Wilderness Walk: Hartman blames himself for loss

Even though the Minnesota Wild played well for a couple periods of action on Tuesday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the game slipped away from them due to some unfortunate focus on special teams. Ryan Hartman took two minor penalties in the game and after the 4-2 loss, he blamed himself for the result.

He let the Lightning get back into the game and because of that, head coach Dean Evason agrees with Hartman’s sentiment.

Oops.

To make matters even worse for the Wild, now that they have lost their last three games and the Colorado Avalanche have won six in a row, they find themselves out of a playoff spot for the first time in a very long time. It’s not by much — they’re just one point below the Calgary Flames for the last Wild Card spot and have played two fewer games — but it just stings a little more knowing that they were in an extremely comfortable position earlier this month.

You could easily predict that the reigning Stanley Cup champions would eventually get back in.

That’s Wild

• The Vancouver Canucks let Bruce Boudreau stay on the bench for way too long while the entire hockey world knew that he was about to be replaced. A self-inflicted disaster to make the entire organization look bad. For the Minnesota Wild, that same situation can happen with Matt Dumba, with the player just hanging around and playing games as he knows GM Bill Guerin is working on a trade. Just do it quickly, please. [10K Rinks]

Off the trail...

• A very interesting look behind-the-scenes at what actually happens during the two intermissions. [The Athletic]
• The Boston Bruins are chasing history. [ESPN]