Tough day for the Wild: A bad bounce, 2 goalies sick, 1 top scorer sick and 2 big injuries

Mike Yeo said this morning that the Wild "can't just snap our fingers and make it reappear. There's going to be some work involved."

It is absolutely going to take a lot of work for the Wild to brush off all this negativity and all the frustration and the unbelievable amount of adversity that is engulfing this team to get back into this race.

Things have been going great for the Winnipeg Jets. Their confidence is sky high, they have lost once in regulation now in the past 14 games and when you're playing with that type of strut in your step, you find ways to win. Things have been going hideously for the Wild for some time. It has lost 10 of 15 games (four in overtime or shootout), its players have lost confidence, frustration is palpable whenever you talk to anybody and when you're playing while waiting for the next ugly shoe to drop, you almost find ways to lose.

Tonight was a perfect example. The Wild played with more energy and structure and excitement and anger and passion than we've seen for some time.

And yet, when it was time to make a play, it couldn't make that final one to get a victory.

What if Charlie Coyle had scored that goal when he was in all alone in a tie game with 1:09 left? What if Mikko Koivu shot the puck and didn't turn the puck over en route to the first shortie for the Wild since Oct. 17? What if Koivu hadn't missed that wide open net a minute before Adam Lowry scored early in the third? What if Jared Spurgeon didn't have his first goal in 15 or 16 games disallowed because of Zach Parise's incidental contact (whether you agree with the call or not) that would have put the Wild up 2-1 in the second? What if Kyle Brodziak scored on that first-period shorthanded breakaway or didn't have a pass broken up on a first-period 2-on-1? What if Marco Scandella didn't whistle one wide on a 2-on-1 in the first?

And what if Blake Wheeler didn't have a shorthanded goal go in off his skate? What if BOTH Wild goalies didn't get sick? What if Jason Zucker also didn't come down with the plague and could play? What if Mikael Granlund and Jonas Brodin didn't get hurt in the third period (pretty good chance Justin Falk wouldn't have been on the ice to turn the puck over before the losing goal tonight)? What if somehow that puck didn't ricochet off the glass, off the top of the net, off the NAMEPLATE of the Wild's third goalie and into the cage in overtime?

When things are going well, you find a way to shoot a puck off the glass, off the top of the net, off a third goalie's back. When things are going badly, you can't find a player to make a play to win a game.

Another game winnable, another loss for the Wild. Another game losable for the Jets, yet they again find their way into overtime and find a way to accumulate points.

Such is life right now for the Jets and Wild, who are going in opposite directions. Another game where the Wild's hole deepens.

I have said the past few days on radio and I think on the blog if the Wild has any prayer of making the playoffs, it probably has to catch Vancouver or Winnipeg because I'm willing to bet the defending champ Kings figure it out. Well, the Kings won tonight against San Jose to knock Vancouver to the eighth spot.

So, the Wild at least moved within six points of the Canucks but fell nine points behind the Jets heading into Monday's rematch at the PEG.

Granlund looked to injure his left wrist tonight when he was roughed up by Big Buff, Dustin Byfuglien, who took two huge extracurriculars on Granlund on back-to-back shifts for Granlund. Granlund actually came back with his wrist taped and assisted on Jason Pominville's tying goal early in the third before leaving the game for good, I'm assuming with the same injury.

Who comes up? Tyler Graovac? Brett Sutter? We'll find out. At a minimum, Yeo said Granlund will miss Monday's game, but he called the injuries to Granlund and Brodin indefinite. That's right, Brodin got hurt, too. He was crushed in the third by Grant Clitsome and he too sustained an upper body injury.

Lots of pressure now on GM Chuck Fletcher to make a trade for a defenseman now that the holiday roster freeze was lifted at 11 p.m. Saturday.

With Brodin hurt, the Wild's D corps is Ryan Suter, Marco Scandella, Spurgeon, Falk, Stu Bickel, who played pretty well tonight, Nate Prosser and Christian Folin.

But the Wild's already demanding too much from its top-4 (now 3) D and this team needs a defenseman badly.

John Curry, who played Friday night in a win at Rockford, bussed five hours to Grand Rapids, Michigan, after the game, woke up late Saturday morning and got a call to get to the airport to fly to Minnesota because Darcy Kuemper had food poisoning and Niklas Backstrom was still sick from the norovirus or whatever that's desolating this team. It was weird in hindsight this morning when Backstrom left the ice a few moments before Kuemper, the scheduled starter. Typically, the non-starter stays on the ice to work with the scratches.

Of course, this is the Wild, so Curry's flight was delayed til about 2 p.m. He landed in Minnesota, came to the rink thinking he'd be the backup (he was told it was 50-50) and found out after the long travel day and playing the night before that he'd be making his second career Wild start in a fairly critical game for Minnesota.

So, Curry did as well as could be expected. Tying goal in the second period was a bad one, but he battled in a game where the Wild didn't give up a ton of chances and probably deserved better.

But this goalie situation is so typical. The players are frustrated, too, that this team can never, ever, ever, ever have a goalie that can stay healthy and carry the load. Injuries, illnesses, it is absolutely remarkable how often this happens. Imagine being the players on this team and what it does to you mentally when you walk in the room before a big game and see the team's minor-league goalie suiting up to start.

"Not surprised by anything," Parise said of the goaltending.

Again, very typical when you're the Wild.

So, it'll be 1) interesting if Kuemper or Backstrom can start in Winnipeg (it won't be Johan Gustafsson since he gave up eight tonight for Iowa) and 2) interesting to see how Fletcher proceeds.

Do you give up something significant to acquire a goalie when there's no assurances a goalie can even save this season? Or do you wait it out, continue to ride this instability out and make the "correct" long-term move for a goalie? Maybe it's still Kuemper? Maybe it's not. But it's the elephant in the room that is again creating mayhem on the Wild.

But the Wild is not a playoff team unless it either gets a goalie or one of its two goalies takes the reins consistently and starts backstopping this team to wins.

Anyway, at least the Wild got the point. After Wheeler's shortie exasperated the fans, Thomas Vanek, with the Wild still on a power play, scored his fourth third-period tying goal since Nov. 28.

"We're trying to build our game, we're trying to be better, we're trying to improve in different areas, and sometimes you make small steps to end up making big steps," Pominville said. "But we know that this team is a team we're chasing, a team we want to catch, this is a team we have to beat and it's unfortunate we weren't able to do that."

Parise said, "It is hard to take when you lose. We need the results and we lost the game again. That's the bottom line. … We've got to snap out of it. That's a team we're chasing. We needed to get that win."

Said Vanek, "We need the points right now, we can't wait for them."

Yeo said, "I'm not disappointed in any way the way we played the game. Just disappointed in the outcome."

He said he's disappointed that again the Wild can't hit the net on all these odd-man rushes, but he felt they built its game and took a step in the right direction, although he knows it needs wins and can't be giving Winnipeg points.