Of all the losses during this lousy stretch and this lousy calendar year of Wild hockey, this was in my mind the most awful tonight.
This team is just a wreck, and the players have no answers, their under-siege coach has no answers and their GM apparently has no answers because he has so far declined interview requests from the beat writers during this road trip.
In the meantime, the Wild has lost nine of 10 games and 12 of 15 this year and tonight coughed up a 2-0 lead here at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers.
The Wild tried to make it like this was the exact same thing that occurred a couple nights ago against the Islanders, but in that game, the Wild had a 1-0 lead and a season-high 20 shots in a period in the first 20 minutes before caving.
Tonight, the Wild went into a shell right after Matt Dumba made it 2-0. The Rangers began to push and the only two things that kept the Rangers from scoring was Devan Dubnyk in net making four robberies and the refs giving the Wild a respite by calling Viktor Stalberg for a penalty.
The Wild, which had scored its fourth power-play goal in four road games on Dumba's tally, didn't score on the power play, and soon after, that 2-0 lead evaporated in 80 seconds on goals by 2007 Minnesota Mr. Hockey Ryan McDonagh and one of the hottest goal scorers in the NHL since mid-December, J.T. Miller.
How bad was the Wild tonight?
After Dumba's goal 7:57 into the first, the Wild was outshot 25-5 until Erik Haula's shot 7:45 into the third. That was the second shot all night by a Wild forward and by that point Nino Niederreiter's ghastly turnover led to Derick Brassard's eventual winner.