Dan Wallace: Early Exit, This Is Getting Old

Evason was extended recently so he probably isn’t going anywhere soon but I could see some assistant coaches getting fired. The defense could be all new with only Spurgeon, Brodin, Middleton and Faber back. Lots of free agent forwards with little money to sign them. Steel, Sundqvist and Nyquist gone for sure. Evason seems to have a crush on Reaves like he does for Gaudreau so they may re sign him.

Biggest mistake was starting MAF in game two It actually cost you a chance to win that series. He cannot be trusted

Wild will never be a big contender for the Cup until they actually go through a full rebuild. But Leipold won't allow one, because he doesn't think the fans will support the team through it. And looking at the Timberwolves attendance stats, he's probably right.

Guerin is doing a good job team building given the restrictions in place, he was smart enough to not trade for a high cost rental this year. Grabbing O'Reilly & Acciari probably gets Wild to the 2nd round, but no further.

But Guerin's willingness to cut Parise & Suter was because they weren't his mistake to start with. With Evanson, the money he'd be owed if fired is 100% on Guerin, so it seems like Guerin isn't willing to admit he screwed up there.

Obviously every NHL fan wants to see their favorite squad hoisting the cup in that final game of the season. Goes without saying. I can’t speak for all Wild fans but I can bet the majority of them feel the same way I do, and that’s that they want to see their favorite team win to some extent in the playoffs beyond the first round. Duh. But more important to me is to do it in the utmost competitive fashion.

Winning 2 of 3 to start the series and then 3 straight losses is ridiculous. 2 of which were on home ice. How does that even happen? 2 years in a row no less.

Where did the tenacity and compete level go that showed up down the stretch of the regular season and in to game one where we saw them grit out a double OT win in a game where they were realistically out played by Dallas. Not to mention game 3 were they all but completely dominated from start to finish.

I just can’t understand how a team can just lose their mojo so quickly and fail to regain it in a timely enough manner to compete for a series.

Don’t get me wrong, I had no dilutions the Wild were headed to the finals. But as we all know, anything can happen in the playoffs, and that’s why even the fringe teams fight tooth and nail to get in.

Point I’m trying to make is losing is acceptable as long as a team goes down swinging. I feel like the last 3 losses were more or less mailed in and blamed on officiating.

Wild will never be a big contender for the Cup until they actually go through a full rebuild. But Leipold won't allow one, because he doesn't think the fans will support the team through it. And looking at the Timberwolves attendance stats, he's probably right.

Guerin is doing a good job team building given the restrictions in place, he was smart enough to not trade for a high cost rental this year. Grabbing O'Reilly & Acciari probably gets Wild to the 2nd round, but no further.

But Guerin's willingness to cut Parise & Suter was because they weren't his mistake to start with. With Evanson, the money he'd be owed if fired is 100% on Guerin, so it seems like Guerin isn't willing to admit he screwed up there.
- Antilles

Agree 💯. Expecting MIN to compete with 15% of their cap in dead money is insane. They'll never be more than pretenders until 2025.

I read last night that Evason while coaching in Milwaukee had similar playoff experiences of losing in the first round. That has now carried over to the professional lever for the past 4 consecutive seasons. If that is true about history in Milwaukee, one has to wonder why that continues to happen? There's a fine line between confidence and arrogance or maybe stubbornness.

Get used to it for 2 more seasons!

Also the year Kaprizov gets traded because he’s not resigning in Minnesota prior to hitting free agency

Dean Evason record as a coach in the WHL, AHL and NHL is one series win in fourteen attempts, that is 19 wins and 51 losses if you look at individual games.

You have an average boring team