The Wild would need to collapse in a fairly calamitous way to miss out on the postseason. Heading into tonight’s home game with the Rangers, Minnesota held down the first wild-card spot in the West, three points up on the other current wild-card team (Dallas), and four points clear of the first team on the outside looking in (Phoenix), and with a game in hand on the Coyotes.
According to Sports Club Stats, the Wild have an 83.2 percent chance of making the playoffs.
Comfortable, right?
But here’s what’s worrying -- Minnesota’s remaining schedule is a beast, with road games in places like Boston, New Jersey, Detroit, St. Louis, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Chicago. And that’s not to mention home games versus the likes of Pittsburgh, Boston, and St. Louis. All of them with a likely goaltending tandem of rookie Darcy Kuemper, who’s looked a bit shaky lately, and wild-card veteran Ilya Bryzgalov.
On Tuesday, the Wild blew a 3-0 lead in Edmonton, losing 4-3 to the woeful Oilers in a shootout. After a five-game winning streak, it was the third straight contest Minnesota had failed to win.
“Those things happen from time to time,” said coach Mike Yeo, per the StarTribune. “We have to have the mentality this time of year that we can’t let it happen anymore.
“It doesn’t matter whether we won, we lost, shootout or overtime, whatever, we have to come to the rink every day trying to get better. When we’re doing that, when we’re on top of our game, that’s when we’ll start to see things start to come together and start to see consistency in our game.”
After hosting the Rangers tonight, the Wild have another home game Saturday versus Columbus, before heading out on the road to play the Bruins, Islanders, and Devils.
