Welcome to the NHL Daily Picks where hockey writers Adam Gretz and Chris Peters make their selections for all of the day's games.
Minnesota Wild vs. Ottawa Senators, 8 p.m. ET
It's been a quiet year when it comes to coaching changes in the NHL with only three teams (Columbus, Pittsburgh and Minnesota) making a move during the season.
That is not necessarily a bad thing for teams (or coaches) because a coaching change on its own is not usually enough to turn a team around. If a team is that bad in the middle of the season that it feels the person standing behind the bench has to go, it probably has just as many -- if not more -- problems sitting on the bench that also need to be addressed.
The Penguins, for example, have completely turned their season around after replacing Mike Johnsotn with Mike Sullivan. But they also completely re-tooled their roster with a couple of trades and a number of call-ups that added more speed and depth to their lineup. The coaching change helped. The changes to the roster helped. It was not one change or the other on its own that fixed things. It was both of them together.
That brings us to Minnesota, a team that fired Mike Yeo in the middle of February after an ugly loss against Boston that pushed its losing streak at the time to eight games. That was part of a 19-game stretch where the team won just three games. Other than making a minor depth trade at the deadline to bring in a depth forward (David Jones from Calgary) the team interim coach John Torchetti has on the ice is pretty much identical to the one Yeo had.
That team is now 15-6-1 under Torchetti, has won six games in a row heading into Thursday's game against the Ottawa Senators, and is cruising toward a playoff spot after looking to be completely out of it in the middle of February. They are the rare example of a team that changed coaches in the middle of the year, made no other significant change to the roster, and suddenly turned everything around.
Make no mistake, even with the improved record this team still has some long-term problems with the makeup of its roster (mostly related to the salary cap and expensive, aging stars), and there are still reasons to doubt just how good this current team really is. Even after the coaching change they are still one of the worst possession teams in the league but are suddenly near the top of the league in shooting percentage and save percentage. That combination would seem to -- at a quick glance -- point to a change in luck more than anything else. They also have a healthy Zach Parise who is playing some of his best hockey of the season, as well as a healthy Jonas Brodin on the blueline after he missed almost all of February.
But even if all of that is the case, you have to admit that they do look better under Torchetti. The power play has been more efficient, the penalty kill has been slightly better (especially lately where they are 26-for-27 over the past 10 games), and they just look to be a more organized, confident team on the ice.
If the Wild can get a win on Thursday against an Ottawa that just played the night before (and will likely be without one of its best players, Mark Stone, after a huge hit from Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglien) they will get one step closer to clinching that postseason spot.
A win would put them seven points ahead of the Colorado Avalanche, a team that would have only five games to play on the season. That would mean that if the Wild did not win another game the rest of the way, Colorado would still need to go no worse than 3-1-1 during a stretch against Washington, St. Louis, Nashville, Dallas and Anaheim to pass them. And that is just not likely to happen. The Wild take care of business on Thursday and get two points closer to a spot in the postseason. Pick: Wild 4, Senators 1
The rest of Thursday's picks
Maple Leafs 4, Sabres 3
Islanders 4, Blue Jackets 2
Penguins 3, Predators 2
Rangers 5, Hurricanes 2
Stars 6, Coyotes 3
