ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 As Bill Guerin was headed down TD Garden\u2019s winding hallway toward the locker rooms following Saturday\u2019s loss, he ran into good friend and peer Cam Neely, the Boston Bruins\u2019 president.<\/p>\n
Guerin, the Wild president of hockey operations and GM, gave Neely a handshake and hug and wished him luck in their fight to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going to do some damage,\u201d Neely told Guerin about the Wild.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks,\u201d Guerin replied, \u201cI hope so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guerin has trust in his Wild, who are as close to Stanley Cup contenders as they\u2019ve ever been in franchise history. But no one could blame the fan base \u2014 or even the front office \u2014 for having some concerns over the latest March slide.<\/p>\n
Make no mistake, Guerin is extremely frustrated by his team\u2019s play since the Olympics. The Wild have won four of their past 11 games, only two of those coming in regulation, with a 7-7-2 mark since the Olympic break. Those 16 points heading into Sunday\u2019s NHL action were 23rd in the league. Their five regulation wins in those 16 games is tied for 18th.<\/p>\n
While Minnesota hadn\u2019t officially clinched a playoff spot as of Sunday, the Wild have long been in a position where they knew they were going to most likely play the Dallas Stars in the first round. That could lend to a cruise-control mode psychologically compared to other teams fighting for their playoff lives, like the Bruins in Minnesota\u2019s 6-3 loss Saturday.<\/p>\n
But what frustrates Guerin is just how many points his team could have if it won more at home and didn\u2019t play, in Guerin\u2019s words, \u201cdown to their competition\u201d so often this season. At a minimum, they\u2019d be looking at home-ice advantage in the first round.<\/p>\n
With just eight games left, the Wild must get their game \u2014 and especially their stars \u2014 in order so they\u2019re not just \u201climping into the playoffs.\u201d That\u2019s also Guerin\u2019s words, by the way, not ours.<\/p>\n
Fans have seen this movie before, especially having gone a decade without a first-round playoff series victory. It\u2019s uncanny how often the Wild, no matter the roster, make a habit of not playing with the same kind of juice this time of year that we saw early in the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to see us start playing better more consistently,\u201d Guerin told The Athletic. \u201cWe\u2019ve had some really good games then we lay off. Then we have another good game, then lay off. I\u2019d like to see us with a more complete game more consistently right now. We\u2019ve got (eight) games left. It\u2019s time. Listen, there\u2019s no such thing as perfection in this game, but \u2026 what I\u2019d like to see is better execution. A little more desperation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI trust this group, I do. We haven\u2019t been horrible. We have to eliminate those (rough games), the lulls have to be put to an end quicker.\u201d<\/p>\n
The good news is the Wild will have a fortuitously timed four-day break between games this week, with their next game Thursday at home against the lottery-bound Vancouver Canucks. That could turn into a needed reset and rest for guys who look tired, especially U.S. Olympians Matt Boldy, Quinn Hughes and Brock Faber, none of whom look like their usual selves. It\u2019ll also allow injured Jared Spurgeon to heal up. Same with other guys playing through nicks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re one of the best teams in the league, we\u2019re one of the more consistent teams in the league,\u201d Faber said. \u201cThis is a stretch where things aren\u2019t going our way but we\u2019re not playing quite as good as we\u2019re capable. That\u2019s part of it. We\u2019re just trying to get \u2018clinched\u2019 next to our name, and from there build our way up to real playoff-style hockey and ramp up for who knows who we\u2019re playing, most likely Dallas.\u201d<\/p>\n
This starts at the top, of course. The team\u2019s best offensive players, Kirill Kaprizov and Boldy, have been in a funk in recent weeks. Boldy has zero goals in the past seven games and hasn\u2019t looked the part of the breakout star he was in the Olympics. Kaprizov scored his first goal in six games on Saturday, but hasn\u2019t been a factor in most of the team\u2019s recent games. At least, not in a good way: Turnovers by Kaprizov led to multiple Bruins goals on Saturday, including the fifth one where he lost the puck deep in his defensive zone.<\/p>\n
When Kaprizov is at his best, he\u2019s extremely competitive and a hound in puck battles. He\u2019s playing north-south, driving the net. He\u2019s explosive and powerful. But lately, that has been missing.<\/p>\n
Remember how dominant and dynamic Boldy and Kaprizov were in last year\u2019s first-round series against the Vegas Golden Knights? The Wild nearly won the series because of it. This group isn\u2019t going anywhere if those two don\u2019t get back to their usual selves.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust need better,\u201d Kaprizov admitted after the loss in Boston. \u201cCan\u2019t score. I just need to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just the stars.<\/p>\n
Filip Gustavsson, who has been mostly solid for the Wild in his postseason stints, has lost focus in games lately in Tampa Bay and Boston. Ryan Hartman took an undisciplined penalty in the final minutes against the Lightning. Marcus Johansson, in a scoring funk since the calendar turned to 2026, passed up shooting at an open net for what could have been the go-ahead goal in Tampa Bay, then showed no attempt to go for a clean faceoff win by Michael McCarron in the third period against the Bruins.<\/p>\n
The Wild, in large part because Kaprizov and Boldy aren\u2019t scoring, have dried up offensively. Their 2.88 goals per game since the Olympics is tied for 19th. Their 28 five-on-five goals are tied for 23rd. Their power play, at 23.5 percent, is tied for 13th. Defensively, they\u2019ve been mostly adequate, tied for 10th best at 2.81 goals against per game with a penalty kill that is third-best (84.1 percent).<\/p>\n
Nico Sturm, a two-time Cup champion, said even the teams he won with \u2014 the Colorado Avalanche and Florida Panthers \u2014 had some struggles down the stretch before the playoffs. He brought up an interesting point of perspective vs. urgency.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an 82-game season, 84 next year \u2014 you will lose games,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cI think the big thing is that those stretches don\u2019t completely let the train go off the rails. It\u2019s like, \u2018Okay, there\u2019s a bump in the road and we\u2019ll fix it.\u2019 You put together good stretches of hockey after that. But it\u2019s a fine line between learning from your mistakes and staying level-headed, and being okay with losing. So you\u2019ve got to tread that very lightly there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wild staff will have two days of practice on Tuesday and Wednesday to sharpen things up before another busy stretch of games, including three in four nights with a back-to-back Saturday and Sunday against the Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings, two playoff bubble teams.<\/p>\n
More than results, coach John Hynes is looking under the hood on how his team is playing, and feeling, before the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s important that guys are feeling good about their game or executing at a high level,\u201d Hynes said. \u201cIt\u2019s not always going to be perfect, but I think being tight defensively, responsible in that area, I think the execution level with the PP to set our game up where we can be the team that\u2019s going to be able to control territory. And then I think it comes into individual players too as well. Their skating, their competitiveness, truly understanding their role and what their strengths individually bring to the collective team, and then really putting that same game on the ice night in and night out.\u201d<\/p>\n
How many Wild players are truly feeling good about their game right now? It\u2019s probably a short list. It has been a challenge to integrate all the new players from the trade deadline into the lineup. Hynes has wanted to see how McCarron, Nick Foligno and Bobby Brink fit, so there\u2019s been some experimentation with the lineup, which will continue in the final few weeks. You\u2019ve seen Sturm and rookie Danila Yurov get scratched, for example, but they\u2019ll be back in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s sweet going into the playoffs on a 12-game heater, but the clock resets either way,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cBut you don\u2019t want to go into the playoffs having a weird feeling in your stomach because maybe the PK, the power play, hasn\u2019t been good, or the D-zone hasn\u2019t been good. You want everything to be in a good place.\u201d<\/p>\n
You also want Hughes, the Wild\u2019s blockbuster addition and playoff X-factor, healthy and on his game. The biggest reason Minnesota has a better chance of beating Dallas or Colorado is having its own stud defenseman in its back pocket.<\/p>\n
But Hughes hasn\u2019t been at his best as of late. Hynes ended up switching the defense pairs and having Hughes with Spurgeon, with Faber joining Brodin. The staff will have to decide which pairs to go with for Game 1 of the playoffs.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s fair to ask about Hughes\u2019 ice time and if he\u2019s getting worn down, especially after the heavy load he played in the Olympics for the gold-medal winning Team USA. Saturday marked the eighth time Hughes has logged 30-plus minutes in a game since he joined the Wild in mid-December. The 2024 Norris Trophy winner was also dealing with a lower body injury going into the Olympics.<\/p>\n
Some of Hughes\u2019 ice time has been circumstance-related. For example, all the overtime games the Wild have played in added a few more minutes on his sheet. The amount of power plays. And then there\u2019s Hughes\u2019 own decision-making on his shift lengths. Trust us, none of the coaches were in favor of Hughes being on the ice for a marathon 4 minute, 34 second shift Saturday in Boston. The coaching staff has talked with Hughes (and Faber, for that matter) about their ice time, shift lengths, etc.<\/p>\n
Still, the four days off come at a much-needed time. Two weeks ago, when the Wild lost three games in a row to non-playoff teams during a homestand, Hynes said the Wild needed to look at their routines and change things up. Two weeks later, the erratic nature of the Wild\u2019s play and the outcomes haven\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n
The Wild better find a sense of urgency quickly, or the earned cynicism heading into the playoffs from the outside and even some on the inside will return, and justifiably so.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s ideal,\u201d Hynes said of the break. \u201cYou get a mental and physical break, which I think is important, particularly this time of year. But we also have a couple days of practice before we play. \u2026 It\u2019s a little bit of an opportunity to have some good practices but also have a couple days where you can get away from it a little bit, which I do think this time of year is important.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 As Bill Guerin was headed down TD Garden\u2019s winding hallway toward the locker rooms…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4828,385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-554443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-minnesota-wild","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}