Wild coach Bruce Boudreau is getting kind of tired of this whole fatigue conversation. Nonetheless, after a 3-1 loss to Philadelphia Thursday, and with back-to-back matinee games scheduled for the weekend, he had the players sit for an extended video session, followed by a (very) optional skate.
After Thursday's loss Boudreau said his team looked like it lacked energy, something that was up to the players to find within themselves. Friday he kind of doubled down on that thought.
"I mean coaches can yell, they can cajole, they can pat on the back, they can kick in the butt. But, in the end, we don't go out there and skate.''
And the whole idea of the team being tired? "Look, we have two forwards playing-plus minutes a game. And a forward that plays 17 minutes a game. If we're tired then we're not the athletes I think they are. We're not in the condition I think we should be.''
The object of the film session was to look both at what went wrong Thursday and to see what goes right when the Wild plays a strong game. So Boudreau made them watch the disappointing loss to the Flyers. But he also showed them a game from December, when the Wild was playing so well. "We looked at what we did, and how we were success at that point in time,'' Boudreau said. "And, hopefully, it will transfer into tomorrow's game.''
Meanwhile, with Gustav Oloffson sent back down to Iowa, Christian Folin appears ready to return to the lineup. He has been out since sustaining an arm injury March 5.
"It will be great to get back out there,'' said Folin, one of only a handful of players on the ice today. "I've put in a lot of work every day since I got hurt. It's been a tough almost three weeks now. But I'm ready to get out there.''
Said Boudreau: "He's a big defenseman that can play physical when he's on top of his game. We certainly could use that.''
