The Minnesota Wild's schedule right now is a double-edged sword.
The Wild lost 8-3 to the Dallas Stars Sunday and don't play again until their back-to-back Saturday and Sunday against the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs, respectively, in Sweden as part of the NHL Global Series.
Then, after Sunday, the Wild have four more days off before facing the Colorado Avalanche at home Friday, Nov. 24.
Yes, that's just three games in 13 days.
This can be seen as both positive and negative. On one hand, it provides more time to practice and rest, but this much time away from real action could also prove to be challenge come game time. Not to mention for a team that has struggled with slow starts so far this season and has trailed 479 minutes and 48 seconds, second to the San Jose Sharks at 483 minutes and 29 seconds.
"Yeah, I mean, you certainly (would) like to play and get it out of you," head coach Dean Evason said in a response to The Hockey News' question after Monday's practice inside Tria Rink.
"But then on the flip side, it's nice to have some practice days. We didn't do any special teams today. But we mentioned to the group that the next two practices are going to be heavily weighted into our special teams."
The sixth-place Wild in the Central Division would like a chance early this week to get a win so their latest defeat is behind them, but since they don't have that luxury, their only other option is to turn to heavy special teams' emphasis.
Special teams, of course, have been the major culprit behind the Wild's slow 5-8-2 start this season, which includes three straight losses and nine in their past 12 games. So, perhaps this extra time will help them get back on track.
Which is extra true for their league-worst penalty kill at 63.5 percent.
"We've talked extensively about our penalty kill systematic that we will be changing again, some stuff, and that's what we have to try to do, right?" Evason continued. "Yesterday's gone, so we need to move forward, but we need to change something or do something. ...
"We've got to try to change some stuff up so that we're giving the players, the team hopefully the confidence and the structure to get the job done on our penalty kill and obviously on our power play as well."
The Wild also have to be more willing to sacrifice on the penalty kill like blocking more shots and the ability to both clear pucks from in front of their net and restrict the opposing forwards from getting inside position on them — both of which caused trouble for them in their loss Sunday to Dallas.
"We have to do a better job in those areas to get that puck that's sitting there out of that dangerous area as opposed to them putting it in our net," Evason said.
All data via Natural Stat Trick