Recently fired head coach seems to point the blame towards one person.

It was a very up and down final two seasons in Minnesota for Mike Yeo, in fact many believe that the acquisition of Devan Dubnyk last season may have saved his job then. That did little to dull the disappointment for Yeo when he learned that the Wild had decided to terminate him as their head coach.

“I said something to the assistant coaches after the game," said Yeo as per Mike Russo of the Star Tribune. "I mean, there was a feeling that, I think you could trace it almost back to the Ryan Johansen trade rumors [the Wild was in trade talks for Columbus center Ryan Johansen, who was traded to Nashville in early January] that there was a feeling for almost waiting for change or playing for change or just waiting around for something to happen. So I knew that it was two things, obviously it was going to be a trade or it’s going to be me. So I knew it was a possibility. But you think you’re prepared for it, but I would say that I wasn’t.”

However it sounds like Mike Russo may have had a good idea of why things went so bad so quickly this season, and it sounds like one man in particular may have played a role in tensions within the team. For the sake of full disclosure we've included both Russo's question and Yeo's response.

Former NHL coach Adam Oates was hired before the season by several players as a personal coach; two of the players were Zach Parise and Ryan Suter of the Wild.] When you say things never felt right, did this start with the Adam Oates stuff? “Yeah. I thought we dealt with it. We talked with Zach, and we had no issues with it after that. And talked with some players, and … Whether it’s something like that, whether it’s the trade rumors, whatever it is, when there’s things that might cause a little unrest, they kind of sit there and they hang out. When things are going well, they’re forgotten and pushed to the side. But when things don’t go well, quite often they come back.”

Furthermore Russo was able to pin down a specific event that occurred last month, and although Yeo would not publicly call out Adam Oates, much to his credit, it's clear that there's something there.

Did it bother you that Oates came to the Buffalo morning skate [Jan. 12]? That was at the start of the tailspin? “I’m not going to even comment on it. But I would say, that I would not do the same thing.”

Unfortunately we may never really understand what truly went on behind the scenes and in the locker room.

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