Minnesota left to ponder another early elimination from playoffs

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Noteaminthe ultracompetitive Western Conference has made the playoffs more times in a row than the Minnesota Wild with six straight appearances to share the current streak lead with the Anaheim Ducks.

That regular season consistency has only led, however, to April dissatisfaction. Ousted in five games by Winnipeg in their first-round series, the Wild were sent again to an early exit from the Stanley Cup tournament. They were shut out by the Jets in the last two contests and finished with a scoreless streak of 141:47.

“It’s really disappointing. I don’t think that’s indicative of the kind of team that we have. It was just a really tough night,” centre Matt Cullen said Friday after a 5-0 loss in Winnipeg. “Obviously, with our backs against the wall, I think we all expected more and hoped for more and I think if we could do it all over again every guy would like to give more.”

There was no shame in being beaten by the Jets, a deeper, faster team with an exceptional goalie in Connor Hellebuyck that finished with the second-best record in the NHL in 2017-18. For the Wild, though, there’s an overarching theme of staying stuck at a good, but not great level since the franchise-altering signings of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter helped start this remarkable, but unfulfilling run of making the playoffs every year.

“We want more. We expect more from ourselves. We let another one slip away,” right-winger Charlie Coyle said.

Here are some key angles to the end of the Wild’s season:

LOOKING BACK

The Wild are 2-6 in series and 15-29 in games in the post-season during the Parise-Suter era that began on July 4, 2012. The 17-yearold franchise’s only advancement past the second round remains the 2003 surge to the Western Conference final, where the Wild were swept by the Ducks.

The post-season trouble encountered by the Wild used to be in the form of the Chicago Blackhawks, who eliminated them in 2013, 2014 and 2015. The Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2013 and 2015. Chicago lost in the first round in 2016 and 2017, though, and failed to make the playoffs this spring for the first time in 10 years. So Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews are no longer the problem.

Now Nashville and Winnipeg have taken the lead in the daunting Central Division with the Predators taking the Presidents’ Trophy with the league’s best record one season after reaching the Stanley Cup final. Six of the seven teams in the division made the playoffs either last year or this year.

“We certainly believed that we could give these guys a real run for it even though nobody seemed to be giving us a chance,” goalie Devan Dubnyk said. “We’re one play away each game. I know that’s easy to say, but it’s really how close it was besides (Friday).”