Last Updated on Thursday, 18 February 2016 10:50
By Kevin Hartzell
Let’s Play Hockey Columnist
This past fall, I was in line at the local coffee shop when I turned to look behind me at others in line and noticed right behind me a man in full Minesota Wild apparel. I was in the midst of feeling purple myself (in full Viking fan mode). This guy was getting a jump on the season or so it seemed to me.
I asked him what was up with the full Wild outfit. “Very excited about the upcoming season,” he told me. I asked him what exactly he thought was going to be different this year that would lead to a greater success than the previous season. He had some interesting theories, one of which was of head coach Mike Yeo getting Thomas Vanek to become a grittier player, which he insisted was one of the missing links. After listening to his theories I think I just sighed and said good luck to you and your Wild.
On Saturday, the Wild fired Yeo. Maybe he didn’t live up to expectations of the club or of the fan I saw in the coffee shop that day. Maybe he didn’t have the tools he needed or the players. It is hard to say. I do know on that day in the line at the coffee shop, I sighed because I was far from convinced the Wild had in place what was necessary to make a run at a championship. I know I didn’t understand how this fan or anyone else thinks that an NHL head coach was going to change the nature of any player, and of course that would include this fan’s wishes to change Vanek. Thomas Vanek is a superstar in his own right with his own unique skill sets, but he is what he is. He is not Zach Parise nor is Parise Thomas Vanek.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the Wild. I love their off-ice efforts led by Matt Majka, their chief operating officer. My impression is that Matt and his staff run a classy and tidy ship that is fan focused. Matt and his staff make it easy for me to wish good things for the organization. But the other side of the operation, the hockey side, we all get to second guess. It is part of the fun of following the hometown team, no matter the team or the sport.
For full disclosure, I really was hopeful the Wild would sign my son, Eric, this past fall. Eric has not proven himself to be an NHL goalie yet and may never do so, but I have watched him plenty and I am convinced that in the right environment, he would have a chance. Being that the Wild was and continues to be, in my opinion, organizationally short on depth at the goaltending position, I thought Eric would be a good addition for the organization. In any event, it didn’t happen.
That said, the hockey operations side has made some interesting moves in the past several years. Some of these moves have been very good. Parise ... great move of course. He is not the only good/great move. There have also been poor moves, in my opinion, but in the end, they are what they are, a good but imperfect hockey team.
I watched a good portion of Yeo’s second to last game as the Wild head coach. It was against the first-place Washington Capitals. I thought the Wild played very hard and quite well. They were beaten by a hat trick by Alex Ovechkin. But Yeo and his team were ready to play and they played well; they just didn’t win.
The first to go when things are not going well is the coach. It is a crappy profession in some ways. They say, “Coaches are hired to be fired.” On top of that, the coaching profession in general, pays poorly. It pays poorly in a large part because there are too many former players looking to remain in the game and willing to take jobs for “less,” just for the opportunity. They drive down salaries to where I recommend to many aspiring coaches that if they have skills outside of hockey, to pursue those skills. Put those skills to work, make some money and save your coaching for the kids, which can be every bit, if not more, rewarding.
I never like seeing a coach lose his or her job, but it is part of the profession. In the end, I have no idea if Yeo did a good, great or poor job. I do know that few of the players he was tasked with putting together into a winning formation were drafted or signed to the team by him. Coaching at the NHL level, Yeo was paid nicely and none of us need to feel badly for him. It’s a big complex puzzle and the coach gets the ax first. It’s just the way it is.
Kevin Hartzell is the director of player development for the NA3HL’s Twin City Steel. A St. Paul native and forward for the University of Minnesota from 1978-82, Hartzell coached in the USHL from 1983-89 with the St. Paul Vulcans and from 2005-12 with the Sioux Falls Stampede. He was the head coach of Lillehammer in Norway’s GET-Ligaen from 2012-14. His columns have appeared in Let’s Play Hockey since the late 1980s. His book “Leading From the Ice” is available at amazon.com.
