'We’re Not Choosing The Right Hard, We’re Choosing To Lose': Wild Drop Fifth Game In Last Six

ST. PAUL - The whole mantra heading into the season surrounding this Minnesota Wild (28-17-4) team was the word "hard" and what it means to be hard.

They even created a chain with the word hard written on a plate. The idea is that after every win someone on the team wins the hard chain. It is usually given to the guy who blocks the most shots or who makes a gusty play at the final minutes.

It's the guy who does the little things right that gets rewarded as the player of the game.

These little things are way the Wild started the season 8-1-2 and 18-4-4. These little things are why the Wild were the best team in the league for the start of the season. But all of a sudden they have gone away from the little things.

For whatever reason the Wild have decided to maybe be too cute with it. They are trying to make plays on the perimeter instead of going to the middle or getting bodies in front of the net.

They can't seem to break the puck out before it turns into an odd-man rush the other way. It is sloppy hockey, especially the last two games. And quite frankly, it doest make sense.

"I don't know. I don't think our game is ideal at all," Jakub Lauko said after Saturday's 5-4 loss. "We need to start with fundamentals again. We don't have a good forecheck. We don't have a good backcheck. We’re losing pucks on the bluelines. We’re not hard in front of the nets. We need a big hard reset and go back to what made us great in the first half."

The Wild gave up five high danger chances off the rush, according to what I tracked. They would usually give up five in a two or a three game span. Not all in one game.

It is one thing to give up an odd-man rush like the one above. But you shouldn't allow your goaltender to try and make three saves in seven seconds while everyone puck watches. Right?

"I think it's multiple (things)," Wild head coach John Hynes said on the defensive lapses. "Some of the goals that we've given up and then more perimeter hockey from an offensive perspective and an unwillingness to shoot and play direct. We know what the recipe is for us to be a really good team and to play that. We haven't had it in the last two nights."

Sure defensive lapses happen. Teams can go in dry spells where they can't defend or maybe they can't score as much as they were. But to completely ditch your identity as being a hard team to play against and centering the entire team around the world hard, that is odd.

In the second period there was a scrum in front of the net. Rasmus Andersson took a shot at Marc-Andre Fleury and Fleury had gave it back.

They both got penalties. Why does it take Fleury to stand up for himself. Why isn't someone else stepping up like Calgary's Ryan Lomberg did when he fought Lauko after Lauko hit Kevin Bahl into the boards from behind?

The Flames railed around what Lomberg did. He stuck up for his teammates and sparked a road win against the Wild.

"I’d like to see us have more pushback, to be honest with you," Hynes said on his take of Fleury being punched. "I think that that part of our team, if you talk again about work ethic and competitiveness, like I think we just kinda took that. I didn’t see much response from that. Those are all those little things that draw a team together, that becomes hard to play against, the willingness to do that. I didn’t like that part of it."

Andersson came out of the box and minutes later scored on the power play to give the Flames a 3-1 lead. Who got the last laugh?

The Flames have some big guns. Guys who can get on the scoresheet and help their team win. But on Saturday it was the depth players who stepped up. Three goals from their fourth line helped.

Martin Pospisil scored his third of the year, Clark Bishop scored his first of the year, and Andrei Kuzmenko got his third and fourth of the year.

Hynes was asked whether or not if the zero pushback is surprising to him considering it was there when they were 18-4-4.

"Therein lies the answer to my first, to really my first response. We know what it is. But you know what? Winning simple is hard. You gotta choose your hard. And right now we’re not choosing our hard the right way, and it’s costing us games," Hynes said. "So it’s hard to win. It’s hard to lose. Now we’re sitting here answering these questions. Everyone wants to say they don’t feel good. At the end of the day, you choose your hard.

"And right now, we’re not choosing the right hard. So now we’re choosing to lose. Right? That’s hard. Losing’s not easy. Winning’s not easy. We gotta get back to the commitment level that it takes to win. The mentality, the fire, the competitiveness, the depth in the lineup. Right now it’s not enough. It’s not enough."

It is a quick turnaround for the Wild. They are back in action on Sunday night against the Chicago Blackhawks. Maybe it is a good thing they are heading to the road for the next five games.

Despite being 11-12-1 on home ice, the Wild are 17-5-3 on the road and have the best road record in the entire NHL.

“Yeah, for sure. It’s kind of dumb that we’re looking at the road as a positive," Fleury said. "But there’s no easy nights so there will be tough games on the road, too, lot of good teams there. But we have a lot of home games until the end of the season and we have to figure our stuff out.”

Winning on the road is hard. Winning at home is hard as well but it is seen as a disadvantage when you go on the road. To Fleury's point, it is dumb that this team sees the road as a positive thing.

Usually it's, hey at least you're at home for the next five games. But right now that isn't the case. This is the time of the season where the NHL finds out which teams are serious and which ones aren't.

It is safe to say the Wild need to get it together at home before it is too late.

"Good time to go on the road, Yeah, but we need to start winning games at home and especially against teams from our conference and our division," Lauko said. "That's something we need to start working on from tomorrow and, you know, just get it going again."

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