November 28, 2023 • 12 mins
Brandon Mileski & Pat Micheletti discuss the dismissal of Wild Head Coach Dean Evason on this episode of MINI BTP!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Hey, welcome to another episode ofMini BTP. It's a mini edition of
Beyond the Pod. I'm Brandon MaleskiPat mcletty with me and Pat, we'll
get to the big news shortly,but whyn't you tell us about our sponsor
first? I'd love to Brandon,are you on a Beer League hockey team?
Check out our contest page at kfandot com for a chance to get
(00:22):
yourself sponsored by michelob Golden Light.Excellent, obviously, Pat. The big
news yesterday for the Minnesota Wild iswe have some coaching changes. Dean Everson,
the head coach, was relieved ofhis duties. Bob Woods, who
was responsible for the defenseman and thepenalty kill, he has gone as well,
and they have hired former Predators andDevil's head coach John Hines. We'll
(00:44):
get to the John Hines portion ina bit here, but first let's become
with Dean Everson. Were we surprisedwith the news yesterday or did you see
this coming? I was surprised,but not surprised. And I say that
because, listen, Dean did agreat job here. I mean, he
(01:04):
really did. You when you havetwo hundred points back to back seasons,
with the roster that he had.I think he did a really really good
job and unfortunately the start that theyhad, and you know, we'll harken
(01:25):
back to what the problems have been, and to me, it's it's been
their specialty teams and and I thinkthat just bogged him down and they tried
different things and just had a hardtime getting out of it. You know,
I'm gonna agree agree with what yousaid. I think generally speaking,
(01:47):
I thought Dean did a pretty goodjob here, right, They were very
very competitive team over the last coupleof years. We all know the salary
cap restrains. I think you nailedit with the special teams. I think
ultimately special teams were the downfall ofDean Ebison and his staff. You know,
if you remember going into last season, they had struggled on the penalty
kill and the power play in thein the playoff series. Before then,
they decided to make some wholesale changeslast year with their PK. They were
(02:10):
much more aggressive and it was itworked pretty well for most of the season,
and then you get to the postseasonand they were exposed big time by
Dallas. And you know, youcan make the jewel erics and next excuse.
But now that has continued into theseason. Their penalty kills the worst
in hockey. You know, yousaw against Detroit the other day. How
many times have we seen guys righthanded shots like David Perroan just sitting on
(02:31):
the back door scoring pretty much easygoals. And I think ultimately Pat that
the penalty kill and the power playwas the downfall of d Nebson and probably
what John Hines is coming in todo to fix. Yeah, I would
think, you know, that's partof it. And after a while,
because it's it's been poor for twoyears, especially the playoffs as you as
(02:53):
you mentioned, after a while,they can try different things un till they're
blue in the face, and JohnHines will do the same thing. But
it's almost like you have to cleartheir heads completely of the past of what
went through and and start anew onon all of that. And because I
(03:14):
think after a while, branded youyou you just you overthink it. And
when you overthink it, then yourlegs stop moving. Then you make poor
decisions and or you try too hardor whatever the case may be. And
uh, you know, and you'rehearing that that same voice telling you,
(03:35):
well try it this way, tryit this way, you know, all
these different things, and and thenall of a sudden you're like, I
don't know what we're doing, andso yeah, it you know that that's
a big part of what needs tobe fixed. Unfortunately, in professional sports,
and even in the National Hockey League, like when you get off to
(03:57):
the start like Best where you justfive wins in your first nineteen games,
you can't change all the players.You can't. And unfortunately the coach is
the one that has to take thedownfall of this. But you know,
especially where they are with the capand the players they have committed to contracts,
there's not much you can do.So I agree that with Bill garn
(04:19):
that with Dean Nemison as coach,this team wasn't gonna be able to fix
this. Now, it doesn't meanJohn Hines is going to be able to
fix it, but a change hadto have been made, and unfortunately the
coach is kind of the easiest mark. And and here's the deal, Brandon,
Listen, I don't think this isa Stanley Cup roster. I don't
(04:40):
think I don't think they think it'sa Stanley Cup roster. Okay, let's
let's put that aside shouldn't be afive win roster though. It should not
be a five exactly exactly. Andand here's here's what gives me some hope
with this team is that you andI have talked about it. We don't
think the West is that great ofa conference. I think there's three teams
(05:04):
that are legitimately really good, andso you have a bunch that are mixed
together. We've seen this team inthe past be able to find themselves where
they you know, last year,perfect example, started out horribly and then
(05:26):
they found it. And that youknow, that goes into their locker room
and their leadership and they're all thatthey find a way to come together and
start to play. And so thatgives me some hope that they can potentially
do that. And I think that'sa big reason for the coaching change,
(05:46):
is to take it a step furtherand say, Okay, we gotta we
got to give this team a resetbecause we know they have the ability to
do this and and so well,you know, I think though they're gonna
they're the ones you mentioned it.You're not changing the roster is not gonna
(06:09):
change. Maybe a player here,a player there, but it's not going
to change, so collectively they haveto be the ones that get themselves out
of this funk. No, theydo have some players on the roster that
can change. And you know,you kind of the reaction I got today
watching the Bill Garren John Hynes pressconference was is this is a team that
(06:30):
mentally is broken right now, andthe coach is coming in to try to
hit the as you mentioned, reset, hit the reset button. You know,
I don't know how many changes you'regonna be able to make. Maybe
you can make a few little tweaks, your penalty kill, stuff like that,
but they are their confidence is shatteredright now, specifically the confidence of
a guy like Matt Boldy, whohas looking nowhere near what we've seen the
(06:50):
last two years out of him.I think Caroll caprisoff until the most recent
couple of games. I thought heplayed pretty good against Colorado on Black Friday
and looked a little bit like hisold self, but he was trending the
wrong way. He got off toa slow start and it was getting worse
as the season gets along. Andthen you combine that with they don't they
don't have any depth guys going right, like Marcus Johansen's the guy they counted
(07:12):
on the second half of last season. He doesn't look like he did last
year. Combined that with poor goaltending, have poor penalty killed. Defensively,
they haven't been as good you know, you mentioned in the past they've been
getting and being able to get outof things. It seems like previous years,
you know, the last year thatthat start they got off to,
its kind of like all right,well, if we fix our defensive structure
and our goaltending, we can dosomething, and they did. There's a
(07:33):
lot of a lot of stuff goingon here, pat There's a lot of
different things you got to fix.Yeah, it's almost like a total everything
over because they haven't been good intheir own end. The goaltending has been
sometimes good, sometimes inconsistent, we'llcall it. The powerplay has been not
very good. The penalty kill hasnot been very good. There there their
(07:58):
their pace of play there there forcheck when when when this team is going
well, they're they're hounding the puckand they're cycling and they're you know,
they're doing all those things. Rightnow there just seems to be hesitation,
don't know, unsure all of allof those things combined and and so you
(08:22):
just put it all in a blender. Really and and and so I you
know, I I do think theyneed this. But again, ultimately we
can talk to we're blow in theface. They're gonna have to be the
ones to just hello there, Pat. All right, I'm sure Pat was
(08:46):
gonna come up with a spectacular point. Well we were about to close it
out anyways. That was gonna bringup John Hines. Oh here we got
Pat. Michel Eddy back all right, Uh, it's okay. Before we
go, Pat, I was justgonna ask you about John Hines. What
do you know about him? Obviously, he's a bu guy. Took down
your Gophers back in the day,not your specific team, but coached at
(09:07):
Nashville, coach at coach in NewJersey. He's he's one of those guys.
He's got head coaching experience that seemsto happen a lot in the National
Hockey League. He's got a challengingjob, but also probably a job with
low expectations here at this point.Yeah, one of the few guys in
hockey I haven't met that that thatso I relied on my brother Joe,
who knows him pretty well from coveringthe you know, the Devils and you
(09:28):
know the National Hockey League, right, so uh he he is a very
detailed oriented coach, a very defensiveminded coach, and so I you know,
if if that that being said now, he he talked, he talked
(09:48):
about in his press conference about youknow, combining the defense with the offense
and and all that. But ultimately, Brandon, I think it's all gonna
begin start and and and you know, with fixing their own end first and
then building out from there. Iknow that's in all cliche, but really,
(10:09):
if you're going to be a goodteam, you you can't give up
as many goals. You can't.You know, you have to be good
on the penalty kill. So Ithink those are going to be the just
the step one of his coaching thisteam. I think Pat and we talked
about all the issues they have,but I think specifically if you can fix
(10:31):
your penalty kill right and make ifyou can make major improvements to your penalty
kill, the impact that has onyour team, right because one, obviously
you're not going to allow as manygoals, but two, like their PK
right now is a complete buzz kill. It's a confidence killer. They know
when they you know, get apenalty that they're in a position where it's
going to change the momentum in thegame. And it does, and you
(10:52):
can just mentally, you can physicallysee it on their from their body language,
and you know, if you canfix that little element, and then
you you talked about, hey,this is a team that gets aggressive on
the when they're doing well aggressive inthe fore check, Well, it's harder
to be aggressive on the for checkif you're afraid to take penalties, right,
you do have to play. Youknow, you don't want to be
reckless out there, but you doneed to play a little bit of free
(11:13):
and feel like you can be Hey, if I'm aggressive and I happen to
get a penalty, that's okay.I got a PK that's going to stop
it for me. Right now,they don't have that. So I do
think starting at that one little spotwould have a if you can fix that,
and that might be a big fixthat would have a massive impact on
the psyche of the entire team.I think that is spot on because you
(11:33):
know, Brandon and and you broughtit up when you give up a power
play goal, When you give oneup, it infects the bench, right,
It's just like, oh man,and so you have that negativity in
your head. But when you whenyou kill off a major a five on
(11:54):
three, everybody gets excited and youknow they want to go next shift and
have a good shift. And soI think you're I think you're one hundred
percent right. Fix that penalty killand then go on from there. All
right, Pat, we'll talk toyou next week. Good to see it,
Brandon, thank you. All right. He's Pat Mikelaidy on Brandam Laski.
(12:15):
This has been an episode of MiniBTP. We will talk to you
next week right here and be onthe pod. Thanks for watching or listening. Bye.
Hey, welcome to another episode ofMini BTP. It's a mini edition of
Beyond the Pod. I'm Brandon MaleskiPat mcletty with me and Pat, we'll
get to the big news shortly,but whyn't you tell us about our sponsor
first? I'd love to Brandon,are you on a Beer League hockey team?
Check out our contest page at kfandot com for a chance to get
(00:22):
yourself sponsored by michelob Golden Light.Excellent, obviously, Pat. The big
news yesterday for the Minnesota Wild iswe have some coaching changes. Dean Everson,
the head coach, was relieved ofhis duties. Bob Woods, who
was responsible for the defenseman and thepenalty kill, he has gone as well,
and they have hired former Predators andDevil's head coach John Hines. We'll
(00:44):
get to the John Hines portion ina bit here, but first let's become
with Dean Everson. Were we surprisedwith the news yesterday or did you see
this coming? I was surprised,but not surprised. And I say that
because, listen, Dean did agreat job here. I mean, he
(01:04):
really did. You when you havetwo hundred points back to back seasons,
with the roster that he had.I think he did a really really good
job and unfortunately the start that theyhad, and you know, we'll harken
(01:25):
back to what the problems have been, and to me, it's it's been
their specialty teams and and I thinkthat just bogged him down and they tried
different things and just had a hardtime getting out of it. You know,
I'm gonna agree agree with what yousaid. I think generally speaking,
(01:47):
I thought Dean did a pretty goodjob here, right, They were very
very competitive team over the last coupleof years. We all know the salary
cap restrains. I think you nailedit with the special teams. I think
ultimately special teams were the downfall ofDean Ebison and his staff. You know,
if you remember going into last season, they had struggled on the penalty
kill and the power play in thein the playoff series. Before then,
they decided to make some wholesale changeslast year with their PK. They were
(02:10):
much more aggressive and it was itworked pretty well for most of the season,
and then you get to the postseasonand they were exposed big time by
Dallas. And you know, youcan make the jewel erics and next excuse.
But now that has continued into theseason. Their penalty kills the worst
in hockey. You know, yousaw against Detroit the other day. How
many times have we seen guys righthanded shots like David Perroan just sitting on
(02:31):
the back door scoring pretty much easygoals. And I think ultimately Pat that
the penalty kill and the power playwas the downfall of d Nebson and probably
what John Hines is coming in todo to fix. Yeah, I would
think, you know, that's partof it. And after a while,
because it's it's been poor for twoyears, especially the playoffs as you as
(02:53):
you mentioned, after a while,they can try different things un till they're
blue in the face, and JohnHines will do the same thing. But
it's almost like you have to cleartheir heads completely of the past of what
went through and and start anew onon all of that. And because I
(03:14):
think after a while, branded youyou you just you overthink it. And
when you overthink it, then yourlegs stop moving. Then you make poor
decisions and or you try too hardor whatever the case may be. And
uh, you know, and you'rehearing that that same voice telling you,
(03:35):
well try it this way, tryit this way, you know, all
these different things, and and thenall of a sudden you're like, I
don't know what we're doing, andso yeah, it you know that that's
a big part of what needs tobe fixed. Unfortunately, in professional sports,
and even in the National Hockey League, like when you get off to
(03:57):
the start like Best where you justfive wins in your first nineteen games,
you can't change all the players.You can't. And unfortunately the coach is
the one that has to take thedownfall of this. But you know,
especially where they are with the capand the players they have committed to contracts,
there's not much you can do.So I agree that with Bill garn
(04:19):
that with Dean Nemison as coach,this team wasn't gonna be able to fix
this. Now, it doesn't meanJohn Hines is going to be able to
fix it, but a change hadto have been made, and unfortunately the
coach is kind of the easiest mark. And and here's the deal, Brandon,
Listen, I don't think this isa Stanley Cup roster. I don't
(04:40):
think I don't think they think it'sa Stanley Cup roster. Okay, let's
let's put that aside shouldn't be afive win roster though. It should not
be a five exactly exactly. Andand here's here's what gives me some hope
with this team is that you andI have talked about it. We don't
think the West is that great ofa conference. I think there's three teams
(05:04):
that are legitimately really good, andso you have a bunch that are mixed
together. We've seen this team inthe past be able to find themselves where
they you know, last year,perfect example, started out horribly and then
(05:26):
they found it. And that youknow, that goes into their locker room
and their leadership and they're all thatthey find a way to come together and
start to play. And so thatgives me some hope that they can potentially
do that. And I think that'sa big reason for the coaching change,
(05:46):
is to take it a step furtherand say, Okay, we gotta we
got to give this team a resetbecause we know they have the ability to
do this and and so well,you know, I think though they're gonna
they're the ones you mentioned it.You're not changing the roster is not gonna
(06:09):
change. Maybe a player here,a player there, but it's not going
to change, so collectively they haveto be the ones that get themselves out
of this funk. No, theydo have some players on the roster that
can change. And you know,you kind of the reaction I got today
watching the Bill Garren John Hynes pressconference was is this is a team that
(06:30):
mentally is broken right now, andthe coach is coming in to try to
hit the as you mentioned, reset, hit the reset button. You know,
I don't know how many changes you'regonna be able to make. Maybe
you can make a few little tweaks, your penalty kill, stuff like that,
but they are their confidence is shatteredright now, specifically the confidence of
a guy like Matt Boldy, whohas looking nowhere near what we've seen the
(06:50):
last two years out of him.I think Caroll caprisoff until the most recent
couple of games. I thought heplayed pretty good against Colorado on Black Friday
and looked a little bit like hisold self, but he was trending the
wrong way. He got off toa slow start and it was getting worse
as the season gets along. Andthen you combine that with they don't they
don't have any depth guys going right, like Marcus Johansen's the guy they counted
(07:12):
on the second half of last season. He doesn't look like he did last
year. Combined that with poor goaltending, have poor penalty killed. Defensively,
they haven't been as good you know, you mentioned in the past they've been
getting and being able to get outof things. It seems like previous years,
you know, the last year thatthat start they got off to,
its kind of like all right,well, if we fix our defensive structure
and our goaltending, we can dosomething, and they did. There's a
(07:33):
lot of a lot of stuff goingon here, pat There's a lot of
different things you got to fix.Yeah, it's almost like a total everything
over because they haven't been good intheir own end. The goaltending has been
sometimes good, sometimes inconsistent, we'llcall it. The powerplay has been not
very good. The penalty kill hasnot been very good. There there their
(07:58):
their pace of play there there forcheck when when when this team is going
well, they're they're hounding the puckand they're cycling and they're you know,
they're doing all those things. Rightnow there just seems to be hesitation,
don't know, unsure all of allof those things combined and and so you
(08:22):
just put it all in a blender. Really and and and so I you
know, I I do think theyneed this. But again, ultimately we
can talk to we're blow in theface. They're gonna have to be the
ones to just hello there, Pat. All right, I'm sure Pat was
(08:46):
gonna come up with a spectacular point. Well we were about to close it
out anyways. That was gonna bringup John Hines. Oh here we got
Pat. Michel Eddy back all right, Uh, it's okay. Before we
go, Pat, I was justgonna ask you about John Hines. What
do you know about him? Obviously, he's a bu guy. Took down
your Gophers back in the day,not your specific team, but coached at
(09:07):
Nashville, coach at coach in NewJersey. He's he's one of those guys.
He's got head coaching experience that seemsto happen a lot in the National
Hockey League. He's got a challengingjob, but also probably a job with
low expectations here at this point.Yeah, one of the few guys in
hockey I haven't met that that thatso I relied on my brother Joe,
who knows him pretty well from coveringthe you know, the Devils and you
(09:28):
know the National Hockey League, right, so uh he he is a very
detailed oriented coach, a very defensiveminded coach, and so I you know,
if if that that being said now, he he talked, he talked
(09:48):
about in his press conference about youknow, combining the defense with the offense
and and all that. But ultimately, Brandon, I think it's all gonna
begin start and and and you know, with fixing their own end first and
then building out from there. Iknow that's in all cliche, but really,
(10:09):
if you're going to be a goodteam, you you can't give up
as many goals. You can't.You know, you have to be good
on the penalty kill. So Ithink those are going to be the just
the step one of his coaching thisteam. I think Pat and we talked
about all the issues they have,but I think specifically if you can fix
(10:31):
your penalty kill right and make ifyou can make major improvements to your penalty
kill, the impact that has onyour team, right because one, obviously
you're not going to allow as manygoals, but two, like their PK
right now is a complete buzz kill. It's a confidence killer. They know
when they you know, get apenalty that they're in a position where it's
going to change the momentum in thegame. And it does, and you
(10:52):
can just mentally, you can physicallysee it on their from their body language,
and you know, if you canfix that little element, and then
you you talked about, hey,this is a team that gets aggressive on
the when they're doing well aggressive inthe fore check, Well, it's harder
to be aggressive on the for checkif you're afraid to take penalties, right,
you do have to play. Youknow, you don't want to be
reckless out there, but you doneed to play a little bit of free
(11:13):
and feel like you can be Hey, if I'm aggressive and I happen to
get a penalty, that's okay.I got a PK that's going to stop
it for me. Right now,they don't have that. So I do
think starting at that one little spotwould have a if you can fix that,
and that might be a big fixthat would have a massive impact on
the psyche of the entire team.I think that is spot on because you
(11:33):
know, Brandon and and you broughtit up when you give up a power
play goal, When you give oneup, it infects the bench, right,
It's just like, oh man,and so you have that negativity in
your head. But when you whenyou kill off a major a five on
(11:54):
three, everybody gets excited and youknow they want to go next shift and
have a good shift. And soI think you're I think you're one hundred
percent right. Fix that penalty killand then go on from there. All
right, Pat, we'll talk toyou next week. Good to see it,
Brandon, thank you. All right. He's Pat Mikelaidy on Brandam Laski.
(12:15):
This has been an episode of MiniBTP. We will talk to you
next week right here and be onthe pod. Thanks for watching or listening. Bye.
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