The Wild's struggles and Mike Yeo's meltdown Wednesday continue to fuel speculation that the head coach's job is in jeopardy. This is a yearly tradition — even if our guy Russo, who is as plugged in as anyone, says that as of Wednesday (pre-meltdown) he believed Yeo's job was "completely safe." Goaltending is clearly the team's No. 1 problem, and it's not even close.
So don't take this post as an indication of what we think is going to happen with Yeo.
Rather, it's a reminder that just because the Wild and Yeo had their best season together a year ago — winning a playoff series and earning the coach a contract extension — it by no means guarantees his job security. For examples, we only need to look at Minnesota coaching history.
The 2000 Vikings made the NFC title game; in 2001, Denny Green was fired before the season was over.
The 2003-04 Timberwolves made the Western Conference finals. In the middle of the next season, Flip Saunders was fired.
In 2009, the Vikings again made the NFC title game. Before 2010 was over, Brad Childress was fired.
And in 2012-13, Tubby Smith led the Gophers men's basketball team to an NCAA tournament victory. Shortly after that, he was fired.
It's a cliche to say sports are a "what have you done for me lately" business, but it's undeniably true. The good vibes from the Wild's playoff run a year ago are quickly fading. A lot of it isn't Yeo's fault, and again — we're not saying he's in trouble. But if you think he's safe just because of the recent past, we'd say you should think again.
