Jake Middletons Playoff performance shows a mistake with Guerin's Vision – Minnesota Wild

Another Minnesota wild season has come and gone, and the team still cannot overcome the hump. No matter in which parts you move or how much you tinker with the list, when the regular season is shifting into the post -season, the game still wakes up on the ground -wing day and lose in the first round. The wilderness lost eight in a row in the first rounds and only left one degree.

Minnesota is not built for success after the season.

Cap penalties have hindered Bill Guerin, but he has still taken several steps that unveil his vision for the team. Guerin recorded Jacob Middleton again last summer after signing Free Agent Yakov Trenin. Then the Wild acquired Justin Brazeau. All three transactions are attempts to make the team larger, physical and “playoff-capable”.

Ironically, this trio did little to contribute to the wilderness. Of players who played more than 20 minutes in the series, Trenin, Braceau and Middleton were three of the lower four in the team in the percentage goals.

(Source: moneypuck.com)

While Trenin and Brazeau do not cut off well in the series, they played in the fourth line and did not affect the series significantly. The same applies to Jacob Middleton.

Middleton is an essential part of the game line-up as a top-four defender. He plays considerable minutes and is a player with his physical and defense approach to be built for traditional “playoff hockey”. While Middleton is a useful defender and contributed to the team, his performance in the playoffs left a lot to be desired.

The most remarkable moment of Middleton's post-season came in game 4. With a 2-1 lead, the Wild Vegas would have gained an extension. Middleton spent a breakout pass to commit sales with the defensive zone, which landed for a win of Golden Knights in the back of the network.

The giveaway was one of the eight in the Middleton series, including four giveaways of the defensive zone for the second most common team. Middleton led the team in blocked shots, which can be interpreted in different ways. While blocking shots is a valuable contribution, it can also mean that a player always plays defense because it is exceeded. Unfortunately, this interpretation seems to be the case for the wild defender.

Middleton published poor possession of the possessions, which gave him many ways to achieve blocked shots, but that doesn't help the team if he rarely has the puck in the offensive zone.

When Middleton contributed to the offensive, it was in six games with two secondary templates. It would have been nice to see that the defender scored a goal in the regular season after his eight parts. Middleton has never scored a goal in the playoffs for Minnesota and has become goalless in 18 games with five templates.

However, Middleton is more of a defender. His offensive defects would be completely acceptable if he strangled the offensive of the Golden Knights in this series. That was also not. According to Naturalstattrick.com, Middleton gave up 2.82 expected goals against Pro 60, which was sixth in the team.

After all reports, Middleton is popular in the changing room and has one of the best -known personalities in the team. This is valuable, but players like him should be difficult to play and be better suited for the playoffs. He did not contribute aggressively, has the puck or play particularly defensively.

This does not mean that Middleton is the only reason why the wildlest or even the worst perpetrator in the team. Nevertheless, his playoff performance is a microcosm of the problem with Minnesotas cadre building under Guerin's vision.

Players like Braceau, Trenin, Middleton and more go with the shape of great, physical and supposedly difficult to play. The term “difficult to play” does not seem to fit here, since it cannot be so difficult if they are all exceeded by the other team.

Bill Guerin has to rethink what he appreciates in a player. Is it valuable to be greater than the average if you cannot bring in aggressively? Is it physically important to play if you are embedded with bad possessions and a share of the chances of scoring?

This does not mean that it doesn't matter in the playoffs. Matt Boldy, Marcus Foligno and Ryan Hartman had all strong playoffs and used their size (in the case of Boldy and Foligno) and Hartman (Hartman) in combination with skills to achieve these goals and productive opportunities in playoff style.

The wilderness need more and less of what players like Middleton gave them.

This point will be particularly important for the future of the wilderness in this off -season. The first rules of procedure will undoubtedly sign Kirill Kaprizov and try to find out what should do with Marco Rossi. As soon as this rules of procedure has been completed, Guerin has to decide how to surround his top talent with a team that can go further than in the first round of the playoffs.

Will the wild double with more expensive veterans who fit the same mold? Minnesota's current duty roster construction has proven to be good enough to make the playoffs, but they should have larger efforts than can only be done. After eight outputs in the first round, the wilderness seems to have escaped the need for this kind of player.