What’s the deal with the Minnesota Wild?

A lot of teams are at the 10-game mark of the 2023-24 NHL season, including the Minnesota Wild. So far, they’ve played below expectations.

After recording a 46-25-11 record last season, the Wild lost in six games to the Dallas Stats in the first round of the playoffs. Expectations coming into this season were of a team that would win at least a round in the post-season, and maybe more.

But after suffering two consecutive loses to the New Jersey Devils this week, the second being a 5-3 loss on Thursday night, there’s a bad taste in the State of Hockey’s mouth.

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discuss the team’s middling start and

Tyler Yaremchuk: The Minnesota Wild have looked wildly mediocre so far this season. They’re 3-5-2 go start, the expectations were that this team was supposed to make the playoffs, maybe win a round or two, but they haven’t looked like that type of team so far.

Frank Seravalli: They haven’t been close, and what’s been most concerning for me is it feels like the same issues night after night. They have really, really missed Jared Spurgeon, and I do feel like they’ll be better once he’s back. But if you consider where the team is at at this time, with no Spurgeon and Matt Dumba walking in free agency, their defensive core as it’s constituted is a shell of what it once was.

Last season, they hit 100 points for the second year in a row, and you thought that this was a team that’s equipped to do some damage in the playoffs. What we’ve seen up to this point, it feels like a team that’s shooting itself in the foot, as opposed to being overwhelmed or undermatched.

You can listen to the full show here…