Nobody seems to have answers as losses continue to mount for the Wild

Of all the losses during this lousy stretch and this lousy calendar year of Wild hockey, this was in my mind the most awful tonight.

This team is just a wreck, and the players have no answers, their under-siege coach has no answers and their GM apparently has no answers because he has so far declined interview requests from the beat writers during this road trip.

In the meantime, the Wild has lost nine of 10 games and 12 of 15 this year and tonight coughed up a 2-0 lead here at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers.

The Wild tried to make it like this was the exact same thing that occurred a couple nights ago against the Islanders, but in that game, the Wild had a 1-0 lead and a season-high 20 shots in a period in the first 20 minutes before caving.

Tonight, the Wild went into a shell right after Matt Dumba made it 2-0. The Rangers began to push and the only two things that kept the Rangers from scoring was Devan Dubnyk in net making four robberies and the refs giving the Wild a respite by calling Viktor Stalberg for a penalty.

The Wild, which had scored its fourth power-play goal in four road games on Dumba's tally, didn't score on the power play, and soon after, that 2-0 lead evaporated in 80 seconds on goals by 2007 Minnesota Mr. Hockey Ryan McDonagh and one of the hottest goal scorers in the NHL since mid-December, J.T. Miller.

How bad was the Wild tonight?

After Dumba's goal 7:57 into the first, the Wild was outshot 25-5 until Erik Haula's shot 7:45 into the third. That was the second shot all night by a Wild forward and by that point Nino Niederreiter's ghastly turnover led to Derick Brassard's eventual winner.

The Wild gave up the first 12 shots in the second, was outshot 17-4 in the period and 30-18 in the game.

Zach Parise, who has one goal, no assists and is minus-11 in the past nine games, registered no shots and had seven attempts blocked or whistle wide. Mikko Koivu, who has no goals and 22 shots in the past 16 games, had no shots. Thomas Vanek had no shots for the fifth time in eight games. Mikael Granlund, who has one empty-net goal in the past 32 games, had no shots. No shots for Niederreiter. Three combined by Jason Zucker, Jason Pominville and Charlie Coyle.

"Way too familiar of a script," said coach Mike Yeo, who said earlier in the day that he woke up Thursday morning feeling the Wild would be able to overcome any adversity in tonight's game.

"Good start, and then the other team pushes and we're not responding the right way. The goals they got, we're giving them right now. Making a lot of soft plays, and a lot of uncharacteristic plays and it's just not good enough."

He should probably stop using the "uncharacteristic" word though. There comes a time where this is just characteristic of his team.

"We've been searching for answers for [why this keeps happening] for quite some time," Yeo said. "We've tried some different, whether it's talks or meetings or whatever, we're trying a lot right now. What it boils down to, the actors got act. We give a script, but we need guys that want to be out there in every situation. Every moment of the game calls for something different, and good teams and good players react to those situations and if it's a shift in d zone, if it's making a hard play, if it's making a more precise or a more skilled play, whatever it is, you make it. And we're not doing that."

Asked why this team is so fragile with a lead, Yeo said, "Because we're afraid of losing it. We're hoping to win and afraid of losing. The result is not good. We have to go out and win a game. We're going to St. Louis and I'm pretty sure they're not going to give us a gift. Just because you're up 2-0 doesn't mean you cling on to that. We have to push harder and push for the next one and we have to fight extremely hard to make sure they don't climb back into the game like they did."

Ryan Suter, who turned the puck over for the first goal, said, "It's difficult to swallow that one again. We can't put a game together. We couldn't have had a better first period. They had a push in the second and we weren't able to get any pushback.

"We're a very fragile team. They get one and we kind of go into a shell, and that's a team that has no confidence. We have to figure it out, we have to figure it out fast, or it's not going to work."

Suter said they talked between the first and second about "coming out and having a good push, same as the first, get pucks in and get pressure and we were turning pucks over, and that's what happened."

Parise is clearly fighting it right now on the ice. This is just not what we're accustomed to seeing.

"I thought that they had a good push and played a lot better," he said. "But maybe there's something that we did. Maybe we're not pressuring them as much as we should or as much as we need to. Maybe we are sitting back. I don't know. But it's starting to happen a little too much.

Asked if this is bad as he's ever been through, Koivu said, "It's bad. That's obvious."

Good news: Nashville lost!

That probably didn't make you feel a lot better, but hey, grasping for anything.

The pressure is bigtime on Yeo and Fletcher right now. Fletcher said a few weeks ago the answer has to be in the locker room, but one reason for that is he has built a roster with a ton of immovable parts.

That means unless he figures out some way to provide an external start, it's going to be the current cast that has to get the Wild out of this. And right now, it's hard to be confident when the leadership and the character of the Wild that Yeo so often lauds and stays loyal to has been incapable to drag the Wild out of the dirt.

Otherwise, Yeo may have to pay the price, although it's not like there's any clear-cut replacements inside or outside the organization right now. Fletcher has always remained loyal to Yeo in the past, so one would assume he will again.

But the team's a hot mess right now, and nobody has any answers and everybody is starting to sound like a broken record. Onto St. Louis. Day off for the team Friday, so I held a bunch of leftovers for a follow.