ST. PAUL - Mike Yeo gathered his players before an optional practice Monday and shared a simple message for the hottest team in the National Hockey League.
“Sixty-nine points won’t get us in the playoffs,” Yeo told the Wild.
Despite their NHL-best 11-2-1 record since the all-star break and first sudden appearance in the top 8 since November, the Wild vowed to retain the sense of urgency that has, for the moment, turned their fortunes.
Throughout Yeo’s four-year tenure, his teams have performed best when desperate. So despite a hot streak that has them in the playoff picture, and the lowly Edmonton Oilers next on the schedule, Yeo said it’s no time to get cocky.
“I think our backs are still against the wall,” he said. “It’s a logjam in the Western Conference.”
Two teams - San Jose and Calgary - are within a point of the Wild and the last wild-card spot. But suddenly, Winnipeg, the top wild-card team, is just two points ahead. Slumping Chicago is only six points ahead, and Minnesota has two games in hand on the Jets and one on the Blackhawks.
That makes the standings - posted every day in the Wild’s dressing room - much more pleasant to look at than, say, six weeks ago, when they were 12th in the conference.
“It makes it a lot easier for everyone,” Jason Pominville said. “When you walk in, it just kind of puts a smile on your face when you see that you’re in.”
In a corner of the Wild locker room is a board that the team uses to mount pucks from games they’ve won. Thanks to a 13-3-2 record since acquiring goalie Devan Dubnyk on Jan. 14, it has filled up fast.
“It seems like they’ve all appeared in not too long,” Pominville said.
Much of that success has come from a lineup that has had a multitude of contributors, despite recent injuries to Matt Cooke, Jason Zucker, Ryan Carter and Jared Spurgeon.
Yeo can’t remember exactly when he thought about separating Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu and Thomas Vanek to three different lines. It was some time around the Feb. 16 game in Vancouver, he said.
In the team’s past three games, all Wild wins, all but Pominville, Ryan Suter and Erik Haula have recorded a point.
“As far as spreading the wealth, or balancing things out with the pieces we have right now, we just felt it was something we were capable of doing,” Yeo said. “Not necessarily having two scoring lines or loading up a top line.”
The Wild, though, recognize that, just because their ascension in the standings has them in a wild-card position, there are still seven weeks until the end of the season.
“Last I checked, the West is packed. It’s a dogfight,” defenseman Matt Dumba said. “It’s not like there are five or 10 more games left; there are still 23 games left. You’ve got to battle for every one of those. It’s playoff hockey from here on out.”
Suddenly, the 94-point pace estimated to earn a playoff spot in the West seems manageable. By that math, a 12-10-1 record to close the season would earn the Wild the eighth seed; a 13-9-1 record likely earns them the seventh seed.
“We’re going to have to continue at a real good pace; that’s the challenge right now,” Yeo said. “I think that we’ve had a real urgency to our game, and it hasn’t been real difficult to have it with the fact that we’ve been on the outside looking in and the fact that we knew we had to catch teams.
“The importance of every game, every point in the standings, hasn’t changed. Just because we’re in a better spot today, that stuff hasn’t changed. I think that our guys have a pretty good understanding of that.”
Notes: Spurgeon will miss his third straight game Tuesday, Yeo said, but has not been ruled out for Thursday at Nashville. Spurgeon has been out since catching a puck to the chin Feb. 17 in Calgary. ... Dubnyk is set to make his 18th straight start Tuesday. In five previous games against his former team, he is 5-0 with a .970 save percentage and a 0.79 goals-against average.
The Pioneer Press is a media partner with Forum News Service.
