Following a 3 hour meeting with Minnesota management, Barry Melrose was asked what his team’s New Year’s resolution was. His reply - “To get some wins“. Melrose has been reported to be on the hot seat with his team going 1-8-2 in the first 11 games of the season. GM Rink Rat stated that the Rink Rats are not living up to expectations and Melrose needs to work on improving the squad. “By no means do we expect to be the best team in the league right now, but Barry needs to shake up this squad and get some wins. We’ve been playing garbage hockey and we can’t make excuses. Bouwmeester’s been out so that’s hurt us a lot, I know, but we need to come to the rink prepared game-in and game-out and that’s what Melrose is paid to do. We gave him a lot of money in the offseason to coach this squad and if he’s not going to do it someone else will. If things continue we're going to make some changes before the All-Star break”.
Melrose has struggled to find the right line combinations in the team’s first 11 games and as a result the team finds itself near the bottom of the league. Part of that may be their road struggles, going 0-6-1 on the road thus far this season. Stars like Ryan Miller and Derek Roy have also have contributed to the team’s struggles with poor performances thus far. Miller, a returning MVP runner-up and 2nd Team All-Star, has a 4.66 goals against average and has a save percentage of .859. Roy a team captain has a plus/minus of -3 and has only 1 goal and 6 assists in 11 games played.
GM did praise recent call-ups David Krejci and Kyle Cumiskey who have both been able to contribute offensively. Krejci has played limited time on the squad’s 3rd line and has 2 goals and 2 assists in 6 games played. Most impressive though is that Krejci is a plus 2 with the rest of the team carrying a negative plus/minus rating.
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