Postgame: Wild's season ticking away, and team shows little fight, urgency in New Jersey

Tick-tock.

Seventy-one games in, the Wild's season is quickly ticking away and tonight in Newark, the Wild got smoked, 7-4.

The seven goals allowed were a season-high for the Wild and one from equaling the most allowed in a game in history.

In the heart of a playoff race, the Wild is 1-3-1 in its past five and somehow lacked battle and compete along the wall and any sense of urgency despite being one point back of Colorado for the eighth and final playoff spot.

Maybe it was just the natural sag or the wind being taken out of its sail, like Ryan Suter said, from being down 2-zip just 94 seconds into the game, but regardless of the reason, the Wild can't afford that at this point and, as Nino Niederreiter said, games like that can't happen.

There's no doubt Devan Dubnyk needs to be better, but the second period was a train wreck defensively. The Wild was on the wrong side of the puck countless times and basically didn't follow the system by going into an aggressive forecheck according to coach John Torchetti. Players were soft along the wall, soft on pucks, soft with their positioning. They were beaten to loose pucks, beaten to wall battles like they didn't want to battle at all.

It was a disappointing game toward the tail end a disappointing season because regardless of the outcome this season – playoffs or not, it was not supposed to be this way for the Wild.

The Wild was not supposed to be a bubble team, scratching and clawing to eke into the playoffs where it's "reward" would be the top-seeded team in the Western Conference. And then to regardless be in this position, the Wild was supposed to have more character than to lose four out of five in the midst of a playoff race – three to mediocre teams Edmonton, Ottawa and Jersey.

The Devils had a 1-0 lead 43 seconds in on Devante Smith-Pelly's first of two goals. He missed a shortside goal and then Dubnyk got caught swimming in his crease. The puck was loose for a goalmouth scramble for what seemed like an eternity and the Wild didn't box out and the goal was scored.

John Torchetti said the Wild needed to be hungrier finding that puck.

The Devils had a 2-0 lead when Jonas Brodin, who umpteen times tonight seemed to want to avoid contact, threw a puck up the wall. Erik Haula overskated it in a bang-bang play as Mike Sislo scooped up the puck and turned toward the net. Torchetti seemed to pin blame on him afterward by saying, without naming his name, that they didn't want to take a hit to make a play.

Sislo, who had no goals in 31 career games, scored the first of two goals. I'll give Dubnyk the benefit of doubt on this one. Sislo fanned on the initial shot and the puck just somehow hit his leg and landed back on his stick with Dubnyk already down on the first attempt.

"We played right into them. It was pretty easy for them early," Haula said.

But the third goal was unacceptable and may have turned the entire game.

After that second goal, the Wild didn't give up another shot for like eight minutes. After that second goal, the Wild didn't give up another scoring chance – if you want to consider this a scoring chance since it resulted in a goal – until Reid Boucher made it 3-1.

The Wild made it a game three minutes earlier when Mikael Granlund's shot hit Nino Niederreiter in the thigh for his 17th goal and third goal in three games on the 1-1-1 road trip. The deficit is now 2-1, but Dubnyk couldn't catch a Jon Merrill point shot. Kyle Palmieri poked the loose puck into the crease for Reid Boucher to outmuscle Granlund for the tap-in.

That ended Dubnyk's night.

"Third one's mine," Dubnyk said. "I'll take responsibility for that game getting to where it was. I know there's a lot of game after that, but it's tough when goals are going in. It makes it tougher to play in front of you. I'll take responsibility for that tonight, for sure, and we'll move and we'll all be better next game."

Asked if it was specifically the timing because Niederreiter had just scored to make it a game, Dubnyk concurred, saying, "Everybody's a little tense about the first two. … Get a big power-play goal , you don't want to give up the next one. I have to hang onto that rebound and control the game. That's my job back there and I'll need to be better at that next time."

Darcy Kuemper came in and gave up three of his four goals allowed in the second period. He was charged with the loss, but he was victimized time and again by his teammates. He actually made three or four big saves to keep the game from getting completely out of hand for awhile.

Fourth goal by Smith-Pelly, Matt Dumba turned the puck over behind the net. Fifth goal, Marco Scandella was bumped off the puck by Smith-Pelly and Haula didn't play the body and allowed the puck carrier to drive the center and make a pass to a wide-open Adam Henrique. Sixth goal, Sislo shoots between Suter's legs. Seventh goal, Henrique gets a step on Dumba.

"I don't have an explanation," said Zach Parise, who had one assist and only two shots. "I don't think it's fair to blame any one person. Just all around, not our best game."

Asked about the timing of this loss with the Wild on the outside looking in, Parise shrugged his shoulders and said, "That's the way it's going to be the rest of the year. All losses are going to be tough and bad timing. That's the way it's going to be 'til the last game, last two games."

It looked to me that Thomas Vanek was benched the first part of the third period. He only had one shift the first seven minutes, two by the midway point of the third. But Torchetti said he just missed some reps because David Jones was elevated and because of power plays. There wasn't one the first 11:07 of the third, although a Jason Zucker minor did carry over the first 1:28 of the period.

"We didn't win the battles," Torchetti said. "First goal against, we didn't battle along the wall. Second goal against, we didn't want to take a hit to get a puck and get it around the wall. That's what the game comes down to. Got to have more commitment in those areas. It's a total team concept thing.

"I'm really just disappointed that we would play that way. We've got to play stick on puck through the body, end of subject."

Torchetti said it's actually something the Wild has been doing, saying that in the 16 games he has been coach (9-6-1), "That's the first game we've really lost. We've been in every game, so we've got to get back on board here, get back to work [against Carolina on Saturday]."

Torchetti's in an odd position. He's doing his best to avoid calling anybody out publicly, evading questions tonight on Dubnyk, Parise, Vanek. Behind the scenes, I'm told he has been much more direct, especially with the leadership group. It's very clear he went after Parise in private for the tying goal in Ottawa.

"The whole team has to be better, bottom line," he said.

Amen to that. At least the Wild returns home now. Oh, wait. The Wild's lost 11 of its past 13 in St. Paul.

Kent Youngblood has Friday's practice. My guess is I'll be on my normally-scheduled Friday KFAN appearance with Dan Barreiro before taking in a little NCHC hockey.

Talk to you on here Saturday. Reminder, the Russo-Souhan Show returns to Tom Reid's Hockey City Pub for a special 10 a.m. brunch show Saturday. Incidentally, I have a flight to Chicago on Saturday night after I file from the Carolina game, so the postgame blog will be later than normal.