The free fall continued last night as the Wild offense has officially dried up.
Where have you gone Eric Staal, Mikael Granlund, and Jason Zucker?
Forget about Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter they have been MIA for the past year and a half.
If not for Zach Parise and the emergence of Jordan Greenway as a legitimate NHL power forward the Wild would be completely unwatchable.
None of this should be all that big if a surprise though. Those that truly follow the team and realize the makeup of the roster, knew that the fast start was an aberration and not sustainable.
That is why from the beginning many of my blogs implied that the time to act on roster transition was back before the wheels completely fell off. Now the mission is so cloudy given the contract situation the Wild find themselves in combined with production levels way down, what leverage does Fenton have to make the team better.
I have heard and seen all the chirping about firing Boudreau, and that is totally not the right solution at all. Boudreau has been given nothing new to work with. This team is basically the same group that his predecessors Mike Yeo and John Torchetti had to work with. Boudreau has gotten the most out of his team and deserves the opportunity to see what he can do with some new pieces.
Not so sure where they will be coming from but something needs to happen and fast.
On a side note it really appears that Boudreau has lost the faith in Devan Dubnyk. His body language last night showed that this was more than pulling a goalie for morale or because he was having an off night. There was genuine concern in Boudreau's eyes and manersims as he summoned Alex Stalock to replace Dubnyk in the Wild cage.
So with a struggling offense and a coach not secure with his top goaltender, that creates far more question and uncertainty than any Wild fan wants to see.
Paul Fenton what do you see and hear?