Minnesota Wild Need Jason Pominville to Step Up or Step Aside

Whenever you’re working with others there are moments where you simply need someone to step up.  They might have to leave their comfort zone to do it, but its got to get done.  Sometimes that task falls on your lap and you have to make the best of it.  Othertimes, everyone simply looks to you to take care of it.  Sports are no different.  When injuries happen to key players, other players are looked to raise their game to make up for the loss even if that asks them to step into an unfamiliar role.  At times you find your team has greater depth than you previously thought, but sometimes you deal with the bitter reality of your limitations.  Throughout the Minnesota Wild’s franchise history they’ve had to deal with both.  But what measures should be taken when one of your key players is grossly under performing?

There are lots of different ideas on how to handle such a situation.  Some would prefer to call that player out and demanding they step up their game.  Maybe sort of similar to the way the Washington Redskins tried calling out Robert Griffin III.  While RG3 was ultimately replaced by Colt McCoy some may believe its better to discretely work with a player behind the scenes instead of creating an environment of humiliation and division by calling a player out publicly.  In the Wild’s history, former head coach Jacques Lemaire was not afraid to call out those he felt were not playing up to his standards, while current bench boss Mike Yeo has tried to avoid calling players out.  It’s been a well-known fact that some of the Wild’s higher paid players have been underperforming.  You can read about how Yeo has tried a kinder, gentler approach to ‘encourage’ players to adjust their game here in this blog from the Minneapolis Star Tribune‘s Michael Russo here.  Since so much has been said about Thomas Vanek and Mikko Koivu already, it’s time someone called out the performance of Jason Pominville.

Is it time to move Jason Pominville off the top 6 and top power play unit? Nov 20, 2014; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Braydon Coburn (5) tries to control the puck against Minnesota Wild left wing Zach Parise (11) and right wing Jason Pominville (29) during the first period at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Why call out the Wild’s current 2nd leading scorer?  Simply put, he isn’t doing nearly enough offensively to justify the ice time or his hefty salary.  Pominville is 4th among Wild forwards in ice time, averaging 18:31 (about 22 shifts) per game.  His lack of production certainly doesn’t come from a lack of opportunity.  Last season, Pominville was the team’s top goal scorer and only player to reach 30 goals.  He was 2nd on the team in shots on goal a season ago with 226, this season he’s 1st on the team in shots with 81.  So he’s pulling the trigger often enough but he has just 4 goals to show for it.  Pominville scored only once through the month of November.  That might be ok if you’re a 4th liner, but he’s getting top ice time, and continues to be a staple on the power play.

The Repetigny, Quebec-native is 3rd in power play ice time compared to all other Wild skaters with 84:07 spent on the man advantage but has just 2 assists to show for it.  While you may point out the Wild have so few goals (just 7) on the power play as it is you would think just by that he’d still have more points than just 2 measly assists.  Yes its bad, but for a guy who usually gets the lion’s share of the power play time, shouldn’t he have factored in on most of those power play goals?  Pominville had 7 goals (2nd most on the team), 10 assists (tied for 3rd most) on the man advantage last season and while he certainly may reach that total again he has to be a lot more productive than he was through the first two months of the season.    So for anyone blaming the Wild’s atrocious power play for all of Pominville’s current woes, they need to remember that he did most of his damage at even strength last season where he had 23 goals, 20 assists.

As of right now, Pominville is projected (at his current rate of production) to have 14 goals, 36 assists for 50 points for the season.  That’s an over 50% drop in goals from a season ago.  Like it or not, it is a results-based business which is all about what have you done for me lately.  1 goal for the month isn’t helping nearly enough and certainly not worthy of Top 6 ice time.  It’s time the team consider at the very least at relegating Pominville to the 2nd power play unit behind Nino Niederreiter who is still on a 40-goal pace or perhaps Jason Zucker who is on pace for at least 30 goals.  It only makes sense.   Any coach finds out what players are in the zone and takes steps to put them in situations to succeed.  Pominville was that player last season, but two months into the season he is better at clearing the zone for the Wild’s opponent rather than lighting the lamp.

"“We have to find a way to push over the edge, we’ve been kind of teetering on the edge of being a really good team and getting to that next level, so we can’t be satisfied with playing well and outshooting a team and thinking that’s enough.” ~ Wild Head Coach Mike Yeo on November 8th, 2014"

As Coach Yeo said nearly a month ago, Pominville has to find a way to push over the edge soon otherwise the team needs to place him on the 3rd line and let Niederreiter or Zucker play that role.  Yeo and the Wild have been patient enough with Pominville, he’s had 23 games being given every opportunity to figure it out.  In Sunday’s game, Yeo chose to give Pominville multiple shifts in overtime as well as the game-saving opportunity in the shootout to a player with a single goal in the month of November.  The layman’s definition of insanity is doing the same things and expecting different results.  I think it’s time for a change.