Analysis: Road trip looks like a trap for the suddenly sluggish Wild

VANCOUVER — This wasn’t going to be a piece of cake for the Wild.

These weren’t slam-dunk wins.

“Those days are over,” two-time Stanley Cup champion Nico Sturm said. “There’s as much parity in the NHL as we’ve probably ever seen.”

But they were set up for success.

The Wild traveled for four games played every other day, and all their opponents were chasing them in the standings. At one point, two were next to each other at the bottom of the NHL.

But with one stop left, their trip is looking more like a trap.

“I also wouldn’t put too much stock into who we’re losing or winning against,” Sturm said.

After shutting out Edmonton 1-0, the Wild had a 4-1 clunker at then-second-to-last Calgary on Thursday night that cost them their 12-game point streak. They improved Saturday night in Vancouver but were still upended 4-2 by a reeling Canucks team that was 32nd in the NHL, finishing a back-to-back, had dropped four straight and wasn’t at full strength.

Even the Wild’s shootout loss Nov. 29 that ended their seven-game winning streak was to a lowly lineup in Buffalo.

What has worked for them is clashing with the contenders, like Colorado and Carolina and Vegas. Their return home to Grand Casino Arena to take on Central Division rival Dallas on Thursday night has become a light at the end of the tunnel.

But before then, the Wild will finish their trek Monday night in Seattle against a sinking Kraken squad on a five-game losing streak.

“It’s like when we played Colorado,” rookie defenseman Zeev Buium said. “You know they’re a good team. You know if you beat them, that can say something about your team. When you’re doing good, everybody wants to take you down.

True enough, but the Wild suffering their first regulation loss in 13 games to the flickering Flames?

And then following that up with another pointless finish vs. the even more down-and-out Canucks? Those results seem incompatible with the Wild’s recent tear, let alone the lead they have in the standings.

The last time the Wild lost consecutive games in regulation had been Oct. 22 (New Jersey) and Oct. 25 (Utah). In U-turning their season, they got in the groove of combining opportunistic scoring with stingy defending and goaltending, but those hallmarks have wavered lately.

First off, their execution has been spotty.

Not running away from Calgary and Vancouver in the first periods stung the Wild. The Canucks overcame their 1-0 deficit from a Matt Boldy goal by capitalizing three times in the second.

But the Wild also weren’t as clean in their own end as they have been.

Buium’s stick broke before Vancouver charged into Wild territory for the equalizer. The second goal came after the Canucks won an offensive-zone faceoff, and the third was during a 2-on-1 break.

Vancouver went on to pounce on a turnover behind the net by goalie Jesper Wallstedt in the third period before Mats Zuccarello gave the Wild a late lift on the power play.

“They just got a couple good bounces,” Wallstedt said. “They scored good hockey goals, and that kind of switched the momentum.”

After starting the season 8-0-2, this was Wallstedt’s first regulation-time loss.

“I think he’ll be fine,” coach John Hynes said. “The two goals off the rush were great shots by them, and one of them was a miscue by us. We pinched and gave up the odd-man rush. The other one, we didn’t have a stick and they made a heck of a shot, and we had numbers back on it.

“[There was] the goalie misplay, but I thought he made some saves, and he battled back through it. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a little bit more run support when we needed it tonight, but I felt like we generated it.”

A mismatch in effort and outcome usually resolves itself in time.

But to avoid the upsets, the Wild’s attention to detail will be vital, especially if they’re treated like someone’s Colorado.

“I think others teams saw how hot we were in the last month,” Sturm said, “and they certainly know that they can’t start the game slower against us than any other team. But we know this.