Don't think there is just one big thing that led to elimination. It's combination of garbage special teams, average goaltending and to my surprise...there was just not enough urgency, desperation esp. in the last 3 games.
I'm a Blues fan, so I understand the line I'm walking, but I'm also a hockey fan who has watched plenty of Wild games.
The Wild are built entirely around their wingers. That's part of the reason they take so many penalties AND part of the reason their special teams are weak. Look at the guys taking too many penalties on the Wild (wingers). Look at the forwards who are getting big minutes on the best PK and PP teams around the league. After a tight squad of top defensemen, centers are doing the heavy lifting league-wide. Not on Minnesota.
Fleury's even-strength save percentage in the playoffs was 92%. That's exactly what the Wild had as a team in the regular season. That's above average in the regular season and right down the middle in the playoffs. That's what you'd expect. The only reason his numbers looked bad is because of the PK.
Urgency/desperation don't matter as much as the lineup. And the reason for garbage special teams and lack of discipline is because of the lineup. Perhaps coaching is an issue, but, trust me, I watched the Blues turn in many consecutive "almost" seasons when David Backes was their best center. The Blues didn't go anywhere until they could send out O'Reilly, Schenn, Bozak, Sundqvist, Thomas, Barbashev at center and Pietrangelo, Bouwmeester, and,
finally, Parayko on defense.
There were some years in which Blues' playoff goaltending was actually
good, but fans picked it apart because we were at a loss about why the rest of the team couldn't get the job done. The reality is that they just weren't good enough and didn't have depth where it mattered the most. We tend to default to talks about urgency, culture, goaltending, coaching, and officiating - because it's damn difficult to tackle the real biggest reasons.
