Wild Woes

Express Yourself
I haven't been able to post after the last few games.  Not because of technical difficulties.  I wrote several posts and ended up deleting them.  I found, upon review after walking away for awhile, that the posts were filled with hate, loathing, more than a few effinhiemers and not much else.  Not that venting isn't good for the soul but I hadn't written anything that the attendees of the last 2 home games weren't screaming at the top of their lungs in real time.  I felt like I should be contributing something more than that.  So I've tried to get down to the nitty gritty of it - the foundation of what's wrong with this hockey picture.  

Make no mistake about it - this team STINKS. It has for some time now. No news bulletin there. The paying fans figured that out 45 days ago.

Powerplay is NONEXISTENT and is UNACCEPTABLE.  

Defense is NONEXISTENT and is UNACCEPTABLE.  Completely unable to clear the zone or carry a puck out.  Refuses to protect their goalies, refuses to check with their bodies, refuses to stand up to the opponent on our own blue line, refuses to shoot the puck. 

Offense is NONEXISTENT to INCONSISTENT at best, and is UNACCEPTABLE.  Doesn't matter whether it's the first line or the fourth line.  No drive to the net, no shooting the puck, no standing in front of opponent's goalie, no trying for the rebound, no going into corners, no checking - whether it's fore, back or hip.

Goaltending is NONEXISTENT to INCONSISTENT at best, and is UNACCEPTABLE.  Backstrom is lost.  It's not just in the shootout, it's in regulation.  Sure there's the aforementioned sucky defense, but there are one to two soft goals Bax gives up in EVERY game these days.  Sure there's the aforementioned nonexistent offense, but when the Wild only score one or two goals per game having a goaltender who gives up one to two goals totally negates any goal(s) his teammates may have scored.  Harshes the mellow, rains on the parade, poops the party. 

No Leadership on the team.  Koivu isn't it.  He's too inconsistent when he does lead and he's too thin-skinned about it when the team doesn't play well.  In addition to that there aren't any guys on the team who consistently leave it all out there on every shift.  Yes, Dany Heatley has stepped up his game lately.  But that doesn't make him a leader.  Where was he six weeks ago?  Completely invisible, along with Setoguchi.  This team is lacking players who are willing to lay it all on the line every shift, every game - despite what the marketing geniuses came up with for this season.  And that's the subject of a whole other post in the near future. 

And Yet...

Yeo doesn't follow up the worst performance of the season (2.7.2012 against the Blue Jackets, led by Todd Richards no less) with a hard practice filled with effinhiemers and drills-till-they-puke. The Wild lost to the team in LAST PLACE IN THE ENTIRE LEAGUE.  Yeo opts instead for a Come To Jesus meeting. It kinda worked. The team came out against Vancouver with a better performance than the JAX game. That's not saying much though.  Insert any of the aforementioned afflictions the Wild suffer from and there's the breakdown of the Vancouver game even though the Wild did seem to have a little jump in their game compared to the last ten.       

Now???

Now Yeo is all of a sudden fed up and can't take it any more??  He's pissed off at the team??  What about that hideous loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets 2 nights before? The JAX are DEAD LAST in the league and the Wild played WORSE than them.  But against Vancouver, third in the league, he blows his top and finally tells the State Of Hockey residents what we knew 45 days ago - this team STINKS.  The only player to pay the price for bad play is Brad Staubitz who is placed on waivers.  Ummm, about two months too late.  Oh, and NOBODY wants him!  He's now playing in Houston making his NHL salary.     

And Yet...        

Yeo scraps yet another practice and has a second air-it-out-come-to-Jesus meeting in as many games.  WTF FOR??  So you can tell these guys they suck to their faces?  That's not a news bulletin for any of them.  Well, maybe for Koivu who was quoted saying he felt the team played well against the Canucks.  Lord Stanley, that's some shades of Martin Skoula never feeling he played badly in post game interviews.  Whatever Yeo said to the team didn't work.  It didn't make an impression.  It didn't mean shit because the Wild lost to the Blue Jackets AGAIN.  This time at home, giving Todd Richards every reason to have a shit-eating grin on his face as he left the bench after the final buzzer.  You think Colton Gilles wasn't smiling as well?  Good for them, they deserve it.  It kills me to say that but it's the truth.  The Wild?  Well, they took the day off afterwards, cuz they deserved it (:-0

Wild vs Ducks Morning Skate
I listened to KFAN's broadcast from the penalty box Tuesday morning.  Chuck Fletcher gave one of the most bland and evasive interviews of his career.  Russo declined to participate in it because "he and Chuck have had spoken to each other enough over the last few days."  C'mon, what the hell does that mean?  Paul Allen from KFAN had the mic to the ice and you could hear the Wild on the ice for their morning skate.  Very subdued, very quiet.  No chirping, no good natured ribbing or calling out to line mates.  Only Matt Kassian was vocal enough to be heard.  Everyone on air commented on the "deadness" of it.  Russo spoke again of how "fragile" the team is.  Fragile??  Multimillionaire players of a kid's sport are FRAGILE??  For the love of Gordy Howe, we're really reaching for reasons to excuse the fact that this group of men need to go out there and earn their pay, plain and simple.  I'm already tired of Mike Yeo and his cliché filled interviews about "care" and "game" and "drive" and "fight" and "mentality" and "process" and "culture".  Give it a rest and start hounding these grown men about earning their paychecks or getting cut loose.  The motivational crap isn't working, it hasn't been for over 60 days now.