For Minnesota Wild, the Central Division is central indeed

In a show of how much they’ve changed, the Wild are conquering their demons from last season.

They have had the opposite of a slow start, rising to rank among the best in the NHL and staying there a month into the schedule.

Their much-maligned penalty kill is making strides, on a 15-for-15 run, and the team is once again getting depth scoring behind Kirill Kaprizov as he contends for the league lead.

But to really turn the page on the past, the Wild will have to stack up against the Central Division, and that opportunity returns Saturday vs. the Dallas Stars at Xcel Energy Center in what will be the Wild’s most revealing matchup to date.

“You gotta show up against those teams,” alternate captain Marcus Foligno said, “and just prove that last year was last year and you’ve moved on.”

Of all the gaffes the Wild made last season, their performance against the division might have been the most troubling.

They were clobbered by Colorado, Dallas and Winnipeg, going a combined 0-10-1 vs. the top three playoff-bound teams in the Central while getting outscored 51-21. The Avalanche pestered them early and then late to help extinguish the Wild’s flickering postseason hopes. Twice the Wild lost by five goals to the Stars, and the Jets halted two of the Wild’s better stretches of hockey (including a four-game win streak).

Ultimately, these mismatches were a microcosm of what was wrong with the Wild: They struggled to keep the puck out of their net, and they couldn’t outscore their mistakes.

This disconnect flared in the special-teams battle, with the Wild giving up 13 power-play goals in the 11 games and scoring 11 themselves. The five goals given up by the penalty kill in an 8-3 drubbing by Dallas set a franchise record.

“It started off early in the games, and our confidence was shot,” Foligno said. “It snowballed from there.”

Learning from these lessons is how the Wild can level the playing field, and already they have made improvements.

Only one team (go figure, the Stars) has surrendered fewer goals than the Wild’s 38, and goaltender Filip Gustavsson is among NHL leaders in wins (eight), goals-against average (2.08) and save percentage (.924) after blanking the Canadiens 3-0 on Thursday night for his first shutout.

The Wild offense has been opportunistic, led by Kaprizov’s 30 points (which are second in the league) and Matt Boldy’s clutch finishes; five of his 10 goals have been game-winners, which paces the league. But the Wild have had 12 other players score, and all their roster regulars have at least a point.

They will be without Mats Zuccarello for about a month after the veteran winger had surgery for a lower-body injury incurred when he was hit with a shot on Thursday.

“We’re playing a strong, connected team game,” coach John Hynes said. “We’re playing connected in all areas of the ice, obviously our defensive zone through the neutral zone. I think our offensive-zone game we’re playing as a five-man unit.

“The guys are paying attention to details of the structure that you need.”

They’re also much more disciplined, the 45 penalties they’ve committed the third-fewest.

“If you’re out of position, you can’t dive in at a guy,” Hynes said. “You can’t go at guys’ hands, and just those little things, I think, have helped us take less penalties. That’s something we knew needed to be better coming into this year and have harped on it.”

Based on their first game against Winnipeg, the Wild should be much more competitive vs. their rivals.

Despite completing a back-to-back and missing captain Jared Spurgeon and center Joel Eriksson Ek because of injury, the Wild turned in a gutsy effort to keep the Jets in check until they capitalized on an overtime power play for a 2-1 victory on Oct. 13.

“We played great,” Gustavsson recalled. “We were right with them there; OT power-play goal got them two points. We got one. Yeah, it’s going to be fun to see where we are.”

The Wild are one of only five teams to earn at least a point against Winnipeg, with the Jets the fastest to 15 victories in NHL history.

That’s right: While the Wild have been one of the most impressive upstarts, their 11-2-3 turnaround has taken a backseat to Winnipeg’s unprecedented run. And Dallas? The Stars are 10-5 and sit only five points back of the Wild.

Welcome to life in the Central Division.

“Our division I think has always been one of the top divisions in the league every year,” said Foligno, who already feels the season is mimicking 2021-22, when the team’s highest win and point totals on record slotted them to second place in the division and a first-round playoff matchup vs. St. Louis that the Wild lost in six games.

Still, it seems like time for the Wild to get a gauge against other high-ranking teams.

A victory counts the same whether it’s against a contender or a bottom-feeder, but the Wild haven’t played someone with more wins than them since they squared off against the Lightning on Nov. 1 and prevailed 5-3 — this after they upended Tampa Bay and defending Stanley Cup champion Florida the previous week, the latter a 5-1 dismantling of the Panthers that’s still the Wild’s signature game of the season.

But their last test against a neighbor in the standings was their most uncharacteristic performance, a 5-1 stinker vs. Los Angeles on Nov. 5.

“Whatever team you’re playing, the best in the league, the worst in the league, division or not, you just gotta show the best version,” center Frederick Gaudreau said.

If they do that Saturday, the implications will be significant: Not only will the Wild keep distancing themselves from last season, but they’ll validate their start as more than them taking advantage of lesser opponents.

“Measuring stick game,” Foligno said. “It’s like playing against Florida or Tampa. You just gotta … be patient, be smart. We know last year was not a lot of fun against these guys, so we gotta try to make amends for that.”