ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Wild (34-28-9) started their six-game homestand on Saturday afternoon by blowing another one-goal, third-period lead en route to a 5-4 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues (38-30-3) inside Xcel Energy Center, which no doubt caused their playoff odds to significantly drop even further.
The Wild sit four points back of the eighth-place Vegas Golden Knights, who have two games in hand on Minnesota, with the next four days off. When the Wild return next Thursday to continue their homestand against the San Jose Sharks, they could potentially be 10 points behind Vegas with just 11 games remaining this season.
The Wild's playoffs odds are at 8.4 percent after Saturday's loss, according to MoneyPuck.com, and those odds will likely be even lower when they return.
Simply put, the Wild's margin of error is minimal the rest of the season and their playoff odds are bleak.
“It’s tough,” Marcus Johansson said. “We needed two points and we only got one, and that’s frustrating. It’s tough to see the positive right now. We came out with the lead in the third and we lose the game. So, it’s very frustrating, very tough.
“We’re putting everything out there every night, and this was a tough one.”
The Wild’s biggest problem has been their reoccurring issues: blown third-period leads and an inability to beat Central Division clubs, or teams in front of them in the Western Conference.
That was no different on Saturday as the Wild entered the third period with a 3-2 lead on the strength of a pair of Marco Rossi goals and Johansson's first tally in nine games. Instead of getting within three points of the Golden Knights and rebounding after a costly 6-0 shutout loss to the L.A. Kings on Wednesday, the Wild wasted yet another opportunity to gain ground in the West wild-card race.
Jordan Kyrou scored twice in the third period to complete the hat trick and Brandon Saad won the game — which happened to be former Wild draft pick Nick Leddy's 1,000th game — in overtime after Brock Faber scored his seventh goal and 40th point this season late to salvage the Wild a point.
“Obviously, it's better than nothing, but still we needed two,” said Marc-Andre Fleury, who made 22 saves.
The Wild are now 3-11-2 this season against the likes of the Blues, Nashville Predators, Winnipeg Jets, Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche. They've blown six third-period leads since Dec. 31, equaling nine points lost. And they've lost key games, including all three contests against the Blues this month and Wednesday's contest in Los Angeles.
“We're confident in the group we have, in the team we have and it's professional sport,” Faber said. “It's not about the height at the moment.
“We've all played in big moments. But yeah, they’re 3-1 against us. So at the end of the day, they've played better hockey when it matters most. And It's unfortunate, but again, we're still confident in the group we have.”
This four-day lull is good and bad news for the Wild. The good news is they can rest and hopefully Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin can return next Thursday. The bad news is that they will likely be further behind in the standings. At this point, the Wild's only hope is to win the two games they have left this season against Vegas, including next Saturday.
“Four days off can be huge for us,” Rossi said. “We get away from hockey, a free mind, and then coming back we know what's on the line.”
Added Wild coach John Hynes: “We have a couple days where the guys can get away from it a little bit, and I think that is important this time of year.
“We also have a couple real quality practice days prior to playing again. So, it’s to get away from it, but you can’t do anything about it during that stretch, and I think the best thing is continue to focus on what we can do and what we can control and continue to try to push ourselves as we have been for a while now here, and that’s all we can do.”
Make sure you bookmark The Hockey News' Minnesota Wild page for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns and so much more