When the Wild lost 4-1 to the Penguins eight days ago, we tried to keep things in perspective. It was just 1 of 82 games — something we like to say — even if there were some troubling developments along the way (most notably a failure to score goals and the loss of Zach Parise to what was, at the time, merely termed an "upper body" injury).

However, 1 of 82 has turned into 4 of 82 — not a huge sample size, but a reminder that the Wild, for all the strides that seem to have been made in the past couple of years, still fall back on the same problems when they struggle.

It's still a question of scoring goals and finishing chances for this team, which has found the net just three times in its past four games, losing all four to drop to 7-7 on the season. Goaltending remains an issue for a team that has allowed 26 goals in its past eight games, some of them game-turning softies. And the power play — the most surprising struggle, given the team's supposed forward talent –remains abysmal, just 2 of 44 on the season to rank dead last in the NHL.

On that last point, you have to wonder if it's the system. Between 2006-07 and 2010-11 under Jacques Lemaire and Todd Richards, the Wild had a top-10 power play in four of the five seasons, while the other season it ranked No. 13. In three full seasons under Mike Yeo, arguably with better personnel at least a decent part of the time, the Wild has ranked 27th, 16th and 16th before falling to last this season — though as our own Michael Russo notes, the Wild has changed personnel in recent years but still runs the exact same power play system under Yeo that it did under Richards.

Regardless, the familiar story lines of "creating chances" but "not cashing them in" and wondering night in and night out about the quality of goaltending … well, they're wearing thin. Fast. It's only a few games. Four of 82, to be exact. For the first 10 games, despite the power play struggles, the Wild looked like one of the best-skating and most dangerous teams in the league much of the time.

Maybe that will resume once Parise returns, which could be as soon as Thursday. For now, though, the Wild is what it is, and that's a team we know all too well.