The Wild reassembled for practice Monday at Xcel Energy Center after having Sunday off on the heels of a grim 6-1 loss to the Stars Saturday night in Dallas.
And while the defeat certainly shined a spotlight on a few areas the team needs to clean up, coach Bruce Boudreau isn't viewing that performance as an indictment on how the Wild has played overall lately.
"I don't want to use that game as a barometer," he said. "We've been doing pretty good up to that point. Now it's time to bounce back."
That rout was just the Wild's second regulation loss in its last 10 games and with the Avalanche losing that day as well, the team didn't fall out of a playoff position.
But ensuring this is an isolated incident rather than the beginning of a spiral down the standings is key and the team's next challenge when it visits the Blues Tuesday in St. Louis.
"Gotta paly better," Boudreau said. "I don't know if there's anything profound about anything. It's just gotta play better and find a way to win."
Improving the penalty kill could help that objective.
Dallas converted on both of its power plays Saturday, the fourth consecutive game the Wild's unit has surrendered at least a goal.
Again, this is a problem spot that requires attention but one that isn't as worrisome as it may appear in Boudreau's eyes.
"I don't want to say that we don't need to fix it because we do," he explained. "But at the same time, the Pittsburgh game, two of them we put in our own net. The Vegas game at home one goes off somebody's butt. Every little thing is going wrong.
"The zone time, they're not killing us except the one power play they had last game in zone time. It's just that everything being shot at this stage is not working out for us. So I think it's a little bit of confidence but you get that back on track, and you'll be fine."
