Wild's Wednesday practice: In search of chemistry

The day after Tuesday's deflating 4-3 shootout loss to Edmonton, the Wild spent much of Wednesday's practice at Braemar Arena working on its power play. It also worked on something more nebulous but equally important: developing the chemistry that coach Mike Yeo said his team is struggling to find.

Since the personnel shift that occurred at the trade deadline--when the team shed fourth-liner Torrey Mitchell and gained forwards Matt Moulson and Cody McCormick--the Wild is 0-1-2, including Tuesday's clunker against one of the league's worst teams. Yeo said that rebuilding team chemistry with those new pieces will happen with repetition, and he has impressed upon his players that working toward that goal is critical.

Yeo did not make any changes to his line combinations in Wednesday's practice, though he said he would reevaluate that Thursday morning as the Wild prepares for Thursday night's home game against the New York Rangers. He did say that Darcy Kuemper will get the start in goal.

"When we made the trade, the first thing I said to the group was, 'We've got work to do now,"' Yeo said. "The work is not skating up and down the ice. It's not watching video. We do that stuff all the time. The work is building chemistry. The work is, you're almost starting from scratch again to build your team game.

"We've got different guys in different roles now, and different positions. So that's our task. That's up to us as coaches to make sure all our players have an understanding of what their role is, but also to players, the only way to build chemistry is to go out and do the things your teammates are expecting you to do, and know they're doing it for you. And that's when it happens.

"The harder you work at it, the quicker it comes. The players know we have to keep working at it. We're not that far off."

Forward Zach Parise--who was perturbed Tuesday by what he saw as a lack of energy and intensity as the Wild lost a three-goal lead--said he does not think chemistry is an issue. He described Tuesday's loss as "a weird game" and "an off night," saying he does not think it is indicative of a problem.

"Everyone wants to search for solutions. Really, we just played a bad game. That's it. That's why it's important to look at the big picture. I know when you lose a couple, it's easy to jump on things. In all reality, we're fine."

The Wild spent time Wednesday working on 4-on-3 and 5-on-3 situations. They failed in both of those at two critical points of Tuesday's game, and Yeo said he liked the puck movement he saw in practice.