A day after a midgame demotion, Mats Zuccarello was candid with his comments about effort being put in by the team.
“It’s not like these guys don’t f***ing work hard,” Zuccarello said Friday. “We work hard every day. this is the hardest working team I’ve been a part of. Sometimes when it goes bad you just work too hard too.”
The 36-year-old winger’s comments come a day after head coach Dean Evason was visibly irritated with his team’s effort in their 5-3 loss to the Devils.
“Well, we start at 7 o’clock, not 7:30, 7:35,” Evason said after the game. “So, it’s wonderful that we played hard at some point tonight. But it’s not good enough.”
“We’re all frustrated, for sure,” Evason continued. “Frustrated by, you see some positives obviously, but it’s not enough. We shouldn’t have to shake the lines up to get some life in our group. The life should be in the group already. We should be throwing it out there and we didn’t.”
After going down 2-0 at home in the first period, Evason pulled Zuccarello and Ryan Hartman off the first line and replaced them with Marco Rossi and Matt Boldy. The switch worked, Kaprizov scored 9:03 into the second to bring the score line to 3-1. Marco Rossi then cut into New Jersey’s lead just 1:10 into the third to make it 3-2.
Friday morning after the 5-3 loss Evason said he was looking to accomplish “work” at the morning skate.
“And to make sure we will be ready to go tomorrow….we will be ready tomorrow,” continued Evason.
The Wild are in the midst of a poor 3-5-2 start to their season after back-to-back 100-point seasons.
Looks like some tweaks to PP too. Rossi with Kaprizov, Johansson, Boldy, Eriksson Ek. No ‘D.’ Other PP has Hartman, Zuccarello, Addison and Lettieri, with Maroon + Foligno taking turns. pic.twitter.com/xd1Il4dZeu
— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithNHL) November 3, 2023
Evason, who normally doesn’t like to make big changes to the lines, continued mixing things up at practice Friday, according to The Athletic’s Joe Smith, including numerous changes to the woeful power play unit that’s scored just six goals in 38 power play opportunities this season.
Smith reported that Evason wouldn’t say much about the changes other than that there will be “different looks” going forward.
As for what’s next for a Wild side that is 1-4-2 in it’s last seven games, well they host the 8-2-0 Rangers Saturday. Things may just get worse before they get better.
