Wild a little road weary after a pair of losses in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES — Nico Sturm wasn’t sure of the Wild’s schedule.

“When’s the next game?” he asked in the evening on Day 10 of the Wild’s two-week trek away from Minnesota, where it was already Day 11.

But Sturm knew exactly what to expect from the Wild in their road finale.

“The guys, they’re going to rally around the fact that we’re all going to be excited to go home,” he said. “So, I think we’re just going to go pedal to the metal the next game and just leave it all out there.”

The World Junior Championship is over at Grand Casino Arena, with Sweden skating away with the gold medal, but the Wild aren’t returning to St. Paul just yet.

They have one more pitstop to make on their season-long, seven-game summit that’s been in two time zones and two countries and will have spanned six cities and three states once the Wild make it to Seattle.

How taxing of a trip this has been finally showed: The Wild didn’t have their usual precision in a 4-2 loss at Los Angeles, their execution and energy off.

“We got to stick to it here,” coach John Hynes said. “We’ve got a lot of points on this trip so far. But, to me, it’s the staying power now, making sure that we reset, refocus and be ready for Seattle.

“I’m confident we will be.”

Since leaving for Winnipeg two days after Christmas, the Wild have played six games in 10 days, including a back-to-back.

The longest they had off in between games was a day until now; they have a two-day timeout, using the first to travel and a practice is planned for the second. And the lull is probably coming at a good time.

After rallying four times in their first game against the Kings last weekend, which netted them a point from a 5-4 shootout loss, the Wild didn’t have the same response in the rematch.

“I liked our first,” Hynes said. “I thought third period we made a good push. Second period we got outplayed. To me, that was the story of the game.”

Trailing isn’t the best strategy against a defensive team like Los Angeles that clogs up the neutral zone let alone for a team like the Wild on a lengthy trip.

But scoring first isn’t all that would benefit the Wild.

So would a jolt from the power play.

Although the second unit delivered late in the third period on a Ryan Hartman goal during a four-minute advantage after Marcus Johansson was cut by a high stick, the Wild’s 1-for-6 efficiency was still an eyesore — particularly for the first five of Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek, Mats Zuccarello and Quinn Hughes.

Maybe the change of scenery will help.

After all, the Wild have nine wins in 13 games vs. the Kraken since they entered the NHL in 2021 and the Wild are 6-1 in Seattle, including one of their gutsiest games of the season when they shrugged off the Kraken 4-1 on Dec. 8 after Zuccarello fell face-first into the ice on a hit from Seattle’s Vince Dunn.

Mind you, where and who the Wild play doesn’t matter as much as how they play before they travel back to Minnesota.