Here's one guarantee after Sunday's nationally televised game at Xcel Energy Center: Wild-Devils won't be on NBC Sports Network again.
These two teams could meet in the Stanley Cup Final and NBC would probably find a way to farm it off on another entity.
In a quiet arena maybe because of a season-ending Vikings hangover, the frigid temperature outside, the mind-numbing display fans were forced to sit through or all of the above, the Wild fell to the injury-riddled Devils 2-1, one night after beating the conference-leading Stars in Dallas.
"I mean, seven shots after two periods in your own rink against a team that, no disrespect to them, but they've got a lot of guys injured, a lot of minor league players, it's not good enough. It's not," said former Devils captain Zach Parise, who scored the Wild's goal. "We want to catch Chicago, we want to catch St. Louis. We can't come out and play like that.
"You can play a team well like we did Dallas and win a game and then come here and do this, that's not pretty."
Parise called it an "ugly, uneventful game." Goalie Darcy Kuemper said, "I'm sure it was a boring game to watch."
In a game that featured 20 combined shots the first 40 minutes, few consecutive passes and lots of yawns, maybe it was no coincidence NBC Sports Network's feed mysteriously (if only temporarily) died early in the third.
It's a shame because that's when the teams that couldn't do a thing the first two periods combined for three goals in a span of 6:26. Adam Henrique's shot deflected off Jonas Brodin's stick, fooling Kuemper. Parise scored 1:44 later, but after a neutral-zone breakdown, Jon Merrill sailed a shot over Kuemper's glove for the winner.