THURSDAY'S STORY LINE: Adjusting to a new system: That is what the four Minnesota Wild players acquired in the past week are trying to do.
"It is always tough to learn a new system," said defenseman Kurtis Foster, acquired from the New Jersey Devils last week.
Foster and the other players will rely on practice time and video to get them up to speed. Defenseman Tom Gilbert, acquired from Edmonton on Monday, said the Oilers and Wild do things very differently.
"They have been showing me video every day, and that is a good thing to do just to learn something," he said. "They showed me clips of how they do breakouts, how they do neutral zone stuff. The more you see it the easier it becomes. The worst thing you can do it think about it every time you are on the ice. You know what you have to do, where you have to be playing, where you are in position. The coaches told me every day we will go over something new, but I feel like I am learning it pretty quick."
Foster is learning his third system this season. He started the year in Anaheim and was traded to New Jersey before being traded to Minnesota last Friday.
"It takes a little bit of time," he said. "This is the third time I have had to learn a new system this year. It is a pretty simple, smart, efficient system, but I feel the way they want to play it is a little different, to get used that, but hopefully this week I can get it down."
For Foster one of the biggest adjustments is defensive zone coverage.
"In New Jersey we played almost two, three guys in the corner," he said. "But here it is little different. In Jersey, there was no net front D. You just got right in the corner, and it was a little weird to get used to that. Now that I am here, it is hard to just not get aggressive and get in the corner."
Foster is known for his powerful shot -- it was one of the reasons the Wild acquired him to help generate offense from the blue line. He said the Wild have been adamant in telling him to shoot on the power play, but in New Jersey defensemen were asked to pass.
With the Devils, forward Ilya Kovalchuk – who has 294 power-play points in 759 career games -- played the other point on the power play. Foster got into the habit of passing the puck to the Kovalchuk, a habit he will happily break in Minnesota.
"That it was what I like to do and what I am best at, but when I was in New Jersey I had a guy like Kovalchuk on my other wing, so you felt like you had to pass it all the time," Foster said. "I do find myself looking to pass a little more then I should here. Hopefully the more and more power plays I get, I will have the mindset to shoot the puck all the time and hopefully it will lead to some goals."
HE SAID IT: "There in an adjustment period for the new guys to get to know the system. Even the details as far as getting to know the players they are playing against, but overall our team game is the same. We ask the same thing from line to line, from player to player. So once these guys get familiar with what we got going, it usually isn't a difficult transition." –Yeo on players adjusting to the system
