Maybe Next Year?

Okay so today is the day after the Minnesota Wild got run out of the playoffs by the Chicago Blackhawks ending a roller coaster season in which there were extreme highs like last summer when Zach Parise and Ryan Suter signed with the Wild, and lows like losing 5-1 last night. So for all the fans out there screaming for Mike Yeo to be fired, I need to ask why?

In every sport, when a team under performs the knee-jerk reaction is to fire the coach, but why? The last two seasons the Twins fans have been demanding that Ron Gardenhire be fired, even after he won six division titles, and now look, the Twins have competent pitching, and they are back in the hunt for the postseason. Sometimes teams just fail, it is not the coaches at fault, but instead it is the players.

So going back to Yeo, why should the Wild jump ship? Should the Wild go bring back Jacques Lemaire? Ha. Yeo is a young coach who has won every where he has gone. Won the Stanley Cup as an assistant coach for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Brought the Houston Aeros to Calder Cup two summers ago, and now has brought his team to the NHL playoffs in his second season as coach.

I understand that not once, but twice Yeo has seen his team slide down the standings in back-to-back seasons, but this season you should take it as a grain of salt. I say this because look at the teams that are dominating in this locked-shorten season like the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Blackhawks, both teams had the least amount of roster turnover coming into this season, which means both teams already had chemistry. Look at the Wild, two all-stars who have never played for the Wild come in without no training camp. Suter has to relearn a new line mate who's last name is not Weber. The Wild bring up rookies like Jason Zucker who just one year ago played in college. So with this in hand you could say the Wild over performed this season, but the problem is that the person writing these checks Craig Leipold might push the panic button and bring in a more experienced coach.

Myself included thought that the Wild were going to make a deep playoff run, but the more I watched this season, the more I kept telling myself that the real run will be next season, when these "rookies" are no longer rookies, and the team chemistry can be built up more, and more; but then again as a Minnesota sports fan we are always talking about next season....