Wild players air out issues, plot way forward during growing losing streak

The final horn wasn't all that adjourned the Wild from the ice Saturday night.

"The crowd had every right to boo us," goaltender Filip Gustavsson said.

But getting an earful from the fans wasn't the only fallout from a 6-0 pasting by Arizona at Xcel Energy Center.

Wild players held a lengthy closed-door meeting after the loss, their fourth in a row and eighth in their past nine games, and the damage from that slide is reflected in the standings where the team has once again fallen way behind the playoff pace in the Western Conference.

"Sometimes you go through stretches like this where we feel like nothing's working and then that's why you have to believe in each other, give each other confidence," winger Mats Zuccarello said. "That's the only way to get out of it."

During a week filled with blowouts — the Wild were walloped by at least four goals all but once in their four games — this one was the most lopsided.

They surrendered three goals in the first period, including two on the power play and another off a turnover. The Coyotes scored twice in the second, with Blaine native Nick Bjugstad completing a hat trick against his former team.

Then Arizona's Clayton Keller added the exclamation point, a first-minute breakaway in the third period, to a shellacking that spoiled the returns of Gustavsson and winger Kirill Kaprizov from injury. The Wild sent center Nic Petan back to Iowa in the American Hockey League on Sunday.

"We got off to a tough start," Zuccarello said, "and it was hard to come back."

When the Wild capitalize first, they're 13-2-4 and when they don't, they're a paltry 4-18-1. And if they exit the first period ahead, they're even more dominant, going 10-1. If they're chasing, they're 3-15-3.

"We got to keep the puck out of the net," Zuccarello said. "I think that's the most important thing. We gotta find a way. Offense is going to come, but you can't win when you don't defend the right way, and we haven't done that as a team.

"I think every guy in here feels that they can be better and help the team more, and that's just how it is."

The seriousness of this plight was captured in the players' decision to have a postgame talk; the lone point they picked up last week was a 4-3 overtime loss to Philadelphia on Friday after the Wild blew a two-goal lead in the third period.

"Air some things out, how everyone feels, and then we find a way to make it better," Zuccarello said. "A lot of this game is about confidence and believing in each other, helping each other out, and I think we're gonna get back to that, building each other up. It's not gonna get better by digging a hole for ourselves and feel sorry for ourselves.

"You gotta step up and be better."

There's no shortage of opportunity to do that.

After finishing this homestand on Monday vs. the New York Islanders, the Wild will rattle off six games in 10 days before their bye week and the All-Star break begin at the end of the month.

But they have quite a bit of ground to make up after undoing the progress they achieved after starting 11-3 under coach John Hynes.

They were only two points back of the final wild-card berth on Dec. 27 after a 7-1 run.

Now, three of the teams that were trailing them have leapfrogged the Wild and they're eight points shy of the last playoff spot. Their closest competition, the Coyotes, have a five-point lead.

"They have pride," Hynes said. "We want to perform better. We want to win more. But you can't just go to the drugstore and get confidence. Confidence is built through your preparation. It's built through your performance."