Minnesota Wild Fire Mike Yeo

Reports first started to surface just hours after the Wild’s latest loss, a 4-2 defeat at the hands of the Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon, that Yeo had been fired by the team. They have 56-points thru 55-games and are five points back of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

The reasons for Mike Yeo’s dismissal will be mostly focused around what the team failed to accomplish over the past couple of months, however many of his shortcomings as a coach are more deeply rooted.

His first game with the Wild will come Monday at Vancouver.

Ouellet, 22, has three goals and 14 assists in 38 games this season for the Griffins.

“I’m a realist”, he said after the game, adding that a team “can’t lose every game and expect that there’s not going to be a change”.

In four-plus seasons in Minneosta, Yeo went 173-132-44. The teams have split their first two meetings of the season, both at Xcel Energy Center. Well-paid forwards like Mikael Granlund, Jason Pominville and Thomas Vanek have not produced enough scoring.

The Wild have lost 16 of 19 in 2016 and are starting the season second half with a massive swoon for the fourth time under Yeo’s leadership.

That coach is John Torchetti, who was coaching Minnesota’s AHL affiliate in Iowa this season.

“We played fast and that’s what we got away from a bit”, said Dubnyk. “I didn’t think we were prepared to make the plays we had to”.

The team did not immediately announce a replacement.

“I wish I could transport that to our home games, but we just seem to be ready to play and seem to be able to continue to play more or less, for the 60 minute span”, Bruins coach Claude Julien said. Vancouver is also seeking some puck luck, having dropped four straight on home ice. “We all need to be better and that’s the goal going forward”.

Yeo’s parting words to his team were, according to CBC’s Dave Campbell, “I believe in the group, but they better start believing in each other, and they better start delivering”.

Torchetti was coaching the Iowa Wild on Saturday and there is no word on who will take over AHL coaching duties at the time of publication.