Yeo even has hard time finding positives after latest Wild defeat; Wild live chat Friday afternoon

Mike Yeo's demeanor was that of a dejected, defeated man after tonight's 4-3 loss to the Washington Capitals, although he quickly denied that when I made note of it.

But even when asked about the quality of play from guys like Charlie Coyle and Matt Dumba tonight, the Wild coach naturally couldn't bring himself to go there after the Wild's seventh consecutive overall loss (0-5-2), seventh consecutive home loss (0-4-3), 12th loss in the past 13 games (1-10-2) and 15th loss in 18 games in 2016 (3-11-4).

Devan Dubnyk is 0-8-1 since Jan. 9. The Wild has given up 21 goals the past five games and at least four goals in five of the past six games. It has been outscored 13-3 in the past five second periods.

The Caps have 40 wins and 84 points, 17 more wins and 28 more points than the Wild. The Wild has lost 10 games in regulation since Jan. 10; the Caps nine games in regulation in 53 games this season.

The Wild hasn't won since Jan. 21. The Wild hasn't won at home since Dec. 28.

If the Wild doesn't beat the Boston Bruins in a 1 p.m. matinee Saturday, it'll equal the franchise-record longest home winless streak set during its inaugural season in 2000-2001 … when there were ties (0-3-5).

So, imagine this irony: The Wild could potentially be carrying a franchise-record-tying home winless streak into the Feb. 21 outdoor game it has long awaited.

Pray for me.

I'll also be hosting a special brunch podcast at 10 a.m. at Tom Reid's Hockey City Pub down the street from Xcel Energy Center on Saturday. Come on down and join the fun. I may need to drink a bloody before the game.

Tonight, Coyle scored his fifth goal in eight games and his 15th this season. When a reporter asked about Coyle, no offense to Coyle, Yeo could barely stomach an answer.

"It's hard to…that's what we have to do, I guess," he said. "It's hard to keep pointing to bright spots and positives right now, but if you fall down seven times, you get up eight. That's what we have to do right now, and there are good signs. The power play got another one tonight, I know we want more than that, but the power play has been starting to get goals for us. Our big-name guys are starting to find the back of the net to get points. That's another good sign, but we need wins. Generally we're a team that we preach the process and we're better that way for sure but we're beyond that."

On Dumba, who extended his point streak to five games with an assist and had 15 shot attempts, Yeo said, "He's taken a step."

As you can read in the gamer, Alex Ovechkin scored three second-period goals and had 10 shots for his 14th career hat trick and the 17th all-time against the Wild.

He was wide open backdoor on the first two. He got lost somehow, and the pucks just found him.

"Those are goal scorer's goals," said Ryan Suter. "They have the best goal scorer ever maybe, and he got three on us.

"I mean, puck bounces right to him first one, second one off the back wall. Third one bounces out of the pule right to him. We need to start getting those breaks."

The third one, which would have been the game-winner until Mikael Granlund scored his first goal with a goalie in net since Nov. 21 with 1.7 seconds left, looked like it may have been offside. The puck on replay certainly looked like it crossed over the blue line, but there are no cameras on the blue line and the linesmen are looking at tiny little screens.

"I saw it in real life, and on the replay it looked even more offside," Suter said. "[Sharrers] said he doesn't have enough angles. He said he can't overturn it because he can't see it clearly. If they're going to have the rule, they better get some more cameras, I think."

Said Yeo, "What are we going to do? Are we going to cry about it and feel sorry for ourselves? Obviously that was a big moment in the game. I thought we had some good momentum going at that time. We scored and we were coming and there's good energy in the building. They scored the goal, and it counted. So what can you do? It's frustrating. I'm not going to try to paint a picture of every bounce is going against us right now, but pucks are bouncing off us and in or off end boards right to certain guys or plays like that. If that's what we have to deal with, that's what we have to deal with."

Asked if the league needs better camera positions for offside challenges, Yeo said, "I don't think I'm in a state of mind to start figuring out what's best for the league right now."

Wild players continue to try to keep their heads up.

Said Coyle, "We gotta find ways. We keep saying we're taking strides and that's the positive thing to do and I think we are, but we gotta get that end result. … We have to stay positive during this. Going the other way is only going to do us worse. We know once we come out of this funk, we're going to be a better team because of it, so we just need to keep that in mind."

On the horrible second periods lately, Yeo said, "It's tough to put a finger on that one. We obviously have been starting games well and it doesn't take much in that second period to lose a little momentum. It comes down to puck work, execution. You could see there were a number of times we'd make one play but couldn't make the second play tonight, and if you're not executing properly, in that second period with that long change you're going to spend more time in your own zone. I feel that's been a big part of this trend that's going on. We've been spending a lot more time in our own zone in the second period."

Barring news, Kent Youngblood has practice Friday as I would on my Sunday package and conduct that chat.

-----------------------------------------

Lastly, give @dakota_case a follow on Twitter, send him a shoutout and keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

I got to meet the 25-year-old Wild fan and his awesone parents tonight. They were hosted by all-around good guy Nate Prosser. The Hockey Wilderness blogger and budding sportscaster from Sioux Falls is being admitted indefinitely to a hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, next week as he awaits a heart transplant.

The passionate and very knowledgeable Wild fan fought his doctors to come to tonight's game. Much to their chagrin, he won.