Somewhere 30,000 feet above the ground in the the earliest of hours Tuesday as the Wild traveled from Boston to New York, coach Mike Yeo laid the blueprint for his team's 6-0 shellacking of the New York Islanders Tuesday night.
After dropping five of six games, Yeo changed the bottom three lines. The top trio of Zach Parise, Mikael Granlund and Jason Pominville was -- still is -- playing great. The other three lines were changed.
It added up to the Wild's first game of six or more goals this season.
Matt Moulson and Mikko Koivu on, presumably, the second line swapped Charlie Coyle for Justin Fontaine as linemates and the results were drastic.
Yeo said he wanted a right-handed shot like Fontaine to play with southpaws Moulson and Koivu. It worked.
Moulson, in his return to Long Island, scored twice, and Fontaine, in his second game back from five straight as a healthy scratch, scored.
Meanwhile Koivu recorded three assists which gave him 458 points on his career and the franchise lead overtaking Marian Gaborik.
"It means a lot," Koivu said. "First off being able to be in an organization for all those years (is special and) I played with a lot of great players. I think more than anything you look back and obviously there's been some ups and downs like sports always is. It's a great feeling, but I think I'll realize that more when I think about it after the season or whenever that is."
For as fun as Tuesday night was for a Wild team that was facing increasingly mounting pressure, it was a long day for more than just Moulson.
While Yeo didn't unveil his lines before the game, it became clear that Erik Haula, who's played well of late was going to be a healthy scratch. There was thought going into the game that Haula may center the third line after a bad mistake by Kyle Brodziak in the defensive zone Monday led to a Bruins goal.
Instead, Haula sat.
"Lets be honest," Yeo said, "there's a difference between playing on the fourth line and playing on the third line against top players. A lot of people were saying, 'Take Brodziak out.' But we wouldn't be where we're at right now without him. And I don't want one mistake to factor into that. So let's get him into a spot where he could be successful and we'll call upon Haula again. We've got a bunch of guys here and everyone is going to have to be important."
In addition to clamoring for Haula to take a bigger role on the team, fans have been waiting for Fontaine to get another shot. Tuesday, he made the most of it.
He seemed to mesh well with Moulson and Koivu.
"He's got quick feet but he makes quick decisions," Yeo said of Fontaine. "To play with guys like that, you've got to make quick decisions and think the game at a high level and he showed that he's capable of that."
Looked over in how well the offense played was Ilya Bryzgalov's 36 save shutout. He certainly didn't need to be great. But early, he needed to give the Wild time to find their game offensively -- which they of course did.
"Bryz gave us a chance to really settle into the game and once we found it we got going good," Yeo said.
In the second of a back-to-back, the blowout helped the Wild save some legs. For example, fourth line center Kyle Brodziak played more Tuesday night than top line center Mikael Granlund. And top defenseman Ryan Suter only logged 23 minutes, 15 seconds.
Coupled with Dallas' loss in Pittsburgh, the Wild improved their lead in the Wild Card race to five points over eighth place and seven points over ninth place.
It added up to a huge win on a night the Wild desperately need it.
The post After changing three lines, Wild explode for season-high six goals appeared first on Wild Now.
