Lulls grab Yeo's attention

First-year Wild coach Mike Yeo said he expected this.

You know, the mid-period lulls. Or the sleepwalking -- Yeo's word -- that characterized the first period of Tuesday's loss to an injury-depleted Pittsburgh team.

Yeo doesn't like it one bit. And he promises it will change.

Still, he expected it.

"I knew, to start the season, there would be some inconsistency in our game, whether it's game-to-game, whether it's within the game," he said. "I know that's our toughest challenge as a group -- how do we approach every game with the right urgency, mindset and focus? ... I didn't expect it to happen overnight. That's something you build."

Everyone with the Wild, which has lost four of five, would like the construction process to move quickly. And while the team has pulled a point out of a couple of those losses, the bottom line is that Yeo is seeing too many lapses in execution.

After an overtime loss to Detroit Saturday, Yeo lauded his team's effort. But it sounds as if effort might have been part of the problem in Tuesday's loss.

But Yeo resisted the temptation to take it out on the players during practice Wednesday. It was a crisp, but brief, workout that focused on breaking out of the defensive zone cleanly and hitting the offensive zone at high speed.

Yeo talked with several players on-one-one during the practice. Yeo said he believes the Wild attack has lost a lot of its speed in recent games and hasn't had the puck in the offensive zone enough.

After practice, he said the players had a "bit of snarl" to them.

"We were a little upset with ourselves, and for me, that's real important," he said.

Snarl perhaps, but not frustration.

Yeo said solutions won't come overnight.

"We're asking a lot of the players," he said. "And to think you can come in a flip a switch? It doesn't happen. You're changing habits. But it will come. I know that. I know it."

Given the Wild's upcoming schedule, it better happen sooner than later. The Wild plays at Vancouver on Saturday, returns home to play Anaheim, then has a home-and-home with red-hot Detroit.

"We have to be prepared to play the right way," Devin Setoguchi said. "When we're doing that we're as good as anybody in the league. It's just the consistent effort, sticking to a game plan, preparing to start games the right way."

Yeo said it will be a process.