Scoggins: Wild wonder why they trend up when they travel and sink into discomfort at home

Kate Flannery, the actress who played Meredith on the TV show “The Office,” handled the Wild’s pregame “Let’s Play Hockey” chant Thursday night.

What took place after the puck dropped might have caused her more angst than being hit by Michael Scott’s car or having Dwight Schrute trap a bat on her head with a plastic bag.

The Wild allowed a goal less than two minutes into the game, skated like zombies the rest of the period and continued an alarming trend of laying an egg on home ice.

Within the team’s surprising success lies a conundrum.

The Wild are great on the road, often terrible at home.

What gives?

“I wish I knew,” winger Mats Zuccarello said. “I don’t have a good answer for you.”

“I really can’t put a finger on it,” winger Marcus Foligno said.

“There’s lot of positive things going on,” coach John Hynes said, “but obviously this is one that we have to dig into and come up with some solutions for it because it’s not good enough.”

A 4-0 loss to the Utah Hockey Club was the latest head-scratcher.

The Wild had every reason to come storming out of the gates. They were coming off an inspired win in Colorado. Kirill Kaprizov returned to the lineup after lengthy injury absence. Same with captain Jared Spurgeon.

The situation was ripe for a raucous night that fueled an inspired performance. Instead, the opposite happened.

The Wild’s energy and body language resembled a flat tire, which turned the arena quieter than a Sunday sermon.

“We weren’t emotionally engaged in the game,” Hynes said. “We didn’t have the energy, the required competitiveness that you need to have. The execution, the speed. We can go down the list of what it is.”

The concerning part is that this wasn’t an anomaly of being one bad night. The Wild have lost six games at home by a margin of at least three goals and are 11-11-1 overall at Xcel Energy Center.

On the flip side, the Wild own the NHL’s best record on the road at 17-5-3.

Figure that one out.

“It feels like we play more difficult here at home and it just doesn’t work,” goalie Filip Gustavsson said. “On the road, we play simple, fast and it’s just been working for us. It stinks for the fans to not see us win.”

Yeah, that’s a bummer and is clearly becoming a source of frustration based on the boos at the end of the second and third periods. Wild fans are loyal, but patience isn’t limitless.

The great Jacques Lemaire hatched a plan during the Wild’s 2003 playoff run to limit distractions that arise when playing at home. Lemaire had his players stay in a hotel the night before home games in the Colorado series.

Heck, another stinker like Thursday and maybe drastic measures will be required.

“We need more from just our attitude,” Foligno said. “Coming in at home, it just seems tough to find. On the road, it’s always there. And here … I don’t know. Never been in a situation like that. We’ve always been a really good home team. We’ve got to figure it out here soon because it’s a place that we need to make it tough for opponents to play.”

The other concerning matter is the recent play of Gustavsson, who has turned leaky after a masterful start to his season. He has allowed 23 goals in his past five starts while also dealing with an illness.

The goals allowed are not entirely his fault, of course. The defensive support in front of him has caved, largely because of key injuries along the blue line. Hynes hammered home that point in biting criticism after the Utah loss.

“We can’t be any softer at the net front than we were tonight,” he said. “I’m not even talking about goaltending tonight. I’m talking about what happened in front of him.”

He was right. Blaming the goalie would send a bad message when nobody in uniform met the standard. But Gustavsson looked anything but comfortable in net.

“It’s just tough because it feels like we practice hard and try to do the right thing and then it just doesn’t translate right now to the game,” he said.

A five-game road trip is looming next week, which ordinarily might look like a dangerous spot in the schedule, except the Wild have weird splits. March is stocked with 11 home games, including seven in a row in one stretch. That’s appealing, if they figure out whatever is causing their struggles at home.

They get another crack at it Saturday against Calgary. The Wild were booed after their no-show vs. Utah. If they don’t hit the ice breathing fire, that disgruntlement will only intensify.