2014-2015 General Wild Discussion Thread IV

[Jesus comma Brodin]

Does that #11 guy ever stop working?

 

[Minny Lakes]

So what can coaches and players actually do when only 5 people show up for practice?

 

[00xtremeninja]

out of those 5, I am happy as hell to see Haula there. Kid has so many great skills and he is poo poo so far this year. Good way to try and get out of the Yeo doghouse and try to be a better contributing factor. I hope he has a Zuckeresque turnaround.

 

[DANOZ28]

i dont recall yeo or mgmt throwing the goaltending under the bus. i know i did , i know russo did. if trading for a goalie who can stop the puck is mean & cruel , somebody should grow a pair. backstrom's GAA has dropped each year how can anybody defend that?

 

[DANOZ28]

Does that #11 guy ever stop working?

PARISE = STUD! he deserves a cup on his resume!

 

[Jesus comma Brodin]

i dont recall yeo or mgmt throwing the goaltending under the bus. i know i did , i know russo did. if trading for a goalie who can stop the puck is mean & cruel , somebody should grow a pair. backstrom's GAA has dropped each year how can anybody defend that?

I like dis. I offered Backs for a 6th rounder to the isles in a thread (trying to be sneaky) and they rightly ripped me apart... Thanks to his 3.04 and .887 sv%

PARISE = STUD! he deserves a cup on his resume!

He is a competitor. Wants to win more than anything.

 

[Spurgeon]

http://yle.fi/urheilu/bussin_alle_heitetty_niklas_backstrom_nuorta_kaveria_kay_saaliksi/7773931

Finnish NHL journalist Tommi Seppälä's article from yesterday. The title reads: "Niklas Bäckström, 'thrown under the bus': 'I feel pity for the young guy'. Minnesota's Finn goaltender Niklas Bäckström hasn't cared about the way how head coach Mike Yeo has commented on the team's goaltending throughout the season."

Some snippets and quotes:

"Team's problems are manifold. Coaching is not the elite of the league, although neither is player material by all parts. Injuries have had their toll too.

Head coach Mike Yeo's comments during the tough times have been odd too. Even though Bäckström and young Kuemper wouldn't have been at their best at all times, Yeo's habit of publicly blaming the goaltenders, is classless. Bäckström pities especially Kuemper.

'This probably hasn't been about one or two things. It's useless to blame the goaltenders too much here. I feel pity especially for the young guy. Guy is 24 years old and has played 30 games in this league. He was thrown under the bus pretty directly.'

Hockey is a team game.

'I have always believed that we defend each other inside the rink and outside of it. We win and lose as a team. You take care of your buddies and do not throw the blame left and right and that way try to save your own ass.'

[about the message the Dubnyk trade sent]

'You couldn't really affect it yourself. Jacques Lemaire, who's one of the best coaches I've ever had, said to me always that only worry about yourself here. You can always look around in your weak moments and search for fault there. You just have to develop yourself.'

'I could of course say and do all kinds of stuff here, but it wouldn't help any'

[about a possible trade to another team]

'You always want to play. Sure it's fun to be with the guys in the practices and so on, but everyone wants to play. Every one of us has that competitor's mentality.'

[about his hernia surgery last summer]

'Doctor said about the operation, that they do this, so I can have normal life. There was a real chance it would've ended hockey for me. Now I enjoy every day, playing and practicing. Being part of the team.'

'Every season has been a mental struggle in its own way. Sometimes you play a lot and there's something. Sometimes you don't play and there's something again. You have to find the answers yourself and that way become stronger. Surgery and the possible end to career of course helps you see things.'

'But no one here wants to be satisfied. You always want to get to the next level. First I hoped I could get to training camp healthy and from there onto the season. Now that we're here, it's not enough anymore. Everyone wants to play a lot' he said smiling."

Yeo protected the goaltenders far longer than was required of him. It's very clear what the issue has been for this team and Yeo didn't start blaming goaltending until they were absolutely killing the confidence of the team.

Backstrom comes off as a whiny ***** here, you and the "young guy" are the benefactors of a lot of losses. Your time is up and now Dubynk has proven that this team can win with solid goaltending. Something Backstrom hasn't supplied since we've become playoff contenders.

 

[DeuceMN]

We had bad goaltending which started the slide this year.

What about the slide we've had the other three years? Goaltending was what saved our ass last year.

And Yeo defended the goaltenders for all of a few weeks. The season is how many months long?

What other inconsistencies does he show as a coach? I can think of a few...

And Backs is one of the most quiet and respectful players most of the time. Yet he's a pos because he disagrees, for once, with his coach, after all these years.

Way to look at things in a vacuum guys.

And Backs is right, hockey is a team sport, more than any of the other major sports. Even Parise was quoted as saying they should have been doing many other things well during their TWO MONTHS of bad play.

But **** Backs, yeah.

 

[Jarick]

Yeo defended the goaltending all year until a few weeks ago, where he started to call it out.

Wild had (have) the worst 5v5 save percentage in the league. Not sure why Yeo would need to hide his goalies any more than he did?

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what Yeo says. But he wasn't harsh at any way. Not his style.

 

[DANOZ28]

i never called backs a pos, all im saying is if he cant get the job done then find someone who can! was goaltending the only problem? no but a low cost trade created a wakeup call for the team. hard to argue with success.

 

[Minnewildsota]

Well.. when it's been most of the season and 2 players in particular haven't been playing well. It's hard to keep coming out and saying the team needs to play better. At some point, a particular player or players need to play better.

 

[Dee Oh Cee]

Yeah, just reads like sour grapes from a guy who knows his career is pretty much over.

 

[Minny Lakes]

So we actually have more wins on the road than at home this year.
It be nice if we could get back to that historically good home team we have always been.
Than we can talk playoffs.

 

[Spurgeon]

We had bad goaltending which started the slide this year.

What about the slide we've had the other three years? Goaltending was what saved our ass last year.

And Yeo defended the goaltenders for all of a few weeks. The season is how many months long?

What other inconsistencies does he show as a coach? I can think of a few...

And Backs is one of the most quiet and respectful players most of the time. Yet he's a pos because he disagrees, for once, with his coach, after all these years.

Way to look at things in a vacuum guys.

And Backs is right, hockey is a team sport, more than any of the other major sports. Even Parise was quoted as saying they should have been doing many other things well during their TWO MONTHS of bad play.

But **** Backs, yeah.

They played like **** because they couldn't count on their goalies to stop a puck. They had to score 4-5 goals a game to even have a chance of winning.

Goaltending didn't save our ass last year, the team played well as a whole. That's what's happening right now. Our goalie is playing well and our forwards/defense are playing well. They're not mutually exclusive.

Kuemper and Backstrom were absolute dog **** and the team suffered because of it. Yeo was patient with them for more than a month and things never improved, he was obligated to call out the goalies. Of course Parise isn't going to single out the goalies, you want someone to hate you? Yeo needed to say something and he did, and Fletch acquired Dubnyk and the team is playing well.

Yeo has brought this team to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time in a long time, and it looks like he's making a push for 3 seasons in a row. I have no problems with Yeo. Backs is just fighting for another game at this point.

 

[rynryn]

We had bad goaltending which started the slide this year.

What about the slide we've had the other three years? Goaltending was what saved our ass last year.

And Yeo defended the goaltenders for all of a few weeks. The season is how many months long?

What other inconsistencies does he show as a coach? I can think of a few...

And Backs is one of the most quiet and respectful players most of the time. Yet he's a pos because he disagrees, for once, with his coach, after all these years.

Way to look at things in a vacuum guys.

And Backs is right, hockey is a team sport, more than any of the other major sports. Even Parise was quoted as saying they should have been doing many other things well during their TWO MONTHS of bad play.

But **** Backs, yeah.

you realize all those quotes in defense of the goaltending (when asked) are simple, smart attempts at not crippling their confidence. you think a player is going to want to point the finger at another player? Or a coach at the goaltending? The only comment i can remember Yeo making about the goaltending specifically was about that one goal Kuemper let in. Otherwise he's deflected it to make it a team issue--as have the players. "we have to play better in front of the net and let them settle in" etc. Are there more examples of him picking out the goalies and blaming them? Yeo and the players have been defending the goaltending all friggin year. It's always "we need to find some ways to get more pucks in their net" when we're outshooting the other team 80% of the time, not "we need to find ways to keep the puck out of the net". our atrocious save percentage is indicative of bad goaltending. in spite of this, the goalies were never blamed until that one game. Edit: i will say that backstrom complaining is very much out of character for him. is there a chance something was lost in the translation? He has to know he wouldn't even be suiting up at all in this league if he hadn't got injured--it's mildly ironic that the thing preventing him from being an effective NHL goalie is the only reason he is still an NHL goalie.

 

[FVM]

I was surprised how open Bäckström was about his issue with Yeo. Though he was reported to be testy already earlier so clearly it's really hard for him to handle. Also he makes sure to mention how Lemaire was "one of the best coaches I've had". Not very well hidden shot at Yeo there.

But I agree, it was clear both of our goalies were playing subpar and it was killing the whole team. Yeo definitely didn't call them out as much as he could have.

 

[iLLogik87]

Go Wild!

 

[rynryn]

I was surprised how open Bäckström was about his issue with Yeo. Though he was reported to be testy already earlier so clearly it's really hard for him to handle. Also he makes sure to mention how Lemaire was "one of the best coaches I've had". Not very well hidden shot at Yeo there.

But I agree, it was clear both of our goalies were playing subpar and it was killing the whole team. Yeo definitely didn't call them out as much as he could have.

when else did he call them out? this isn't an angry "i dare you to find something" but i really missed it if he did. at the very least it was far, far less than he called out everyone else.

 

[FVM]

when else did he call them out? this isn't an angry "i dare you to find something" but i really missed it if he did. at the very least it was far, far less than he called out everyone else.

I don't remember when exactly he did or didn't call them out, but I remember it took a long time for him to do that for the first time. And you're right, it never was too damning either.

As for this out of character complaining from Bäcks, I think it has something to do with it being a Finnish journalist asking. It feels the players are sometimes more candid when they think the coaching staff, GM or the owner won't ever be reading that interview. Even then, he kinda backtracks in the end when telling how he just enjoys every day, being part of the team etc. at this point of his career.

 

[nickschultzfan]

The truth is it is irrelevant what Yeo and Backstrom think about each other. Backstrom has had every opportunity to steal the number one job, but he didn't, and the Wild lost too many games in that time period. Now there is no more time for any goalie to find their game. We need wins and any goalie that loses a game may be replaced. There is no more runway. And Backstrom as a vet should both know that and also not need 2/3rds of a season to get his A game back.

 

[Sarge58]

Backstrom hasn't shown enough progress since his surgery to warrant where he thinks he should be. When a team clearly doesn't have confidence in their goalie what other option does Yeo and Fletcher do other than find a goalie that can do the job and play him.

Backstrom's a competitive guy, Kemps put it all on himself. They were given more then enough chances to take the bull by the horns and show some consistency and yet they failed.

It's nice to see that Dumba, Folin, Niederreiter are still pushing each other like they were over the summer.

 

[Jesus comma Brodin]

 

[Arturia Pendragon]

Schroeder looked good in that game against Chicago, glad to see he's been recalled.
About Backstrom: Humility lends itself to objectivity, hopefully he can see this for what it's worth. Gotta be consistent to hold ANY job, least of all as an NHL goalie. Best of luck.

 

[tomgilbertfan]

 

[NHL1674]

https://twitter.com/Russostrib/status/562663791138467840

Yeo said Cooke is out tonight, potentially for a long time. I'm hearing he's done for the season w lower body injury #mnwild