It's early for Twins, late for Wild, and they share this: Delusion

The Twins have suggested the historically futile 0-6 start is part of the ebb and flow of a season. They are saying that it is too early to panic.

"We have to take a step back and try to keep things in perspective a little bit,'' manager Paul Molitor said. "A couple of games go your way, you're feeling a little bit different than the 0-6.''

Molitor is wrong. Everything that looked good through an impressive month of exhibition games in Florida has turned horrendous against real competition. There is every reason for the Twins followers to be in a state of panic.

John Torchetti and his Wild players were irritated at the idea they had "backed into'' the eight-team playoff field in the NHL West.

"You earn every single point …,'' Mikko Koivu said. "We're in the playoffs [and] that's great news for the organization, that's great news for the team, that's great news for the fans. All that is positive right now.''

This was after the Wild was overmatched 3-0 by San Jose last Tuesday for a fourth straight loss, and yet crawled through the muck and into playoffs when Colorado continued its collapse with a loss.

Torchetti said he was "disappointed everyone is saying we backed into the playoffs.''

They didn't get there on merit; they got there as the eighth seed in a 14-team conference that happened to have only seven worthy teams.

They got there with the lowest point total – 87 – for a playoff team in an 82-game schedule since the NHL added shootouts in 2005-06.

The 2015-16 Wild got there by winning 38 games and losing 44.The Wild reached the playoffs as bona fide losers.

The Twins' franchise can trace its lineage to the start of the American League in 1901 as the Washington Senators. The 0-5 start was the first for the franchise since 1904.

They added another loss to the streak in Sunday in Kansas City, when Glen Perkins – with his fastball topping out at 92 – blew his first save opportunity by giving up two runs in the bottom of the ninth.

I'm a big fan of Eddie Rosario's hitting talent, but he did some chasing that was absurd even by his standards. Miguel Sano's bat looked slow. So did Trevor Plouffe's, on the heels of an outstanding spring.

Most people were worried about Byung Ho Park's ability to catch up to a good major league fastball. Turns out, we should have been wondering how he was going to handle a decent breaking ball.

The one Park hit for a long home run on Friday was an all-time hanger. Those are gifts he's not going to get often enough to survive as a DH in the American League.

The signing of Park was mysterious from the get-go to me. Adding the potential of 175 strikeouts to an already strikeout-prone lineup ... how did that make sense?

Sano, Plouffe, Rosario and Park were supposed to be the 3-4-5-6 in the regular lineup, and among them, they have 37 strikeouts in 77 at-bats, with three RBI.

The theory was the Twins could let Byron Buxton bat ninth and continue his growing pains as a hitter, since the rest of the lineup would be producing. With part two of that not happening, Buxton's 11 strikeouts in 19 at-bats become frightening.

The bullpen issue goes beyond Perkins' absence of several miles per hour on his fastball. Trevor May has taken excellent stuff to the mound and somehow managed to be ineffective. Casey Fien has been wretched. Kevin Jepsen contributed to two losses before getting the Royals out in the eighth on Sunday.

Ryan Pressly was the only reliever to bring a sense of confidence during the week of woe.

Let's face it: The Twins' best pitcher was Ricky Nolasco and their best hitter was Joe Mauer.

And we're not supposed to panic?

Calling out players for softness or a lack of effort after every loss. Making a production of pulling regulars from the lineup to find more "energy." That's the type of stuff that Mike Keenan used to make work for a couple of seasons, but with the modern hockey player, it has a much shorter shelf life.

Torchetti was given one task when he replaced the fired Mike Yeo: get the Wild to the playoffs. He managed to do that, with a big assist from Colorado and its injuries.

I can't imagine Torchetti staying if the Wild doesn't get through Dallas in the first round. If he does, the whole "make the players accountable'' act will have the Wild-ings laying down on Torchetti earlier in 2016-17 than they did on Yeo in 2015-16.

Hockey players have become more like other pro athletes: They aren't willing to take the sophomoric nonsense from coaches anymore.

Bottom line is that the Twins and the Wild are both delusional.