Off Kilter, Yo! We Got A New Coach!

Out Of Alignment
There's a little tick in my left eye starting up and while I'd like to attribute it to seasonal allergies that would be a lie...mostly because I don't have seasonal allergies.  There's no hockey being played and for me that's like when the car is out of alignment just a skosh.  Not enough to pull the car across a lane of traffic but just enough to catch you off guard when you're making that one-handed left hand turn when you really should have both hands on the wheel.  It's the kind of small thing that will get pushed to the bottom of the to-do list for the next little while because other things will pop up. 

• Like for instance, the Wild's 2011-2012 Season Schedule coming out on Tuesday.  And that's followed by the Wild Road Trip on Wednesday to stalk admire Wes Walz up close and personal.  Oh, and Cal Clutterbuck will be there too - I wonder if the other two Stooges will be joining me, especially the one with the personalized Clutterbuck Calendar hanging in her cube?  
• Then there's the 2011 NHL Draft this Friday and Saturday being held in my home away from home - the Excel Energy Center!  Seeing all the young boys with hopes and dreams of NHL careers, spotting some of hockey's greatest players sitting at team tables, finding out what the name of Winnipeg's hockey team will be, booing Bettman, being in the arena again - just freakin' marvelous!   
• I'll just barely have time to recover from that when Free Agency starts on July 1st.  Not that the Wild have anything to trade with...or for, but hey - it's always fun to see what all the other teams can do with actual talent to barter with.  And it's good to know what the home team will be up against within our own division in terms of trades and acquisitions.  I'm actually looking forward (with much glee) to seeing if Vancouver sells off their key nonproducing playoff players as a means of making amends to it's rioting fans for having choked the chicken during three of the seven games during the Cup Final series.  Too bad the one player who should be run out of town on a rail is firmly mortgaged to the team for the next 11 years....MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!      

After free agency I'll have some serious down time waiting for the season to start up and that's when I'll be twitchy and pissy and snarky and just a tad bit off.  You know, out of alignment. 

Prove Me Wrong
Mike Yeo was named to the new head coach.  That's who Chuck Fletcher went with and apparently Craig Leipold bought into it at 100% as well.  Yes, Yeo's assistant coached in the NHL before: for the PENGUINS...you know, with the fully loaded and talented Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and the likes.  Yes, Yeo's coached in the AHL: for one season...and yes, he took the team to the Calder Cup Final.  Is that a winning track record of enough substance?  Not in my book.  I'm not saying that head coaching in the AHL is an easy feat.  But let's just look at this in daylight: 

• It's no secret that the Wild was a collective pile of steaming poop this last season. 
• We all knew half way through the season that heads (players and coaches) were going to have to roll in this off season.  
• It's no secret the Wild's budget is maxed out, thanks to the previous GM as well as the current GM and their combined poor judgement on contract amounts and lengths.  That means no blockbuster trades.  Yep, rebuilding from within is our motto for yet another two full years.  

How's that for incentive at the AHL level to work your butt off?  So, you've got a bunch of 20 somethings who know they've got a legitimate shot of making the Wild during the 2011 training camp.  Of course they're eager to play and make an impression.  And then there's Mike Yeo.  The guy could sell you a bridge over the Sahara desert before you realized it - he's just that smooth of a talker.  Apparently he mesmerized Fletcher right out of his good sense and then Fletcher had to sell it to Leipold with some peanut butter to make the pill go down smoother.  Two glaring telling points for me during the press conference: 
1. Leipold wasn't even there, which tells me Fletcher is on the shortest of leashes and Yeo will be out the door with him in a heartbeat if things don't mesh immediately.  
2. Fletcher says the Wild isn't rebuilding but instead is building...building a foundation for the future.  Um, Chuck - this is an eleven year old franchise in really big trouble with no existing tradeable talent or future superstar in Houston waiting to take center ice.  I'm not sure what dictionary you're using to put your press statements together but the ones I read define that as REBUILDING.  You only get to say BUILD when it's a brand new franchise or as a continuing effort to support an already successful team.  The Wild is NOT a successful team.   
Nor is this a team of shiny faced 20 year old boys ready to hang on every word just to prove they belong at the NHL level.  Anybody remember Marty Havlat and Mikko Koivu, the two co-reigning Queens of Pissy on the team?  Or the other Dial-It-In players on the team: Eric Nystrom, Chuck Kobasew,  John Madden, Antti Miettinen?  First and foremost, we need a coach who will let these guys know their days of just collecting a paycheck are over.  Chuck Fletcher says Mike isn't afraid of confrontation.  Mike followed that up with this in his press conference: "I’m looking to become teammates with these guys. I don’t want to be coach and they’re the players."  Wild Fans, welcome to Todd Richards 2.0.

All this having been said from my soapbox - it's a done deal.  Mike Yeo is the head coach of the Wild and there's nothing to be done about it, for now.  Go ahead Mike, prove me wrong.  Make me eat my words in December and again in February and again in April.  Nothing will make me happier than to say I had you pegged all wrong because that will mean the Wild are winning and that they're giving 100% of themselves every game and that means I'm screaming cheers at my tv set, not obscenities like I have for the last two seasons.