The Wild woke up this morning in Calgary, the sun was out, the sky didn't fall, life moved on and they got right back on the horse to combine a bunch of bad clichés, sayings, analogies, whatever.
Afternoon from Calgary, where the Wild just got done with practice at the Saddledome prior to tonight's Western Hockey League clash between the Calgary Hitmen and the Medicine Hat Tigers.
As you know, the Wild, which was 8-0-2 in 10 games since Jan. 19, lost one game against Vancouver, then looked at the highlights and discovered the Flames rallied from three down to beat Boston on a fluke goal with 2.4 seconds left in OT and that the Winnipeg Jets rallied three times from a goal down to beat Edmonton in a shootout and that the L.A. Kings rallied to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning.
So the Wild enters tonight's play in 10th, four back of the Canucks and Flames, three back of the 8th-place Sharks and one back of the Kings.
"It's tough because you lose one game in three weeks in regulation and it feels like you've lost probably four or five in a row," coach Mike Yeo said. "But that's part of the challenge, that's part of the journey of getting there. We've had some experience of going through things like this. I know we did last year, and we understand you have to be able to get right back on the horse."
Last night's bad outcomes magnify Wednesday's game against the Flames, but goalie Devan Dubnyk said the Wild can't go into these games thinking every one's a must-win.
"We've done a really good job of just approaching each game as its own single challenge," Dubnyk said. "Last night's loss was very disappointing and yeah you look at the standings and think, 'That's a blow,' but there's a lot of points left to be had. The simple fact is if we keep winning games, we're going to be in the playoffs.
"If we keep playing the way we have and keep winning hockey games, we'll be where we need to be at the end of the year. We can't look at the game last night and [Wednesday] and approach them like, 'Oh my God, we can't lose this game.' That's not a way to be successful."