That may be true, but we need players to perform well and the team is going to need to win here and there for that to happen. BG needs trade-able assets and they are going to need to play well(at least some of the time) in order for him to be able to move them to teams making a push before the deadline.
- bmgarvert
Exactly BMG. I know Tweaterben must be in agony right now with the Wild winning again. But this is gonna have to happen to make players tradeable. Luckily, they still rank down near the bottom of the league and will need more than a few wins in a row to put a great draft pick in jeopardy. Looking at stats this morning, I noticed that in the +/- stat, it's all the youngsters (except Kunin, who currently is at the bottom) that are in the positive and all the aging vets that are negatives. I know that is not the best stat in the world to base things on, but it's useful to a point. I just wonder if the reason it is like that is because the vets are playing larger minutes, so they have more chances to be scored on.
So I looked at TOI avgs for the Wild. The top 4 spots are defensemen, in order of Suter, Spurgeon, Dumba and Brodin...as expected. But 5 of the next 6 spots are "vets" in the order of Koivu, Parise, Staal, Zucker and Zuccarello (Kunin is ahead of the Z boys). Of those players, only Koivu is positive at +2. But Parise at -9, Staal at -11, Zucker at -8 and Zuccarello at -7 tells me that they are not being very productive at 5-on-5. Players like Greenway, Fiala and JEE are barely at a + or even, but still appear to be being more effective.
Now I don't know if this is BB's fault, or if this is somewhat of a directive from BG, but if they truly want to make some vets "appear" more product, to make them more tradeable, then why not shift a few more minutes off the vets and onto the youngsters. I assume by now that BG has a decent idea on what the Wild have in the younger players on the roster. Let them take on larger minutes and possibly help decrease the negative value associated with veteran players. Once instance this could work is start playing Kunin, Fiala, JEE, Greenway...even Donato more on PP and stop rolling 1:45 of PP time with Staal, Koivu, and Parise. I figure that could lessen a few minutes for those guys. Koivu is going to get his minutes because of his defense, so extra time off from PP might keep him fresher for PK. Staal might just have a slight more pep in his step for 5-on-5 to keep up with Zucker and Zuccarello.
Unfortunately, it's my opinion that BB will stay with the vets and will be gone from this team at season's end. I do think he is a very good coach but he relies on his vets way too much. Kind of like when Yeo was here, but Yeo was basically just walked all over by the vets. The Wild are going to have to find a new coach that not only is good, but understands how to get the youngsters going and can relate with them. This MIGHT be happening now, as it appears that in the last 2 games, BB has given more time towards the end of games to "young line" of Greenway, JEE and Kunin. And I somewhat understand that shortening of the bench at the end of the game by playing Hartman in Fiala's place when they have a lead. But if they are behind, let Fiala earn his bumps and see if he can become a threat to win games.
I forgot to add....NO to Babcock. I don't think he would fit the culture and style that Wild have been creating. Yeah, he has won a Cup...back in what, 2008? The game has changed and I just don't think he would be a good fit.
