Wilderness Walk: Wild Lay Down And Lose

The team that has prided itself on being a hard-working, nose-to-the-grindstone team, has really just given up on the whole thing. It is true that the Minnesota Wild are half of the team that they expected to be with injuries piling up like none other, but the effort put out on the ice is just nothing.

On Thursday night it was another nothing and they lost 4-1 to the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning. Now that the team sits below .500 and several teams are between them and a playoff spot, maybe now we can just all relax knowing that we will most likely be experiencing a spring without Minnesota playoff hockey. It's better to get used to it now. It would be much worse if we had the false hope.

That's Wild

• Injuries have caused a lot of issues for the Wild, but more than anything, they are exposing the holes in the team's competitive strategy. [Hockey Wilderness]
• Ryan Hartman's high stick in the face of Cole Perfetti has caused some uproar and it got extremely heated on a recent Sportsnet broadcast because of it. [Hockey Wilderness]
• And speaking of Ryan Hartman, the forward had to leave Thursday's game with an injury but thankfully returned. Last thing we needed was another player out of the lineup. [SI]

Off the trail...

• The first 32 players have been named for this year's All-Star Weekend in Toronto and Kirill Kaprizov is the Wild's representative. [ESPN]
• The 2024 Winter Classic had some local flair. [NBC Sports]
• I still can't believe Patrik Stefan missed the net. [Defector]