wild/nhl

“You have that playoff mentality,” he said. “As soon as you get off the ice after a playoff game, win or lose, you’ve got to put it away and start thinking about the next one. You can’t waste time and energy thinking about the last game and being ticked about something. It’s so important this year more than any to keep that even keel.”

That’s not easy when so much is riding on every game. Teams feel desperate to keep pace, knowing a bad few games could send them tumbling in the standings with little time to make up ground.

“It’s a Catch-22,” Konopka said. “You don’t want to panic if you lose two or three games. But it’s hard not to because you find yourself falling in the standings maybe seven or eight spots.”

Or vice versa. That’s the beauty of this season. Every win or loss feels significant.

This is our reward for that lousy lockout.

 

Chip Scoggins • ascoggins@startribune.com