The Wild hasn't earned an impressive home victory since beating Anaheim 5-1 on Jan. 30. Sunday, the Wild returned home to play what felt like a must-win game and recorded its fourth consecutive loss, 3-2 in a shootout, to San Jose. The previous three losses had come against Chicago, Carolina and a horrid Atlanta team.
During the game Sunday, two key figures chatted in the press box -- Chris Simon, the Wild's only acquisition at the trading deadline, and Wes Walz, whose midseason retirement left the Wild short of centers -- while Mark Parrish, in the second year of an untradeable five-year contract, was allowed to return to the ice after his first healthy scratch since his rookie season.
Once again, the Wild started slow, played soft, displayed an alarming lack of depth on defense and at center and lost, this time in front of a home crowd that had to be awakened from REM sleep by heavy metal music and scoreboard prompts.
Looking around Xcel Energy Center on Sunday, you could see a small army of reasons to think this team is soft, disjointed and declining. Then, about 10 minutes after the loss, coach Jacques Lemaire stood before us all and asked the immortal question:
Who you gonna believe -- me or your own lying eyes?
"I think we've got it now," he said.
The way the Wild has played for more than a month, you have to wonder if by "it" he means mononucleosis.
The Wild has managed to salvage a point out of its past two games, keeping the team afloat in the standings, but that is more a function of the NHL's self-esteem policy -- the league hands out points the way youth soccer organizations hand out trophies -- than a true measure of achievement.