The Minnesota Wild have options to go to if the team wants to make any adjustments to the lineup.
The question is will they?
“A key for us all year has been our depth,” Wild coach Dean Evason said during a media availability session on Monday. “We feel if we were to make a decision to take somebody out to put somebody in, it wasn’t that they played bad, but to that point, to get some fresh legs in.
“There’s that balance, right? Are you pushing the panic button making a change? Are you doing it for the the right reasons?,” Evason said. ”We go through all of that , and hopefully (Tuesday) night, we make the right decision.”
🗣Coach Evason speaks with the media on the team's process of making lineup changes ahead of Game 5.#mnwild pic.twitter.com/NQHQIJO5z7
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) May 9, 2022
That is one of the issues the Wild, and the St. Louis Blues, will consider as the teams head into Game 5 in the best-of-7 first-round playoff series that in which the teams are deadlocked at two wins apiece.
Bringing a fresh player into the lineup could provide a boost for a team. It also could ruin the chemistry that has been established to this point in the series.
“If things go good and it worked out great, we’re brilliant,” Evason said. “And if it didn’t, then we’re not so smart.”
Asked about lineup changes ahead of Game 5, #mnwild coach Dean Evason said, "Maybe." Same group of scratches (Bjugstad, Dewar, Kulikov and Benn) were skating late this morning.
— Sarah McLellan (@sarah__mclellan) May 10, 2022
One welcome change for the Wild is the series shifts back to the Xcel Energy Center after the past two games were in St. Louis. The series is now the best-of-three and two of those games would be in St. Paul with the Wild having the home ice advantage.
“We didn’t have the success we wanted in (Game 4) obviously, and we’re looking forward to playing in front of our crowd again,” Evason said.
Being at home means the Wild have the advantage of last changes off the bench to provide the best line matchups.
“We’ll have our matches and hopefully get the job done,” Evason said.
If so, the Wild would be on the cusp of advancing to the second round of the postseason. A loss and there’s no room for error in the rest of the series.
The Wild are 5-7 all-time in Game 5 and is 2-2 when the series has been tied after four games.
“We don’t think like that,” Evason said. “We just think, ‘Let’s compete and see where we sit at the end of the night.’ We’re preparing to compete (Tuesday), We’re excited about the opportunity. The series is tied. We don’t look any further than the drop of the puck.”