TORONTO – The Wild are just two games into their season, but they are already planning on revamping their defense.
A rout will do that, especially the 7-4 shelling dished out by the Maple Leafs on Saturday at Scotiabank Arena that was actually flattering at times to the Wild despite the lopsided finish.
"It really doesn't feel like a beatdown that we got tonight," Marcus Foligno said. "But we've got to regroup."
What the Wild did get was a lesson: make mistakes against the NHL's top scorers, and they will stuff them in the back of the net.
Case in point: Auston Matthews became only the fifth player in league history to score a hat trick in his first two games of the season after he and William Nylander (two goals and an assist) blitzed the Wild in the third period after a back-breaking tally by Calle Jarnkrok.
"You give those guys an inch, and they'll take it," Foligno said. "That's the difference. We've got to understand. It's early, but we need to know our identity and we got away from it."
Marco Rossi batted in his first NHL goal 9 minutes, 51 seconds into the second period to cut the deficit to 4-3 and galvanize the Wild, who peppered Toronto goalie Ilya Samsonov (28 saves) with shots in the third — including Rossi, who nearly delivered the equalizer with a look in tight.
"It feels really good," Rossi said. "I had so many chances, too. It was important for me to stick with it and just keep going."
But an unsportsmanlike penalty against veteran defenseman Alex Goligoski in the third period for criticizing the officiating stalled that momentum.
"You can't take [a] stupid, really stupid, bad penalty, and Goose knows it," coach Dean Evason said. "We addressed it, but it can't happen. Can't happen in Game 2, and it can't happen moving forward."
Barely a minute after the Wild were back to full strength, their only successful penalty kill in three attempts, Jarnkrok buried a crushing insurance goal at 9:54.
"Obviously just an undisciplined game by us," Goligoski said.
By 10:25, Matthews capped off his hat trick with a wraparound and another 1:49 later, Nylander wired in the exclamation point before a Brandon Duhaime goal with 2:28 left replaced it with a period.
But the meaning didn't change.
"Do we have to be more resilient? Sure," Evason said. "But we've got to be careful to not shoot ourselves in the foot."
To make matters worse for the Wild, Matt Boldy — who started the Wild's rally from a 4-1 hole with a rising shot at 4:09 in the second — left midway through the third period.
His last shift included a hit from Toronto's Morgan Rielly.
"When a guy doesn't come back in a game, then it's obviously more serious than we want it to be," Evason said.
Frederick Gaudreau didn't finish the first period after getting leveled by former Wild forward Ryan Reaves, who fought Foligno in the aftermath. Gaudreau had the wind knocked out of him and is fine but was pulled by the concussion spotter. He returned for the second.
Already the Wild are missing captain Jared Spurgeon (upper-body injury), and his absence was noticeable against Toronto.
After a Ryan Hartman deflection 9:32 into the first, the Wild surrendered three in a row before the period ended.
Matthews was left alone in front (10:54) before banking in a shot off the far post on the power play (12:35); the Wild's power play went 0-for-1. Then with 23 seconds to go, Nylander cut to the middle and stuffed the puck behind Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson, who followed up his 41-save shutout in the season-opening 2-0 victory over Florida on Thursday with 26 stops.
A power play goal from Tyler Bertuzzi 3:35 into the second exacerbated the Wild's own-zone woes, which will be a focus as the team's road trip moves on to Montreal.
"Brock Faber can't be our best player every night," Evason said. "It's wonderful that he is, but we really need other people stepping up in Spurgy's absence."
