Wild’s Ryan Hartman gets blasted by his own head coach

Ryan Hartman had an off night on Tuesday when his Minnesota Wild fell 4-2 to the Lightning in Tampa Bay. This was a fast-paced game in which Hartman ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time in the final minutes of the contest. The Bolts were charging into the offensive zone, the puck careened through multiple players only to end up on Steven Stamkos’ stick. The Lightning’s captain shot at the net and the puck bounced Hartman’s chest and into the Wild’s net.

To make things worse, Hartman found himself in the penalty box due to a hooking call, giving the Lightning a power play for two of the final five minutes, severely hurting the Wild’s chances of forcing overtime.
Hartman called himself out after the loss:

“I felt like I let my team down,” he admitted per NHL.com. “I’m responsible for some of the things that have gone on. Obviously not a good feeling.”

And Hartman’s head coach, Dean Evason, agreed with Hartman’s sentiment and called him out in a more brutal way for the game-breaking blunders.

“He should be hard on himself,” Evason said. “It’s stupid. Absolutely stupid.”

Evason has been making tough calls in Minnesota lately, just recently making defenseman Matt Dumba a healthy scratch. This has got fans wondering if the same thing could happen to Hartman following the comments he received from his head coach.

The Wild is currently riding a three-game losing streak and has fallen out of playoff contention on Wednesday morning, sitting a point from the Calgary Flames who hold on to the last Wild-card spot in the Western conference.