The Minnesota Wild played excellent hockey in eliminating the St. Louis Blues in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs before they were swept by the Chicago Blackhawks in the conference semi-finals.
Silent throughout most of the playoffs was Wild forward Thomas Vanek, who has admitted to being disappointed with his performance.
Vanek finished the playoffs with four assists, a minus-7 rating and failed to register a goal in 10 post-season games after scoring 21 times and adding 31 assists during the regular season.
“I tried staying positive because I knew I just needed one to get me going,” Vanek told reporters following Thursday’s 4-3 loss in Game 4. “I didn’t find that one and that’s on me. I let them down.”
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Vanek averaged 14:11 TOI in the playoffs and he saw his ice-time decrease in each game of the Chicago series.
“We had a great run, and obviously that’s not the way we wanted it to end,” Vanek said. “They were tight games, and their scorers scored when they needed to, timely goals. I didn’t…I really thought we had something special going. We have a lot of character in here and had a great run. Obviously that’s not the way we wanted to end it.”
Perhaps fans shouldn’t be surprised by Vanek’s lack of output. Historically, the 31-year-old Austrian has performed poorly in the playoffs. He has 34 points in 63 total career playoff games compared to 608 points in 743 regular season contests.
Last year, Vanek was criticized by Canadiens legend Guy Lafleur after he failed to lead Montreal to a Stanley Cup final appearance.
“Your team will never win with players like this who fade when confronted by adversity,” Lafleur said of Vanek.
Vanek has two more years remaining on his current contract, at a $6.5-million salary cap hit.
