Wild's call-ups providing positive vibe

It wasn't the type of shakeup that would clear the front page of a newspaper or capture the attention of a fan base.

But when the Wild's road winless streak reached 11 games after two hideous efforts in Philadelphia and Toronto, the Wild made a slew of transactions Friday designed to nudge a downtrodden locker room and add some positivity, some energy, heck, some life to an unresponsive team.

When the Wild sent Casey Wellman and David McIntyre back to Houston of the AHL and recalled Chad Rau, Nate Prosser, Jed Ortmeyer and Matt Kassian, it seemed like change for the sake of change.

But as it turns out, the Wild won back-to-back games to enter the All-Star break on a high, and the four newcomers, as well as Carson McMillan (arrived two games prior), made significant contributions.

"They bring a lot of energy, right from being on the bench to in the room to before the game," center Kyle Brodziak said. "You see when they go out there, they're doing all the right things and everybody sees that.

"When somebody's doing the right things, it's almost like a train. You keep building, guys keep doing it and doing it, and guys feed off each other."

That was the objective. There's no doubt General Manager Chuck Fletcher is trying to make a trade or two to spark his sliding, banged-up team. That will continue at this week's GM meetings in Ottawa. But Fletcher vows that he won't force anything out of desperation.

Coach Mike Yeo said all the call-ups have provided a "breath of fresh air" to a depressed team.

"Those guys aren't coming up thinking about what happened the last 10, 11 games," Yeo said. "They're just excited to be in the lineup. You could tell the locker room's been lively, the bench is lively, we've had good emotion in our game."

Defenseman Justin Falk, who scored his first career goal in Tuesday's victory over Colorado, has sensed the same thing.

"It's been a tough stretch and it's been tough not to have a negative feeling and hang your heads at times," Falk said. "They've been positive, upbeat, working hard and contributing, and we need that."

In Saturday's win over Dallas, Rau scored the winning goal. Tuesday, it was McMillan. Yeo says that when the Wild is playing the right way, it should have a "different hero every night."

That's what Yeo loves about gritty center Warren Peters, who was called up in November and has found a full-time home in Minnesota. He pays the price, he battles.

"The thing that I like, the guys we have in the lineup are competitive. They really compete, so we're not an easy team to play against," said Yeo, adding that it's a necessity because of the skill the Wild is missing with Mikko Koivu, Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Guillaume Latendresse injured.

Also, unlike many minor leaguers, you rarely hold your breath when the minor leaguers hit the ice. They work hard, there's no cheat to their game, they do the little things to be successful.

"You can see they're very comfortable with Yeosie and the systems," Falk said, referring to the fact that each call-up played for Yeo last season with Houston.

Even a guy like Kassian. The seldom-used tough guy has played only six games this season. He played only five minutes Saturday, eight shifts Tuesday.

Rau, Ortmeyer and Kassian were reassigned Wednesday because Houston has two games during the NHL's All-Star break. But all three could return when the Wild resumes practice Monday, especially since the Wild finally has found a recipe for victory.