ST. PAUL, Minn. — Considering where the Minnesota Wild were a few weeks ago, they’re feeling a lot better now.

They were in danger of letting an early-season slide turn into a long year. But a players-only meeting led by captain Jared Spurgeon, along with some improved defense and goaltending, has dug them from the depths. They’ve gone 4-1-1 in their past six games heading into this weekend’s back-to-back.

They’re not out of the woods by any stretch, sitting in a crowded West wild-card pack.

But they’re giving themselves a chance in each game by improving their overall defensive play, especially limiting odd-man rushes, which helps a goaltending duo that struggled the first three weeks. Minnesota has allowed 1.80 goals per game in its past five games but will be put to the test against stout offensive teams Saturday (Anaheim Ducks) and Sunday (Vegas Golden Knights).

“We have to play that way in order to be good in this league and in order to, essentially, make the playoffs,” alternate captain Marcus Foligno said. “That’s our game. That’s our M.O.”

There have been too many games the Wild let slip away, though. And whether they can score enough is a persistent question. Games like Sunday’s 2-0 win over a really bad Calgary Flames team Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks show how little margin for error they have. And that’s a lot of pressure to put on their goalies.

Through Tuesday, the Wild are 21st in the league in expected-goals-for percentage (48.7) at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick. They’ve been saved somewhat by their potent power play (fourth in the league at 28.8 percent). But even strength, it’s been a dogfight. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as president of hockey operations and general manager Bill Guerin has been looking for another scoring winger for a long time and said before the season that their cap situation would allow them to go big-game hunting in trades. The fact that Minnesota has been among the teams linked with the St. Louis Blues’ Jordan Kyrou shouldn’t be a surprise.

But right now, the Wild aren’t built to go end to end with teams, to get into a “track meet,” as Foligno put it. They are among the better teams at getting offensive zone possession, as they showed Tuesday, but finishing is an issue. If it’s not Kirill Kaprizov’s or Matt Boldy’s line producing, they’re in trouble. Mats Zuccarello’s return has helped add depth and put players in more-fitting slots down the lineup, but it’s still a work in progress.

Mike Kelly from NHL Network and Sportslogiq put it best on Joe O’Donnell’s podcast the other day, saying it feels like the Wild are going to need “10 chances” to score a goal when “another high-end team might need seven.”

The numbers bear that out. The Wild were fifth in the NHL in high-danger chances for at five-on-five (172) through Tuesday but 26th in high-danger goals (14), converting those chances at just 8.1 percent. The No. 1 team in high-danger chances, the Avalanche (199), for comparison, had scored on 12.1 percent of its chances (24).

Here are some more observations from Minnesota’s recent stretch.

Need more from Kaprizov

Watching Macklin Celebrini make big plays in two overtime victories over the Wild — even Tuesday, when he had zero shots on goal during regulation — was notable in the contrast to Kaprizov, who hasn’t had his “moment” this season.

Sure, the highlight-reel give-and-go with Zuccarello on Friday was special, but it was the fifth goal in a 5-2 win. Kaprizov is known for his heroics, with a franchise-record seven overtime goals. He’s a superstar and will be the league’s highest-paid player starting next season. That raises an already high standard.

Kaprizov’s numbers are nothing to sneeze at: 10 goals and 22 points in 18 games. It’s hard to nitpick a point-per-game player. But with the Wild struggling to score at five-on-five, he needs to produce clutch moments. We’ve seen it a few times from Boldy already this year.

There shouldn’t be nights like Tuesday, when Kaprizov’s line with Zuccarello and Marco Rossi was out-attempted 17-3 at five-on-five. Kaprizov has struggled with turnovers (he has a team-high 19 giveaways, though it feels like more than that). And at five-on-five, Kaprizov is fourth on the team in high-danger individual chances for, per Natural Stat Trick, with 15 — two behind Yakov Trenin and seven behind team-leader Boldy.

Kirill Kaprizov has been scoring but hasn’t had a signature moment of heroics yet in 2025-26. (Matt Blewett / Imagn Images)

Overtime issues

If the Wild miss the playoffs by a point or two, they might be pointing to their performance in overtime early in the season. Tuesday was the latest example. They needed two points out of that one, especially against a team they’re chasing in the standings.

But the Sharks scored a power-play goal to tie it and won in overtime, both spearheaded by assists from Celebrini. It was the second time in two weeks the Sharks beat Minnesota in OT.

The Wild are 1-4 in games ending in overtime this season, and they’ve won one game in a shootout (at home against the Los Angeles Kings). Of those six games, Minnesota blew a lead four times. That’s four times they gave their opponent an extra point, three of which were teams in their conference (San Jose, the Nashville Predators and the Winnipeg Jets). They coughed up a three-goal lead in the Kings game.

In the previous San Jose game, on Oct. 26 — a 6-5 loss — the Wild held possession for around four minutes of the overtime, but Celebrini won it in the end. And on Tuesday, Minnesota had possession for a good chunk of it before a breakdown led to Collin Graf’s goal.

Coach John Hynes noted overtime is more of a “possession” game where inevitably there’s a breakdown, so the key is looking for high-quality chances. If you take a bad-angled shot or miss wide, it’s a risk for a rush going the other way. The Wild are still toeing that line.

“Maybe it’s just being a little more aggressive with our attempts,” Spurgeon said. “We’re maybe looking for the perfect one. Maybe being too safe with it.”

Buium growing

Maybe adding Zeev Buium to the three-on-three OT mix could provide a spark?

The Wild rookie defenseman has shown how special he can be handling the puck, entering the zone and breaking down defenders. Hynes put him back on the top power play during Tuesday’s game — a sign he has earned more trust.

The keys with Buium will be defending and making decisions on when to try to make a play and when to live to see another day.

It was interesting to see retired defenseman Alex Goligoski — a Wild player development adviser — sitting with Buium at his locker stall the other day, watching video on a laptop. Having Goligoski around the team’s young defensemen like Buium, David Jiricek and Daemon Hunt is already paying dividends.

Zeev Buium seems to have gained some trust from the Wild coaching staff. (Brad Penner / Imagn Images)

The goaltending duo

Gustavsson said before the season that he felt that he and Jesper Wallstedt can be a top-five tandem in the NHL. The two get along well, playing golf and video games together. The Wild staff also hoped they’d push each other.

There have been signs of that. After Wallstedt put together strong back-to-back performances in wins on Friday and Sunday, Hynes went back to his No. 1 in Gustavsson on Tuesday, and Gustavsson performed well despite the 2-1 overtime loss.

Goalie coach Frederic Chabot said before the season that there’s no “set number” of starts Gustavsson will make this season, that the split will be determined on a game-by-game basis. Gustavsson is expected to carry more of the load as the No. 1, but Wallstedt can very well earn more starts with his play. And both Chabot and Hynes have been impressed by Wallstedt’s maturity and approach in his first full NHL season after a disappointing 2024-25 in AHL Iowa.

If Wallstedt keeps up this run with another strong start this weekend, he’ll make it hard to keep him out.

“He’s competing in practice from the first minute to the last minute,” Chabot said. “As a young guy, that’s something in Iowa that he really had to get better at. His practice levels weren’t high enough. Now it is. That’s why you see the improvements come even quicker.”

Hunt on prowl

It’s bizarre to think that it took the Wild claiming Hunt back on waivers to figure out that he’s an NHL-caliber defenseman.

Hunt was part of the blockbuster trade to acquire Jiricek from the Columbus Blue Jackets last year (along with a first-, second-, third- and fourth-rounders). But after getting squeezed out in camp by the Blue Jackets, who had seven other defensemen on one-way deals, Minnesota was fortunate to get him back.

Hunt’s patience paid off, and he’s played really well since entering the lineup Thursday. He plays with pace and poise. He’s clean on breakouts and makes the right pinches. He’s also been able to play the right side at times. It looked like Hunt might have made a mistake on the Sharks’ power-play goal Tuesday, inching too far up on the blue line on the entry, but he has quickly earned the coaches’ trust.

Fourth line found?

The Wild’s fourth line has been a revolving door for most of the season. Part of that is because the player the team planned on anchoring the line, Nico Sturm, is out until likely early December due to back surgery. Hynes has thrown many different looks out there, including the Tyler Pitlick-Ben Jones-Trenin edition that did well for a few games. But it seems like he has found something that works pretty well here with the Foligno-Danila Yurov-Trenin trio that’s been a force the past couple of games.

There was like a 90-second shift in Tuesday’s game where the line had the Sharks hemmed in. The offense has yet to come, with Foligno having just one point in 16 games, but this looks like a group that can stick.

“It’s been good chemistry and feeding off each other,” Foligno said. “I think we should have been rewarded as a line, but that’s how it goes. Love playing with those guys. The chemistry has been good.”

Yurov coming

After Yurov sat for three games recently, with Hynes calling it a breather, the Russian rookie has started to put things together. It wasn’t just Yurov’s goal Friday against the Islanders in his return to the lineup. He’s been consistent at both ends of the ice, winning battles (and faceoffs). While Trenin and Foligno have been forechecking forces, Yurov plays an important role.

“Yurov, for you guys not knowing what type of player he was, and especially us too, a new guy coming over from Russia,” Foligno said. “But, man, the 200-foot game is real with that guy. He can skate. He’s got heads-up plays. He’s got aggression in his game. It’s fun. I’m loving it. He’s very supportive around the walls, and as a winger, it’s very easy to understand where he’s going to be.”