Mentality, defense changes at heart of Wild's Central Division chase

Getting whisked out of the playoffs by the rival Blues wasn't only a dud of an encore to the Wild's best regular season. That first-round exit also shaped the team's objectives for the this season's lineup. The six-game series exposed the Wild's issues, like poor special teams, flimsy defending and a lack of clutch execution.

Seven months later, the Wild are back in St. Louis for a reunion with the Blues on Saturday. It's clear they have taken those playoff lessons to heart based on the progress they have already made almost halfway through the season.

"We've matured a lot this year," alternate captain Marcus Foligno said. "We've really created some new roles for some guys, and guys are really finding their game and we're really working as a team right now, which is exciting.

"It's different from the St. Louis series a little bit, our mentality. We've been having to grind this season and really working hard to get to where we are right now in the standings."

Once again, the Wild are jostling for top-three seeding in the Central Division, but what's keeping them in that race isn't the same strategy that helped them finish second and No. 2 overall in the Western Conference last season.

While that team usually outscored its problems — regularly in come-from-behind, nail-biter fashion — the current version of the Wild is much more prudent. They are built for low-scoring, tight-checking games and if they stay on-brand, they can roll: the Wild are 7-2 in their past nine games and 13-5 dating to Nov. 19.

This style is the panacea for what went wrong vs. St. Louis, when the Wild blew a 2-1 series lead against a depleted Blues defense and cold goaltender while getting pelted with goals and outdueled on the power play to drop three in a row and get eliminated.

"We got a little bit too high in that series last year up 2-1 with a really good third game," Foligno said. "We felt like we could go back home being up 3-1. Maybe thinking about it a little bit too far ahead and not getting down to the nitty-gritty. It just starts with our team and the way we play. We have to play simple."

But simple doesn't mean easy.

Simple is attentive, determined and purposeful, and that's how the Wild have improved the areas that needed fixing.

The power play has been much more consistent at 23.7% (12th in the NHL) with only one lengthy dry spell back in November and capitalizing on these chances has led to the opportunistic scoring that's key to eking out narrow wins. Their penalty kill is also better (14th at 79%) and has been one of the stingiest in the league since early November.

Arguably the most impactful difference, though, has been how the Wild defend overall.

After a shaky start, the team has recalibrated to a 2.40 goals-against average that's second best in the NHL since Oct. 25. Goalies Marc-Andre Fleury and Filip Gustavsson have combined for a 1.78 goals-against average and .937 save percentage over the last nine games.

With fewer bloated scores, the script flips from last season are infrequent and the Wild have exuded the poise that was missing against St. Louis.

They are 14-2-2 when scoring first, 13-1-1 when leading after the first period and 14-0-1 when ahead going into the third all while limiting the drama.

Still, this hasn't been a perfect process.

An off night for the power play and penalty kill and woeful output in the faceoff circle stoked a 4-1 letdown to the Stars on Thursday in an important Central Division matchup.

What can help the Wild reset is sticking with the blueprint from their battle with the Blues.

"We've learned from some mistakes that we've made in the past, starting with that playoff series and again at the start of the year," coach Dean Evason said. "We did give up some leads, and we've adjusted some stuff systemically. But most importantly the commitment of the group to really play tighter, sounder, more disciplined in those type of situations has allowed us to have success as of late."