After the Minnesota Wild loss, the State of Hockey was shaken, and the team gave up 5 goals to a revamped St. Louis Blues.
Marc-Andre Fleury was the #1 goalie during the playoffs for the Wild and I'm not sure Evason had the right plan of action, as seen by how the Wild were knocked out. And plenty of fans and journalists have had plenty to say, including Cam Talbot's wife:
But to Evason it was an EASY decision!
In regards to Talbot being out and then suddenly thrown in during an elimination game. She's right to be angry.
"I was doing everything I could to stay ready," Talbot said. "You don't want to come into an elimination game, but you want the opportunity to play during the playoffs and they gave me the opportunity and it just wasn't good enough."
Talbot's classy response to a question that has a lot of flack hopefully landing where it should, the GM and Coaching. Addressing these issues will leave the Wild in an interesting post-season spot, dealing with a bad special teams strategy and some weak defensive pairs.
Wild coach Dean Evason mentioned that Talbot was screened on the goal and that the puck shouldn't have even reached the net.
"I'm sure it looks like it's a terrible goal," Evason said. "But you have 1-on-5. He should not have an opportunity to shoot."
This brings into question, the judgment of Evason, who rode Cam Talbot into the playoffs, in the regular season and got the shiny new goalie and riding the Vezina recency bias into failure.
Switching goalies at this juncture brings risk, for sure. Talbot hasn't played in a game in two weeks. He might be rusty, not in game rhythm. Asking him to be sharp in an elimination Game 6 on the road in a loud, hostile arena is a tall order.
