Wild searching for consistency through early part of season

PHILADELPHIA – Experienced but learning.

Passing and failing.

Behind to get ahead.

Six games in, watching the Wild is like looking through a kaleidoscope: What to make of them changes depending on the perspective.

They’re a veteran team with an established core, but they’re integrating new and young players.

This means they are evolving at a stop-and-go pace, with just as many problems as progress. And while this transition is necessary for the long-term trajectory of the Wild, they have regressed from the team that started so impressively a year ago or even the version that challenged Vegas in the playoffs.

In other words, the Wild are complicated and incomplete, their winless weekend against Washington and Philadelphia proving their complexity.

As peculiar as that sounds for a roster that features many players who have spent most if not all of their NHL careers with the Wild, it’s true.

The Wild (2-3-1) had five players in action Friday night vs. the Capitals who weren’t in the lineup at the beginning of last season. On Saturday night against the Flyers, that number was seven.

So, there is familiarity, but the Wild are different and are playing like it.

That no-nonsense style that led to their sizzling start in 2024, when they ruled the road and never trailed for the first 19 periods of the season, hasn’t shown up consistently.

There were flashes in the season opener, a 5-0 victory at St. Louis, but since then, the aggressive offense and defense that made the Wild a tough out for the Golden Knights just six months earlier haven’t synced up: They were flimsy in a 7-4 loss to Columbus, had a third-period collapse before regrouping for a 4-3 shootout victory over Los Angeles and were close but not close enough in falling 5-2 at Dallas at the outset of their current road trip.

Their system requires assertiveness and attentiveness to succeed, and without that, the Wild were overwhelmed by the reality of what they want to be.

“The No. 1 thing to win regularly in the league is you have to be the most competitive team on the ice,” coach John Hynes said, “and then from there your habits, your execution, your structure, all those things come to fruition, and when you don’t have that at a high enough level, then it’s not going to work.”

The next night in Philadelphia, the Wild corrected their competitive imbalance, but at a cost.

“If you want to win, you have to be the most competitive team on the ice,” Hynes said, “and you can’t beat yourself.”

The Wild gave up the tying goal when the Flyers intercepted David Jiricek’s clear and Owen Tippett banked in his own rebound against goalie Jesper Wallstedt. Earlier in the shift, the Wild had a chance to get the puck into the offensive zone and didn’t.

In overtime, Joel Eriksson Ek hit the post and Stillwater’s Noah Cates hit the net to finalize Philadelphia’s 2-1 comeback. Going back to the beginning of last season, this was the first time the Wild didn’t win when leading after two periods. They were on a 31-0 run.

Trial and error.

Up and down.

Good and bad.

The Wild’s 10 power-play goals have been the team’s best feature, but the offense as a whole is in a funk. Not only are the Wild’s six 5-on-5 goals tied for the fewest in the NHL, but they had just 30 combined shots vs. the Capitals and Flyers.

“You have to be a highly competitive team,” Hynes reiterated. “You can’t beat yourself.”

Compared with the past, the Wild are off.

But if they slingshot in the future, they are on the right path.

That’s what at stake with their next move, not to mention taking care of the present. Their potential won’t be clear until they are healthy, but the Wild can start to create that muscle memory now.

And as much as a kaleidoscope alters perception, it also reveals patterns.