Yeo has decisions to make as Cooke, Brodziak return to practice
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Returning for a full practice Tuesday, the Minnesota Wild filled the ice at the Xcel Energy Center. With forwards Kyle Brodziak and Matt Cooke returning to skate with the team, 25 players created a logjam during practice.
"There's a lot of guys out there," Minnesota head coach Mike Yeo said. "But it obviously presents some challenges. The ice gets chewed up a little bit quicker and fewer repetitions for guys, both for the guys that have been in the lineup and the guys trying to get ready to get back in the lineup. So, yeah, it's not easy to do. But I thought it was still a pretty good tempo to our practice and a good skate."
Yeo will have the benefit of a deep lineup, but must handle the influx of players returning to health with a team that owns the league's best record (24-5-1) since the All-Star break. Depth is helpful but creates decisions for Yeo on a nightly basis.
Brodziak missed three games with an upper-body injury and Yeo said the veteran forward will return to the lineup when the Wild host the New York Rangers on Thursday night. Cooke, who has missed 27 games because of a sports hernia, is getting closer but isn't ready to return.
Meanwhile, forward Jason Zucker and defenseman Nate Prosser have been skating on their own.
"It can be a good thing if we handle it the right way," Yeo said. "Obviously, we want to make the playoffs. But we don't want to just make the playoffs, we want to have a real long run here and depth always comes into play for something like that. Certainly we have a lot of depth here."
Brodziak and Cooke both practiced with the full team for the first time Tuesday since their injuries.
Yeo said he doesn't want players in the lineup constantly looking over their shoulder and wondering if they will be pulled out. He also wants to ensure players looking to get back in stay positive and motivated.
With the success of the top three lines, Yeo is wary to break up any of those groups. Since Minnesota traded for Chris Stewart at the trade deadline and placed the big winger with Mikko Koivu and Nino Niederreiter, the top three lines have settled and been productive; with each line developing consistency from staying together.
"I don't see any reason why we would change anything up right now in the immediate future," Yeo said of the first three lines. "Obviously things could change, but I look at a guy like (Justin Fontaine) and there's no reason why he should be looking over his shoulder . . . Doesn't mean you might not change things during a game, but he's earned enough to give him a chance to go out and respond."
Not changing the first three lines means five healthy players are vying for three spots on the fourth line. Brodziak skated with Ryan Carter and Jordan Schroeder on Tuesday. Cooke was skating with Erik Haula and Sean Bergenheim.
"Everybody wants to be part of the lineup," Brodziak said. "So you got to make sure and take advantage. When you have practice days, you got to be sharp; and when you got the opportunity to play in a game, you got to make sure that you're playing your best. It's only a good thing for the team. I think guys will take it the right way and use it to our advantage."
Cooke's return would only increase the competition. He's been limited to just 27 games this season because of two injuries and has four goals and four assists. A hip injury sidelined him earlier in the season and he's been out since Feb. 1 after having sports hernia surgery last month.
Having been skating on his own, Cooke said he feels good conditioning-wise, but will have to regain sharpness in reading plays. He said would assuredly need more practices after missing two months of action. He hopes to return by the end of the regular season but didn't want to put a timeframe on a possible return.
"It's been tough," Cooke said. "It's been frustrating. I went such a long time without missing games to injury, but I've had two different injuries this year and not small ones. It's been frustrating. It's been a lot easier having the team winning, that's for sure."
The team's winning makes any lineup decisions more difficult for Yeo, who doesn't want to disrupt the chemistry the team has shown the past two months. In making up the fourth line, Yeo said penalty killing and a line "that's not going to get scored against" will be factors.
"It's going to be hard and everybody's going to have an argument, and everybody's going to have an opinion," Yeo said. "In many cases, it's going to be right. In a lot of ways it's going to be difficult for us to make a wrong choice. In other ways, difficult for us to make the right choice just because everybody that's here has had an impact in getting us here."
Competition will start in practice for spots in the lineup before the Wild even reach game time.
"I think the thing that makes a team the best is, whoever it is, whoever is in the lineup or not, is going to go out and get the job done," Cooke said. "And I think that that's one of the biggest things over the last two months is that it hasn't always been the same guy, it hasn't always been the same group. Guys have been hurt, guys have floated in and out through different parts of this stretch, but the job gets done.
"The only way that can happen is if there's no worry or hesitation about the decisions that are made. If a decision's been made, everyone accepts and takes on the responsibility of what's given that night and move forward."
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