Wild positively knows it must end its negative play

Many inside the Wild locker room tried to paint a rosy picture on a four-game losing streak that ended up making no difference when it came to the team making the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season.

But sprinkled in between Zach Parise's potshots at the media and Mikko Koivu's reminder that the Wild earned a postseason berth by recently winning six in a row was the reality that even those leaders are fully aware the team must play better if it has any prayer of escaping the first round for a third consecutive year.

The irony of Parise admonishing the apparently negative media was that the most scathing postgame comments came from Parise himself. He called the loss to San Jose "inexcusable" and added, "When we're trying to prepare for the playoffs, you can't play the last four games the way we have. That's just, right now that's not good."

The Wild was outscored 14-5 the past four games and didn't hold a single lead in those 240 minutes.

But the good news is after taking Wednesday off, the Wild has plenty of time to prepare for whichever opponent ends up winning the Western Conference.

Looking at building availability, the Wild should open against Dallas next Thursday or St. Louis next Wednesday, depending on which team it draws (there's a remote chance the Wild still could face Chicago).

Goalie Devan Dubnyk, who might not play Saturday's regular-season finale against Calgary to rest, says it's important the Wild wipes the slate clean and gets back to work. It was Dubnyk who after Sunday's loss in Winnipeg said bluntly that the Wild would get "throttled" in the playoffs if it doesn't improve its game.

"We don't have to watch scoreboards, we don't have to do anything. We can rest, get to work in practice and really treat that game on Saturday as a warmup to get going," Dubnyk said. "The thing is, these four [losses] really don't matter. We're there now [in the playoffs] and we worked our way to get there with a great March.

"We'll find a way to elevate our game here. I have no concerns about that at all."

The Wild is one of six teams in the NHL to have made the playoffs in each of the past four years (seven if Detroit advances for a 25th consecutive season).

But the Wild has been wildly inconsistent this season and is eking in only because of a down year in the Western Conference. With 87 points, the Wild will be only the second team to make the playoffs in the shootout era (since 2005-06) with fewer than 90 points (that excludes the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season).

Of the 160 playoff teams in the shootout era, the Wild could end up with the fewest points if it doesn't at least get a point Saturday (Montreal made the playoffs with 88 points in 2009-10).

When John Torchetti took over Feb. 14, the Wild had lost 13 of 14 games and was five points out of a playoff spot. Since then, the Wild has gone 15-10-1 — it was a league-best 15-6-1 at one point — so Torchetti alluded that energy seemed sapped this past week.

"We've taken a lot of energy, and a lot of bite out of the team trying to get here," he said. "Maybe this will loosen some guys up."

The goal this next week, Torchetti said, is to improve "our checking and our penalty kill," especially clearing attempts. "We have to get skating faster. We have to play the game faster," he said. "Our exits have to be faster, and our forecheck, second man in quick. More energy."

Parise added, "I don't think we're doing a very good job with the puck in the neutral zone. We're not putting each other in good spots. It's almost passing on a problem to someone else. We're not supporting each other well. Our 'D' look up the ice and they see three guys with their numbers turned to them. There's not a lot of outs and we're not coming up the ice together. When you do that you don't enter the zone clean and you chase the game."

Now, that sounds awfully negative. But at least the Wild will have a week to remedy those multiple problems.

"The bottom line is we have to play better going forward. We know that," Torchetti said. "Mission one is done. Getting into the playoffs is big, like we said. But we want to be playing better going into the Calgary game and Game 1."