These next four days could be telling ones for the Minnesota Wild.
Already losers of four straight in regulation, the Wild play tonight in Anaheim (on NBCSN), tomorrow in Los Angeles and Saturday in San Jose.
The Ducks are 6-3-1 in their last 10. The Kings are 7-2-1. The Sharks are 6-3-1.
The Wild? They’re 3-5-2.
But you don’t have to tell coach Mike Yeo what the situation has become, or what it could become. He’s fully aware, thank you very much.
“I’m not sitting here saying, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe what’s going on,’” Yeo told reporters. “This is what we have to deal with, so we deal with it. We would have liked to have had a mulligan on the last three weeks, but I don’t think they’re going to give us that.”
The Wild return home from California to play Arizona on Monday, then it’s the All-Star break. After that, they hit the road again for games at the Islanders, Rangers, and Blues.
Though Minnesota is still in decent shape standings-wise...
...with the upcoming schedule the Wild are facing, the players understand there’s the potential for things to get pretty uncomfortable.
“We can’t wait around until it’s desperation time,” said goalie Devan Dubnyk. “It needs to be desperation time now.”