Wild's funk comes at bad time as NHL playoff stakes intensify

A funk like the one the Wild is stuck in is an eyesore no matter when it happens.

The team has lost eight of its last 10 games and is regularly giving up four or more goals while its scoring has been up and down.

But what makes this rut even more grim is its timing: Not only has the Wild nosedived while the action and stakes have intensified in advance of the playoffs, but the team also is spiraling with the NHL trade deadline looming.

"I hope that fuels us because our group, how tight we are, we don't want to see this broken up," defenseman Matt Dumba said. "We want to work for each other and put ourselves in the best position to stay together."

General Manager Bill Guerin was undecided about his approach to the March 21 deadline when asked back in January, and plenty has changed since then.

At the All-Star break, the Wild had a comfortable lead in the playoff race after having won six in a row to sit 28-10-3 overall. The top three seeds in the Central Division automatically move on, and the Wild was third — one back of second-place Nashville and two ahead of No. 4 St. Louis with games at-hand over both teams. The next closest rival trailing the Wild, Dallas, was 11 points behind, and even the competition from the Pacific Division for a wild card spot favored the Wild by a sizeable margin.

Not anymore, though.

While the team still is hanging on to third in the Central, its buffer has evaporated. The Stars caught up, closing the gap with a 6-3 victory at Xcel Energy Center on Sunday, and the battle for the two wild card invites is tighter.

"I don't want to say, 'There's no panic. There's no sense of urgency. We're fine,' " winger Marcus Foligno said. "We're not. We're losing games. It's never fine in that situation. But we know we can get back in the win column and get going on streaks and get back to our hockey."

Whether the Wild adds, subtracts or stays the same before the trading window closes is handled by management, but the players certainly can provide food for thought in the meantime.

Led by a robust offense and late-game prowess, the Wild seemed to have the characteristics that deliver in the playoffs when it was cruising earlier in the season. But since the second half started, the team has struggled against that grade.

Aside from getting trounced twice by a Stanley Cup contender in Calgary, the Wild also has faltered in the make-or-break areas that get magnified in the postseason like momentum swings and special teams.

Since returning from the All-Star break, the Wild has surrendered a league-worst 16 power play goals. The power play also has come up emptyhanded in nine of those 13 games.

"Playoff hockey's hard, and that's what it is right now," captain Jared Spurgeon said. "It's a grind, and it's tiring. But when you win those games, it feels great."

As for the turning points, the Wild has been on the wrong side of them.

Buffalo used a fortuitous bounce off the linesman to kickstart its 5-4 rally on Friday, and Dallas took over Sunday after the Wild's unsuccessful coach's challenge for goaltender interference.

"We dropped the ball with that call. Put us in a bad spot," coach Dean Evason said. "So, that's certainly on us. But we're sticking together as a staff and we're sticking together as a team and as an organization, and we'll get through it."

With 28 games left in the regular season, there's still time for a turnaround.

What the team does the rest of the way will not only determine its playoff fate, but also which version of the Wild is accurate: the soar or the swoon.

"We're not worried about, 'Is this it? Is this our team now?' " Foligno said. "We know the first couple of months and the winning streaks that we've seen is the Minnesota Wild. Everyone is positive and humble at the same time that we can get back there."