After another loss, Wild coach John Hynes wonders, ‘Why don’t we get a little bit tougher?’

A five-game losing streak is an eyesore whenever it happens, but what makes the Wild’s active descent so startling is how incompatible it feels to last season’s team.

That lineup is mostly intact, the longtime veteran core still in charge, but this isn’t the same Wild that vied for first place in the NHL until mid-December. They aren’t even like the version that was a handful for Vegas to eliminate in the playoffs.

“Honestly,” alternate captain Marcus Foligno said, “I think we have to get rid of last season in general.”

The longer the Wild’s spiral continues, the easier that’s becoming, because the comparison is getting flimsy.

A year ago, the Wild were one of the early stalwarts in the NHL.

They seldom lost, usually because they didn’t trail until their seventh game. But it was how they were winning that was most impressive: They were aggressive and automatic, their structure their strength because the predictability that propelled them made them unpredictable to the other team.

Now, their calling card is their inconsistency, the 4-1 collapse to Pittsburgh on Thursday at Grand Casino Arena the latest example of how the Wild have evolved … and not in a good way.

“There’s spurts. Yeah, there’s some great looks and there’s some good things, but that’s not our hockey. We check well. Sometimes we seem to, for whatever reason, let the foot off the gas pedal at certain times that come back to bite us.”

While ideal, the Wild picking up where they left off wasn’t realistic.

They’re missing key players to injury, with forwards Mats Zuccarello and Nico Sturm sidelined since training camp. Plus, the changes they did make weren’t small: The Wild had six players 22 years old or younger on their opening-night roster, and four are still here; three play regularly, including two on defense in 19-year-old Zeev Buium and 21-year-old David Jiricek.

Growing pains were inevitable, but it’s the lack of cohesiveness that’s jarring, and that’s indicative of the whole rather than the sum of the parts.

Against the Penguins, the Wild finally played well in the first period and earned a score that matched, leading at the intermission for only the third time this season. But they faded in the second and were outmatched in the third when the game was on the line, giving up three goals to flip a tie into a rout.

“We gotta be better. We gotta be more around the puck.”

But it’s the execution of the scheme that coach John Hynes sees wavering.

“Skating and playing with pace is not a style,” Hynes said. “Competitive level on the puck is not a style. Digging in on the faceoff circle is not a style. It’s what is required to win night in and night out. It’s the willingness to do those things regularly. That’s what it comes down to.”

With just three wins in 12 games and none on a six-game homestand that is two-thirds completed, the Wild are making a new name for themselves.

They certainly aren’t their past, and they have work to do to prevent the present from turning into their future.

“But fragile is different when it comes down to skating and puck battles and assignments, when we know we have to do them. That’s different.