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Minnesota Wild head coach Mike Yeo is generally a pretty easy going, personable guy. On Wednesday afternoon, Yeo ditched his white had and donned his black one as his angry alter ego made an appearance at his team’s practice. Losers of 8 of their past ten games, Yeo lost his sh*t on his team for their ho-hum approach to the team practice the day after they coughed up a 2-0 lead then lost in OT to the San Jose Sharks.
Yeo was livid and demanded more effort, more urgency and proper execution. As you’ll see in the video (below), Yeo howled and screamed at his listless players, then skated toward the bench. To punctuate his tirade, Yeo smashed his hockey stick on the wall of the bench then stormed off the ice to leave his team leaders to clean up the mess.
I like it Yeo’s tact and good on him for blowing his stack and getting the poison out of his system. He is the head coach of a $60 million hockey team that has been routinely going through the motions for the past four weeks. Their goaltending is a wreck and their team defense has been a joke. In many ways, the Wild are the Western Conference equivalent of the Boston Bruins. The Wild are Bruins were both projected to make the playoffs and make a serious push for the Stanley Cup Finals. Right now, the Wild and are on a collision course with the bottom of the standings. They are eight points out of the second wild card spot.
"We weren't good enough," Yeo told the Wild website. "And we're not in a position where we can come in and be let alone decent in practice, bad at practice. I'm not going to accept that. I think I made my point at that time and that was enough.
"We lost [to San Jose]. We come to the rink today and what are we going to have a practice like that? That's not good enough. I know one thing, we can hang our heads, we can feel sorry for ourselves, we can point fingers, we can do whatever we want. But those types of things are not the types of things that winners do and those types of things do not help you get out of something like this. I know what I'm going to control and I'm going to make sure that I bring it." Thanks, KSTP
NHL head coaches should not be having to bag skate multi-millionaire players foir being lazy and sloppy. Shame on the Wild players for pushing a good coach like Yeo to his breaking point.
Former Sabres sniper was Minnesota’s prime UFA target last summer. He wasn’t signed to a hefty contract to play the role of checking line stalwart. Wild GM Chuck Fletcher signed Vanek under the auspices that he would play the role of team scoring leader. Vanek has only 7 goals and 17 assists, however is a -7 this season. Thanks, Wild TV
“I think he’s been pretty good with us, staying upbeat, but again I think we played well last night but it’s not good enough when you lose hockey games. I think that was his message,… Thomas Vanek told trhe Wild team website. “He didn’t like how some of us practiced and came out.…
“He’s frustrated just as many guys in here,… Vanek said. “I think we’ll be okay. I think it was maybe needed. We had a terrible game in Dallas; I thought we responded pretty well. We’ll respond again tomorrow and play hard.…
“I think after a loss, it doesn’t matter how good you play,… Vanek said. “We need points and right now we only got one and we needed two last night. There’s one part about being loose and still have a good time coming to the rink, but once we’re out there we’ve got to be better — so I think that was the message.…
Ironically, the Wild were embarrassed and kicked to the curb last weekend by Vanek’s former longtime bench boss Lindy Ruff.
"I played for Lindy (Ruff) for a long time, so I've seen it before," Vanek said.
"[Yeo's] frustrated just as is many guys in here, so I think we'll be OK. I think it was maybe needed. We had a terrible game in Dallas. I thought we responded pretty well. We'll respond again tomorrow and play hard."
The Wild played on Tuesday night with their team leader and leading scorer Zach Parise who left the team to be with his family and his ailing father who is suffering from lung cancer.
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NHL Central scouting will be updating their quarterly draft eligible prospects list shortly. In the meantime, ISS Hockey has published its most recent update.
Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel still occupy the #1 and #2 spots, respectively. There will be no change at the top of this list as Eichel's performance at the recently concluded WJCs was not transcendent. Eichel had a solid WJC tourney, however, he didn't carry his Team USA squad on his back when they needed him the most against Canada in the quarterfinals. Eichel was magical in the preliminary round, however, tried to do things all by himself in the third period when Team USA was being outplayed by Team Canada. Eichel's a great player, however, McDavid is better at this point in their development. McDavid started the WJCs slowly as he had some rust to shake off from his broken finger that forced him to miss 40 days of the regular season leading up to the IIHF tourney. McDavid finished the WJCs tied for the scoring lead (11 points) with teammates Samson Reinhart and Nic Petan. McDavid was magical in the quarterfinals, the semis, and in the finals. I feel sorry for his OHL opponents as McDavid is now healthy and ultra-motivated to take his game to the next level to lead his team to the 2015 Memorial Cup finals.
The prime mover in this ISS Hockey ranking is Lawson Crouse (Kingston Frontenacs) who was a standout player on Canada’s WJC gold medal winning team. Crouse’s strong showing at the WJCs has catapulted him over former #3 prospect, USA D-man Noah Hanifin. I happen to agree with this assessment. Its not a slight against Hanifin, but instead a reward for Crouse’s impressive play in all seven games at the IIHF WJCs. The 6’4… 200lb. power forward scored a goal and added 2 assists at the WJCs. His most impressive contributions were his ground-rumbling hits and his ravenous fore checking. The Crouse-Paul-Ritchie line abused opponents whenever they touched the puck. They were towers of power against the USA, Slovakia, and Russia. Crouse refuses to be outworked in board battles and rarely loses 50-50 puck battles. He’s only 17 years old and he is already positioning himself as the top power forward in the 2015 NHL Draft.
If the NHL Draft were held today, Crouse would be a Buffalo Sabre. Tim Murray and Ted Nolan would love to stick their fork into Crouse who will be a terror to play against for the next 10-15 seasons. Crouse won’t score 30 goals a season, however, he will block shots, fight, and control pucks in all three zones.
Crouse's nickname is "The Sheriff" because he takes care of all of his teammates. He will fight any comers who dare to take liberties with his boys.
He’ll be the glue that holds a team together.
Here’s the ISS Hockey Top 30:
1 McDavid 2 Eichel 3 Crouse 4 Hanifin 5 Rantanen 6 Werenski 7 Strome 8 Barzal 9 Marner 10 Provorov
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11 Zacha 12 Kylington 13 Merkley 14 Konecny 15 Connor 16 White 17 Carlo 18 Svechnikov 19 Greenway 20 Bracco
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21 Harkins 22 Chabot 23 Korostelev 24 Spencer 25 Carlsson 26 Novak 27 Meloche 28 Dergachev 29 Zboril 30 Bittner, Paul
The Buffalo Sabres closed out the first half of their 2014-15 NHL schedule with a 4-1 loss in Newark.
The Carolina Hurricanes and Edmonton Oilers also lost in regulation on Tuesday night. Thus, no dramatic seismic shift in positioning.
As of this morning, the NHL basement standings are as follows:
28th: Buffalo- 31 points 29th:Carolina- 28 points 30th: Edmonton 27 points
The Sabres are 1-8-1 in their last 10 games.
Carolina, Buffalo's next opponent is 4-5-1 in their last 10 games.
Edmonton is 2-4-4 in in their last 10 games.
I see an opportunity for the Sabres to "improve" their order in the NHL the standings in the next five game segment due to the strength of schedule of all three teams.
While the Canes and Oilers are trending upward, the Sabres have been mired in an ugly slump and there's no telling when things will improve.
For example, Edmonton will play Chicago on Friday, Florida on Sunday, St. Louis next Tuesday, and Tampa next Thursday and Florida again next Saturday. The coaching change appears to have injected some needed urgency into their overall game. The claiming of Derek Roy and Matt Fraser off waivers also appears to have infused a shot of adrenaline into their offense. Can the Oilers sustain their recent "success? I can't see why not. I'm predicting that the Oilers will earn 4 of the next 10 points available, which will put them at 31 points by next Saturday.
Carolina will host Buffalo on Thursday night, then will play St. Louis, Colorado, Vancouver, and Ottawa. The Canes have been playing much better overall ever since Jordan Staal returned from injury last week and I can see them pocketing five of the next ten points that are available to them. I can see the Canes flipping the button on their four wheel drive capabilities to climb up the standing. Are they a playoff team? No, far from it. However, I see them rebounding in the second half of the season schedule. If my prediction holds true, then they will be sitting with 33 points by next Saturday.
Buffalo's next five opponents are Carolina, Tampa, Detroit, Minnesota and Philadelphia. Tyler Myers returned to the lineup in New Jersey and the Sabres played a stinker of a road game. They played terribly in the first period. Their final forty minutes of play were better, but not good enough to earn a win. That's the story of their life this season. If they don't play a perfect 60-65 minute game, then they are doomed. Injuries and sickness have been plaguing the Sabres penalty killing units for the past two weeks. Their D-zone coverage has been sloppy and uninspired. Frankly, I can see more roster changes coming in the next 7-10 days by way of a trade(s). I can see them earning only two of the next ten points that are available to them. That will put them at 33 points after the Philly game next Saturday.
Of the three teams in the NHL basement right now, I see the Sabres as the one with the most to lose moving forward. Tim Murray has to make decisions on his pending UFAs Drew Stafford, Chris Stewart, Michal Neuvirth, and Jhonas Enroth. There is an appetite for trades among the bubble teams and contenders, and the market was officially opened last Friday when Edmonton shipped winger David Perron to Pittsburgh in exchange for a first round pick (2015) and forward Rob Klinkhammer. Murray is looking to get maximum return on his pending UFAs and I think that he will with the NHL trade deadline getting closer by the day. One other factor to consider for Buffalo is what becomes of Tyler Myers?
From my vantage point, the Sabres appear to be the team that has the most to lose in the next 41 games.