Minnesota Wild: Niederreiter Still Looking for Larger Role on Team Europe
With two huge losses against Team North America to start pre-tournament play, Team Europe needs to make changes and now. Unfortunately it seems those changes seem not include more time for Minnesota Wild forward Nino Niederreiter based on last game.
Team Europe is in trouble. They’ve been crushed in their first two pre-tournament games against the young guns of Team North America, and right now they look like a team that is in need of a shakeup. The older players of the team seem to be out matched by the North Americans in all aspects. The issue going forward will be that also the other teams they will encounter are younger and more physical than the current Team Europe lineup.
After their first loss I pontificated about how Minnesota Wild winger Nino Niederreiter could be in line for a bump in playing time because of Hossa’s injury and the need to do something different. Alas head coach Ralph Kruger did not see things my way decided to largely keep the same lines in yesterday’s game as the game previous to start the game.
Related Story: Niederreiter Could Be Playing More for Team Europe
After a painful first period Kruger was forced to juggle though after North America scored five goals in period. He explained that “I really thought after the pain of the first period that for the first time standing behind the team you felt like the group was coming together. The talk on the bench and the way the lines worked after we changed them, it just felt better, so I think some good things come out of this game with us forward and we continue to build.” I really thought after the pain of the first period that for the first time standing behind the team you felt like the group was coming together. The talk on the bench and the way the lines worked after we changed them, it just felt better, so I think some good things come out of this game with us forward and we continue to build
Still that change did not seem to equate to more playing time for Niederreiter. Nino finished the game with only 8:47 of ice time logged which is actually a substantial reduction from the 15:26 he logged in the first game. Maybe Kruger might be seeing something I’m not, but it would stand to reason that you need to give different players more looks if the ones you have on the ice aren’t working…Niederreiter is one of those players who needs more looks.
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Furthermore, it seems that Team Europe’s biggest issue is their lack of scoring. Two goals in two games from this all-star lineup seems to be a chemistry issue because there’s no doubt the players can score. Niederreiter can add energy to some of the lines with the older guys who seem to be lagging behind. He’s the player that can make the top lines of Team Europe more physical and slow down the momentum of a team that try to jump on them early like North America did in both games.
Most of all what does Kruger have to lose? His team has one more pre-tournament game on Wednesday in DC against Sweden. Sweden’s defense is big and robust, Europe will need to have power up front and Niederreiter can give it to them. If Niederreiter can have a chance to play his game with solid minutes, the results could be good for a European squad that has had little go right.
Next: Wild Players Lead the Way for Team Finland
So going into Wednesday night pay attention to see if Niederreiter finally makes it up the lineup. My fear is that if he doesn’t get a chance to produce in this final tune up game, he’ll be relegated to the lower lines for the tournament. My thought is that unless Kruger really wants to try the radical lineup changes needed to win Nino won’t get his minutes and will most likely have a very quiet tournament.