The Minnesota Wild suffered one of the biggest collapses in franchise history on Wednesday night, blowing a 3-0 lead in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche. The loss was the end of a Western Conference semifinal that the Wild lost 4-1 and it means that there will be some changes going into an important offseason.
One of the biggest changes could be firing head coach John Hynes. Hynes led the Wild to a 46-24-12 record and helped them advance out of the first round since 2015. But with the way Minnesota bowed out against the Avalanche could put his job security in jeopardy and lead the Wild to hire former Edmonton Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch.
Knoblauch was fired by the Oilers on Thursday morning and if the Wild are serious about maximizing their championship window, they’ll can Hynes and hire a coach that has had a much better resume for playoff success.
Kris Knoblauch’s firing gives Wild perfect reason to can John Hynes
Hynes did a lot of things right for the Wild this year but it didn’t matter in the last two games against the Avalanche. After dominating Colorado in a 5-1 victory in Game 3, Minnesota came out and treated Game 4 like a regular season game, failing to record a shot on goal for over an hour and losing 5-2 to fall into a 3-1 series deficit.
Getting away from the gameplan was used as a reason for that loss and it appeared that the Wild had made the proper adjustments by scoring three times in the first period. But it was a Hynes disasterclass from there as the Wild managed just seven shots over the final two periods and overtime.
Along the way there were other things such as reuniting a defensive pairing of Jared Spurgeon and Jake Middleton that bled chances throughout the series late in Game 5 and Kirill Kaprizov failing to record a shot on goal for the entirety of the game. Matt Boldy also disappeared over the course of the series and it resulted in another dark chapter in Hynes’s playoff history.
Hynes is now 11-25 in playoff games over his career and 0-6 in elimination games. Eeven if general manager Bill Guerin has admiration for the job Hynes has done, hiring Knoblauch would be the best way to maximize a championship window.
Knoblauch spent the last three seasons in Edmonton compiling a 135-77-21 record during the regular season and a 31-22 record in the playoffs. He also helped the Oilers win back-to-back Western Conference championships, falling short twice to the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup finals. The Athletic’s Shayna Goldman also noted that this was done with a front office that couldn’t find a goaltender and didn’t hire a full-time defensive coach.
Yes, having Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl helps. But the Wild have just as many stars on their roster with Kaprizov, Boldy, Brock Faber and Quinn Hughes (assuming he signs a contract extension this summer) leading the charge.
Hynes has done a good job with the Wild, but playoff track record suggests he’s not the coach that can get them where they want to go. While Knoblauch has flaws, he’d be a solid pivot and could help Minnesota avoid the type of collapse they suffered against the Avalanche.
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