tried to tie the game.
For those that have been around hockey for any length of time should have known that was going to be the outcome. When the officiating is as inconsistent as it was last night, never try to get in a payback shot, thinking that the officials will use the same logic when deciding your fate. It will backfire 100% of the time as it did with Nino last night.
The bigger question I have is why would Nino pick that spot to do anything other than skate away. Even if the calls were evened up, the Wild are without Nino's services for two minutes late in the third period of a game in which the Wild are trailing by a goal.
It was interesting to hear Tom Chorske say after the game that the coaching staff will look at the overtime and make the necessary changes. Really? What makes him think that last night was in any way different from the numerous Wild OT losses over the last several seasons. Chorske and I traded a couple tweets about how Yeo did the exact same thing in OT.
So what is it with these guys? Are they just so close to the situation that they can not think clearly enough to make the changes that need to be made? Just because Koivu and Suter are your go to guys at shutdown time, does not mean they are your go to guys at the other end of the ice.
Both Suter and Koivu are integral parts of the team, but as Boudreau likes to say in order for the Wild to win they need to get contributions from up and down the lineup. So put your money where your mouth is BB and give those other players the opportunity. Koivu and Suter have shown you exactly what they are capable of, and where this team can go with them getting the lion's share of the prime minutes.
It is well past the time to turn the page and dial back the minutes for both Koivu and Suter, and that should begin with both #9 and #20 being removed from the powerplay and #9 being firmly planted on the bench in OT.
Other Game Notes:
Granlund's first goal on the powerplay was the teams 5th goal with the man advantage in the last three games after scoring just two in their previous 11. A good sign but nothing to get overly excited about as the Capitals (26th, 76.7%) and Devils (19th, 79.2%) are both in the bottom half of the league in PK.
Matt Dumba has been very good since he his Halloween debacle against the Jets. In the 10 games since then Dumba has a goal and five assists and is a +3, to go along 16 blocked shots and 15 hits. Dumba's partner, Jonas Brodin, is a +6 over that same 10 games with 21 blocked shots.
Follow me on Twitter @dwallace17
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