Minnesota Wild A Team In A Disarray

Around a week ago after a 5-2 Wild win over the Avalanche things were looking up for the Wild and the future was bright. They controlled their own playoff destiny with teams looking up at them and games in hand. Then March 10 driving down the road to the playoffs they didn't notice a fork in the road and went the wrong direction down a dead end road. The question now is can they find their way home, and get going the right direction again in time for their apointment with the playoffs or do they reschedule for this time next year?

Leading up to the trade deadline everyone was touting team chemistry and the work ethic of the team. However after Mikko Koivu was lost to injury it was tough to fill his shoes and with other holes already temporarliy plugged the leaks began to show. During this stretch in addition to Koivu the team had to do without Guillaume Latendresse who was re-injured after missing 58 games due to an earlier injury, Clayton Stoner went down, as well as Cal Clutterbuck the team sparkplug. This in addition to several other players already out. As a result the team was outscored 12-2 the last 3 games, at 1 point they went 8 periods without a point. Maybe the ship is being righted though as most of these players have returned and were in action in the 3rd game of this stretch.

With only 12 games remaining the Wild are now in 11th place in the Conference and 4 points out of 8th. Their games in hand are gone and several teams actually have a game in hand on the Wild. The road back to the playoffs is now all uphill but if that pre-deadline magic returns it could be a fun stretch run. Time to buckle down and take control of the bus.