NASHVILLE – Not even a week ago — last Saturday — the Wild trailed the Predators by only two points for a playoff spot.
What a difference two games make.
Or rather two losses.
The Wild dropped eight points back of a playoff spot after the Predators blitzed the Wild twice in eight seconds before running away 6-1 on Thursday at Bridgestone Arena to pick up their seventh victory in a row.
"You could arguably say tonight we got what we deserved," coach John Hynes said. "We didn't put enough in the game that gives you a chance to win this time of year, and you saw the end result."
Not only did the Wild give up the fastest two goals in team history, the meltdown came less than a minute after they scored themselves.
They capitalized first when center Connor Dewar buried a Brandon Duhaime rebound behind Nashville goalie Juuse Saros 9 minutes, 51 seconds into the first period.
This was Dewar's second goal in as many games and fourth this season vs. the Predators; his hat trick headlined the Wild's 6-1 rout at Nashville on Nov. 30.
But two poor shifts prevented the Wild from protecting that lead, let alone extending it.
"We unfortunately didn't have the competitive spirit that you need to have to win," Hynes said, "and that was in all areas of the game."
Only 49 seconds after Dewar's goal, Yakov Trenin deflected in a Roman Josi centering feed. Then a botched clear by the Wild after the ensuing faceoff ended up deep in their zone where fourth-liner Cole Smith stuffed the puck by goaltender Filip Gustavsson's right pad to flip a 1-0 deficit for the Predators into a 2-1 advantage in a breezy eight seconds.
Until then, the quickest pair of goals surrendered by the Wild had taken 10 seconds.
"It's very disappointing," Gustavsson said. "We knew this was a very important game for us. This is the team we're chasing, and we didn't show up today. Nothing worked for us. They got two good bounces in the first period there, and then after that I don't think we ever really recovered."
The Wild blew three power plays after also going 0-for-3 in the 3-2 loss to the Hurricanes on Tuesday. Two of those opportunities came before the Predators converted on their second and final power play with 2:05 left in the second period, a Filip Forsberg shot set up by Josi.
"Deflating, for sure," defenseman Jake Middleton said.
Just 1:32 into the third, Josi snagged a third point when he banked a shot in off Gustavsson from near the goal line.
At 8:03, the blowout continued when former Wild forward Gustav Nyquist dished the puck to Ryan O'Reilly for a one-timer before St. Paul's Ryan McDonagh tacked on a sixth goal at 13:57.
Gustavsson finished with 25 saves. Saros had 33 stops while improving to 8-3 in his career against the Wild, who had Zach Bogosian back in the lineup after he missed the previous three games with an injury.
As for the Wild's top line of Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy, they went pointless for a second straight game.
The Wild will get another crack at the Predators on March 10 at Xcel Energy Center, but there's no guarantee that game will have as much at stake as this one did.
"We just got to take it game by game here," winger Mats Zuccarello said. "We gotta fight and do what we can and see where we end up."
A regulation win would have propelled the Wild within four points of Nashville, a much easier distance to cover than eight. Los Angeles won 5-1 at Vancouver later Thursday night and also is eight points ahead of the Wild for a wild card.
Plus, there's the Wild's track record inside the Central Division.
This loss sunk them to 5-10 against their rivals, and three of their next four games before that rematch with the Predators are vs. the Central, beginning with a showdown at St. Louis on Saturday.
"We're going to address some areas, and we should be a hungrier, harder team coming into Saturday," Hynes said. "That's what we're going to look forward to doing."
