Experienced Wild ready for playoff run with heightened expectations
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Through four seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins, one year with the Minnesota Wild's farm team in Houston and four years at the helm for Minnesota's NHL squad, Mike Yeo has been out of the playoffs once.
Only in Yeo's inaugural season with the Wild in 2011-12 -- as the team began a transition period -- was Yeo left to return home, maybe spend time on a Canadian lake and watch the playoffs.
Yeo is enjoying the weather, but he's right where he wants to be: in the postseason.
"It's the best time of the year," Yeo said Monday, smiling at the thought. "When the playoffs start, first off the weather is starting to get nicer. The sun is out. Now there's only 16 teams left in the dance here."
The sun has been shining on Minnesota for a while now, even during the gloom of the winter. The Wild's improbable second-half run allowed Minnesota to "dance" for a third straight season. The Wild's 26-8-2 second half mark earned them the top wild-card spot and a first-round meeting with the St. Louis Blues.
Minnesota pulled itself out of a hole in which it was in 12th place in the Western Conference as of Jan. 14. The arrival of goaltender Devan Dubnyk, a shrewd trade for winger Chris Stewart and improved health and performance keyed the run. No team enters the playoffs with the momentum, and maybe the confidence, of the Wild.
The confidence, along with a third consecutive postseason appearance that gives Minnesota experience, has raised the stakes.
"I know internally for us they are," forward Zach Parise said of the expectations. "It was one of those the first year where we were happy to get in. Last year, I thought we played well going in and then had a good round against Colorado and Chicago. Now I think internally we think we're playing well. We'll see what happens, but year by year you expect your team to get better and I think we've done that."
The Wild didn't hold back hopes when the season began. Yeo said he expected his team to break through and become one of the league's upper-echelon teams. Minnesota looked the part after trading for Dubnyk on Jan. 14.
Back in the postseason, Yeo avoided setting any expectations on Monday.
"One thing that we can probably say now is I would say we're probably a little more experienced," Yeo said. "I would also say that with that experience, you learn not to come in looking too far down the road and talking too much about expectations. Our expectation is to make sure we're ready for Game 1 right now."
A young team has become a playoff-tested group along with its key veteran additions. The youth, like defensemen Jonas Brodin, Marco Scandella and Jared Spurgeon, and forwards Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle, Nino Niederreiter and Erik Haula went through two playoff rounds last year.
"Since I've been here, by far it's been the most depth and the most talent that we've had up front," Parise said. "To win in the playoffs, that's so important. It's hard when you're on the road and you don't get that last change. It's hard to score goals. When you can have four lines that are capable of doing that, it just makes life a lot tougher for the opponent and it makes you tougher to check. When you can maintain that line after line of pressure, that's a thing that's hard to defend. We have a good lineup right now."
One player who hasn't witnessed the intensity in the NHL postseason is Dubnyk. The big goaltender will be making his first playoff appearance in the NHL after six seasons.
Minnesota has been almost in a must-win situation since Dubnyk arrived. He believes the race to just earn a playoff spot has helped sharpen his focus for when the real thing begins Thursday.
"That's how we've been playing for the last two and a half months," Dubnyk said. "On top of that, just about every single guy in here has playoff experience. For someone like me who doesn't, that's a nice thing to have as a group that just had a pretty good playoff push last year and some exciting big games. They've all been through it, so it's a comfortable feeling to have those guys in front of me going into this."
Yeo is comfortable back in the pressure situations of the playoffs. There's no place he'd rather be as the sun shines.
"If you can't enjoy it, then you're in the wrong business," Yeo said. "That's part of it. That's why we compete. It doesn't mean that the low points don't get to you and bother you. Certainly you do everything you can to make sure there's more high points than low points. But it's the battle you have to enjoy. It's the competition.
"When we go in there Thursday night and get to play a real good hockey team in a hostile environment and then you rise to challenge, that's the fun part about it."
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