As he introduced new head coach John Hynes at a press conference, Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin addressed the reasons why he fired Dean Evason on Monday.
Evason was given his marching orders just over a week after Guerin said he was “doing a good job” and suggested the team’s abysmal start to the season was down to the players, saying: “He can’t go out and play for the guys. He can’t have them execute. They have to do that.”
But the situation seems to have changed following a 3-2 home loss to the Colorado Avalanche and a 4-1 defeat at the Detroit Red Wings, culminating with Evason and assistant coach Bob Woods being fired Monday, with Hynes quickly brought in.
Speaking to the media Tuesday, Guerin said: “I just, I didn’t feel like it was going to come back. What I was seeing was, I think it had just gotten to that point that almost no matter what they did the guys were having a hard time executing and generating offense.
“Something had to change. You can’t trade 23 players is the old saying, but I just had that feeling that it wasn’t going to come back.”
When asked whether the 4-1 loss in Detroit was the tipping point, Guerin said “it’s never just one game,” but a “build up.”
“I just think that that was … it was time,” he said. “I talked to [Jared Spurgeon] yesterday and he feels bad, the players feel bad, and we have to own this. The players have to be better, I have to be better, the coaches have to be better. I’m not blaming anybody, this is pro sports, we just have to move on. We have to help these guys we have to build them back up.”
When asked what the problems on the ice are, Guerin said: “It’s a little bit of everything. It’s the confidence, it’s the swagger, the ability to make plays. The feeling that when you step out on the ice your’e going to accomplish something and it just didn’t seem like that was coming back because….we haven’t been good for a long stretch.
“It just still didn’t feel right, like it was really coming back all the way. There’s just kind of that it factor and you feel it and you know it. I think with a coaching change, hey look, the slate’s clean for the guys. It’s a new day, it’s a new voice, they’re going to get a new message.”
Guerin added: “You just feel like a weight’s been lifted off your shoulders. It’s tough because it comes with a tough message, a tough decision. But yeah, it’s a new chapter.”
