Postgame: Lethargic Wild gives away two-goal lead, loses to Nashville

I got my one Twitter prediction during the game correct: The Wild cancelled practice Monday before its afternoon charter to Dallas.

Playing for the seventh time in 11 nights and reaching the tail end of nine games in 15 days heading into next weekend's short All-Star break, the Wild looked like it ran out of gas Sunday night and coughed up a two-goal lead for the third time on its 2-2 homestand.

It survived doing so against Arizona, but the crumbles cost Minnesota victories against New Jersey and the latest being Sunday against Nashville.

This is why the Wild's stretch of I believe 20 games in the final 25 days of the season will be pretty daunting, especially since that's the type of stretch that can cause injuries and fatigue heading into the playoffs.

But I'll save you that anxiety until then.

The Wild, 19-3-2 in its past 24, has come back 14 times this season, but after Filip Forsberg scored with 6:36 left, the Wild couldn't find that tying goal (Nino Niederreiter ripped one off the post with two minutes left) and Peter Laviolette went on to become the 25th coach to win 500 games.

In a month where it seems no lead is safe in the NHL, it was actually the sixth consecutive Wild game where at least a two-goal lead vanished either by the Wild or its opponent.

They were completing a five-game trip fraught with all sorts of travel problems. There was a mechanical issue with their charter that caused them to arrive in Denver way late, they were stuck on an airplane in Vancouver because customs agents were missing in action, their hotel in Edmonton lost power, wifi and … water and they arrived in Minnesota without any luggage.

It's safe to say the Predators just wanted to get home, preferably with two points in custody.

Mikael Granlund and Jason Pominville gave the Wild a 2-0 lead in the first, but late in the first, you could sense the tide turn. Darcy Kuemper battled to get the Wild out of the period with its lead intact, but James Neal scored early in the second.

From there, the Wild was outshot 10-4 in the period and Zach Parise couldn't score on a shorthanded chance or Charlie Coyle on a point-blank try to get its two-goal lead back.

By 2:20 of the third, Forsberg tied the score after Tyler Graovac lost a defensive draw and the Wild lost, as Boudreau said, its structure.

Boudreau also ripped the refs for not calling a blatant trip on Jason Zucker 33 seconds before Forsberg's winner and not calling a penalty after when Ryan Suter was high-sticked in the head.

"I will say this and very rarely talk about referees," he said. "They have to start calling the penalties that are penalties. I don't want ticky-tack penalties. They stuck the knee out and tripped us just before their third goal. Then they high-sticked Suts in the head. I don't understand why these things aren't being called around the league anymore. Maybe I'll get an answer."

Maybe. His former next door neighbor, Paul Devorski, was the supervisor here tonight.

Jordan Schroeder was called into duty to center Granlund and Zucker because Mikko Koivu was sick. Schroeder filled in well and assisted on Granlund's goal, but it was a big loss because Koivu is one of the best faceoff men in the NHL and the Wild lost 22 of 34 in the first two periods. He would have been out there for all the big draws.

Boudreau anticipates that Koivu will fly to Dallas.

Six-game winning streak vs. the Central, dead. 15-game point streak vs. the West, dead. Chicago tied the Wild in points, but Minnesota is still atop the conference because it has played three fewer games.

The Wild plays in Dallas on Tuesday. The Wild can break its franchise-record road point streak, now at 12 games, with a point. The Wild hasn't lost consecutive games in regulation since Nov. 1 and 5.

For the Wild to rebound, it'll need to find some energy in the next few days.

That's it for now. No practice Monday. Talk Tuesday barring news.