EDMONTON, Alberta -- At rock bottom, coach Mike Yeo had trouble sleeping. It had grown nearly impossible to block out the noise.

After a franchise-worst six straight regulation losses to close out 2013, Yeo's job -- his first as an NHL head coach -- was the subject of rumor, conjecture and criticism. After investing roughly $200 million to sign stars Zach Parise and Ryan Suter in 2012, the Wild were expecting more.

If they were to lose a seventh straight game, a coaching change seemed inevitable.

So, at rock bottom, the NHL's youngest head coach arrived at his corner office in the Xcel Energy Center during the wee hours of Jan. 1. His team needed something. He needed something.

He pulled up a computer file, a collection of motivational and meaningful quotes that he has built over the years. One caught his eye.

He erased the writing from a whiteboard that sits just above his desk and scribbled down the quote with a black marker.

"Opportunities multiply as they are seized."


The next day, the Wild beat the Buffalo Sabres -- then the Capitals, Kings and Coyotes. In all, the Wild have gone 11-4-2 since Jan. 1 and moved up four places in the Western Conference, sitting sixth as they traveled to Edmonton to kick off the final stretch of the season with a Thursday night game against the Oilers.


Before the team left Minnesota, Yeo, 40, looked up from his desk at that whiteboard and was reminded of how far he and the team had come since he scrawled that message on a cold New Year's Day eight weeks ago.

"It's still there," he said with a smile.

Perhaps that's because, as the Wild enter their final 23 regular-season games, the quote applies as much as ever.

After pulling his team back from the abyss, Yeo is not going to lose his job. But he's still in the final season of his contract, meaning he's in the final months of his contract.

At the end of this season -- whenever that it is -- Wild management will decide whether Yeo has shown enough improvement to earn his second NHL coaching contract.

It's still a fluid subject, and much can change or be misinterpreted in the next six weeks, which is why the Wild front office and ownership declined comment for this story.

With his most talented roster yet, Yeo has about six weeks and, perhaps most important, a possible playoff run to cement his reputation with the Wild brass. If seized, more opportunities will come. If not, the same speculation about Yeo's job will return at season's end.

"I believe in myself," he said. "I believe in the job here, and I believe in our team and what we're capable of. To me, there's always going to be talk and speculation and opinions, and that's fine. But when you're not behind the closed doors, and you don't know what's going on, then it's only speculations and opinions.

"I know what's reality, and I know where this group is at and what we're capable of as a team -- and I can't help but feel good."


It's easy to coach a team that's winning, Yeo said. You just let it continue playing the way it has been. It's with a losing team, he said, where a coach makes the biggest difference.

This is not just an observational assertion. Yeo spent six years as an assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins (2005-10) under Michael Therrien and Dan Bylsma. During that time, the Penguins advanced to two Stanley Cup Finals, including a title in 2009. He then coached the Wild's American Hockey League affiliate in Houston, leading his team to the Calder Cup Final in 2011.

As he looks back on his first two-plus seasons as an NHL head coach, that's one area in which Yeo feels he has improved greatly.

Coaching is a lot like playing, he said. The more you do it, the better you get. Because of that, he studies other coaches. What do they say? How do they prepare? What do they do differently?

"The coach that I am now isn't the coach that I'm going to be in five years or 10 years," he said. "I think there's a lot more potential for growth, and I feel good about that. I also feel good about the fact that this is my third year and I have improved a lot. There's a lot of areas where I'm doing things differently than I would have two years ago, and things that I've learned."


Deserved or undeserved, late-season collapses have been a theme in Yeo's tenure with the Wild.

Two seasons ago, he took an overachieving team to the top of the Western Conference before injuries to four of the top six forwards started a plummet down the standings and the Wild missed the playoffs.

"I'll sit here and argue with anybody that it was because of the injuries that we had," Yeo said.

Last season, the Wild were third in the conference before going 5-8-1 in April, winning on the last day to secure the eighth and final playoff spot in the West -- and drawing top seed and eventual champion Chicago in the first round.

That series, a 4-1 loss, wasn't pretty. That's why, fairly or unfairly, these next 23 games are the most important of Yeo's coaching career.

"I think if they want to categorize that (going into a slump) as a reflection of me, that's ... whatever," Yeo said. "They can do whatever they want. If you want to be realistic, every team does.

"The teams that are successful are the teams that are able to just stay focused on the short term and deal with where they're at. That's how you end up being where you want to be at the end."

Yeo said he learned more about coaching last year than at any other time. He learned from a great stretch in March and a down stretch in April. He learned from an embarrassing loss to Edmonton in the last home game of the season and a huge road win in Denver on the last day of the season.

And, he said, he learned from the team's playoff experience.

"I felt like I grew an incredible amount last year during the toughest times," Yeo said. "Those were growing moments for me, as well as our team. We've been on this journey together. We still have a young team, and we're still learning how to deal with all this stuff."


Yeo never has backed down from questions about his contract or job status. Even at the worst of times, his demeanor hasn't changed. He wanted his players to be able to look from the bench and see a calm coach.

And he never flinched after the team lost six straight games and appeared to be spiraling out of control.

That's why he showed up to his office early on Jan. 1. That's why he searched for a quote.

And that's why the quote is still there as the Wild enter the most important stretch of the season.

"That's just part of my character," Yeo said. "I love a challenge, and certainly we've faced one this year. If I can provide anything more than X's and O's, it's to help show the guys how you should perform and behave when you're under the gun."

Follow Chad Graff at twitter.com/ChadGraff.