Wild rolling, trying to gain ground

You may remember a blog entry last month where I essentially ripped the Minnesota Wild to shreds in a lengthy tale of poor goaltending, frustration and a coach's tirade.

What a difference an All-Star Break makes.

Since the Wild came back from the Break in late January, they've built a five-game winning streak in front of newly-acquired goaltender Devan Dubnyk. Some trades are just the spark teams need. I'm thinking of the Twins grabbing Shannon Stewart in 2003 on their way to a division title.

Duby has quickly become a fan favorite and has already notched four shutouts in nine games for the Wild. He's been a welcome change in goal, after Niklas Backstrom and Darcy Kuemper struggled mightily in recent weeks. To keep going back to baseball, you need good goaltending to win in hockey just like you need good pitching in baseball.

Healthy, improving players lead to wins
The Wild swept a three-game Canadian swing for the second time in its history with wins in Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. It shutout the Chicago Blackhawks 3-0 at home last week. The Hawks looked like they weren't firing on all cylinders after the break, but still. The Wild played a great game.

Zach Parise still continues to produce goals, Charlie Coyle has made a couple strides in the right direction and Jason Zucker's speed hasn't gone away. I think I heard Zucker is ninth in the NHL when it comes to even-strength goals. He can beat just about anybody in a foot race.

The team is pretty much healthy again, too. Well, except for Keith Ballard and now Matt Cooke. Ballard is probably out for the season after a nasty hit earlier (I think he might call it a career, actually.), and Cooke just had surgery for a sports hernia. He might be back in time for a late-season push. He's had an injury-filled season, which is too bad.

But the Wild had healthy defensemen, which is huge considering the mumps, injuries and the flu kept at least one guy out of the lineup nightly earlier this year. It's nice to have all that nasty junk behind them, we hope.

Here we go again? Maybe.
Always making things interesting, the Wild were in a similar position last year. They limped through December and early January only to rattle off a bunch of wins to get themselves into the playoff picture. They're trying to get back to the playoffs this year, obviously, but I think many would agree that this time might be different.

The Wild dug themselves a very deep hole in January. I still believe it's one of the lowest points in the team's history, simply because confidence was so low and nobody seemed to have the answer to get out of the slump. The Western Conference is good, captain obvious says, and the teams the Wild are chasing are powerhouses.

All about that two points
So how do you gain ground? Chip away with two points of your own. It's cliche for players to not get into scoreboard watching. Cliches exist for a reason. The Wild need to build on the confidence they've gained from the win streak and just keep getting two points. They've put themselves in a situation where you can't look at other teams and hope they'll falter.

You got yourselves into this mess, Wild players, now you get yourselves out of it.

I'll admit I'm doubtful they can do it. Even with their recent winning ways, I just have a feeling that this hole is too deep to scratch out from.