ST. PAUL, Minn. — It’d be easy for Minnesota Wild players to call this a “lost season” due to all the injuries.
You’d almost expect them to make excuses.
But on Friday, the earliest exit interview day in Minnesota in four years, players had brutally honest criticism of how they got to this point. They were mentally fragile, a term both coach John Hynes and general manager Bill Guerin agreed with.
They weren’t hard enough to play against.
They shrunk under pressure.
They weren’t vocal enough on the bench or in the dressing room.
“This isn’t who we are,” alternate captain Marcus Foligno said.
This group was a stark contrast from the #GRITFIRST and resilient Wild teams of the past. Remember that team two years ago that came from behind constantly and set an NHL record with 19 six-on-five goals?
Not this year, when the Wild couldn’t rally or hold a third-period lead. When they couldn’t kill a penalty. When they became a team that crumbled at any sign of adversity. When they couldn’t beat the top teams in their division even once.
If there’s any chance of next season being different, they’ve got to rediscover that identity. They’ve got to regain their swagger.
“There was a little ‘poor me’ type vibe,” Foligno said. “It just felt like there was a sag.”
“I’ve always said in years past how much I would have hated to play against us,” Ryan Hartman said. “And this year, I don’t know if I could have said the same thing.
“I think everyone needs to take a look in the mirror.”
Foligno: “just a frustrating year” for the #mnwild. “This isn’t who we are. This is a place that deserves playoff hockey.” Says they let the fans down pic.twitter.com/7bBOT1ps2a
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) April 19, 2024
The Wild’s roster could get a slight makeover by next season, with Guerin vowing to look hard into free agency or trades to upgrade the size and depth of the forward group and also find a potential top-six forward to take some pressure off Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy.
Kaprizov put the Wild on his back during an incredible second half after a slow first half, finishing with 46 goals and 96 points. But you could tell how much it pained him to miss the playoffs, which is why next season is critical in giving the superstar a reason to believe he should re-sign when eligible in July 2025.
“Kirill wants to win. I know that,” Guerin said. “And, yeah, I do feel we need to show him we’re committed to winning.”
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Guerin should have cap space to play with — from $7 million to possibly close to $10 million if he trades Filip Gustavsson. But, for the most part, it’ll be the same group — the one that went 0-10-1 against the top three teams in the division and won nine of 31 games against the nine teams ahead of it in the West — that’ll be charged with “getting over the hump.”
As Guerin quipped, they didn’t even get to the hump this year.
“There are no excuses,” Guerin said. “There were injuries, but that wasn’t the reason we didn’t make the playoffs. It’s a contributing factor but not the big reason. When I hear that our players say they were mentally fragile, I would agree with them. And if they said they weren’t competitive enough in big games, I would agree. We have to find our swagger.”
There was no sign of it early this season, when a 5-10-4 start, including a seven-game free fall, cost coach Dean Evason his job. The Wild fell behind too early in games, then fell behind in the standings, which as Guerin said can be “unforgiving” in this league.
“I just felt like we didn’t have that energy,” Foligno said. “That usually wasn’t the case seasons before. I’m a big believer in reading the team, reading the bench. I just felt that this year we really, when it came to being down a goal or two, it felt like we were a little bit sorry for ourselves. … It just got a little bit…
This article was originally published by a theathletic.com . Read the Original article here. .