![\"Minnesota](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/STP-Z-SLUG-WildPlayoffPreview-01.jpg\")
Minnesota Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon (46) skates during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo\/Abbie Parr)<\/p>\nA lead-by-example guy for most of his career, veteran defenseman Jared Spurgeon leaned into being more vocal after he was named the captain of the Wild on Jan. 3, 2021.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean the 36-year-old Wild lifer has taken to yelling and screaming in the locker room. He\u2019s still soft spoken by nature.<\/p>\n
His superpower as a leader has long been his innate ability to effectively get his point across without having to yell and scream. He knows exactly what his teammates need. He also knows exactly when his teammates need it.<\/p>\n
Which explains why Spurgeon decided it would be best to let the emotions simmer down after the Wild suffered a frustrating 4-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Oct. 30, which rounded out a 3-6-3 month for Minnesota. There wasn\u2019t going to be much value in trying to hash everything out while everybody was all wound up.<\/p>\n
Instead, Spurgeon reached out to head coach John Hynes, letting him know that he wanted to have a players-only meeting before practice the following morning. After consulting with veteran winger Marcus Foligno on the side, Spurgeon sent a text message to the group chat to let everybody know the plan.<\/p>\n
Minnesota Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon (46) skates during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo\/Abbie Parr)<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it helps to take a step back and look at the big picture,\u201d Spurgeon said. \u201cIt was nice to come back the next day after sleeping on it and have everybody voice their opinion about what was going on. It was really good for us. We needed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Was that the turning point for the Wild?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe record says it was,\u201d Foligno said. \u201cI think it helped everybody take a deep breath,and we really haven\u2019t looked back.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s probably not a coincidence that the Wild immediately responded with a dominant 5-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks, which kicked off a dominant month of November in which the team went 11-1-2.<\/p>\n
That massive turnaround put the Wild (46-24-12, 104 points) on a collision course with the Dallas Stars (50-20-12, 112 points) \u2014 a matchup that has been a couple of months in the making.<\/p>\n
The first round playoff series between the Wild and the stars will start on Saturday afternoon at American Airlines Center with puck drop set for 4:30 p.m. CT.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew what we had in here,\u201d Spurgeon said. \u201cWe weren\u2019t playing the way we needed to be playing. Unfortunately in the past we\u2019ve had some tough starts where we\u2019re fighting back from that and trying to claw our way back in the playoff race. We didn\u2019t want it to get too far away from us.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was an open and honest conversation in the bowels of TRIA Rink in downtown St. Paul. There were comments from Spurgeon, Foligno, superstar winger Kirill Kaprizov, veteran winger Mats Zuccarello and young defenseman Brock Faber, among a handful of others.<\/p>\n
The general consensus was the Wild had gotten away from their identity of being a responsible bunch that prides itself on being hard to play against in all areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just had to get back to playing to our strengths,\u201d veteran center Joel Eriksson Ek said. \u201cThat\u2019s pretty much what we were talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n
The biggest problem for the Wild in the early stages was it seemed like everybody was trying to do too much. It resulted in missed opportunities in the offensive zone, reckless play in the neutral zone, and a lack of structure in the defensive zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of guys who care a lot,\u201d Spurgeon said. \u201cIt almost goes the other way because of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps some of that stemmed from the Wild pushing the Vegas Golden Knights to the brink in a first round playoff series last season. After waiting all summer to get back on the ice, the Wild were eager to prove they deserved a better fate this season.<\/p>\n
![\"Minnesota](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/STP-Z-SLUG-WildPlayoffPreview-03.jpg\")
Minnesota Wild’s Marcus Foligno (17) skates against the Seattle Kraken during the third period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo\/Lily Dozier)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was almost like we were living in the past there,\u201d Foligno said. \u201cWe kind of got stuck in this, \u2018Why isn\u2019t it working?\u2019 We just had to look ourselves in the mirror and go out there and play our game. Not worry about doing extra stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though he obviously wasn\u2019t a part of the players-only meeting, Hynes lauded Spurgeon for how he went about his business at the time. The decision to let cooler heads prevail before addressing the issues at hand made everything more productive.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had substance to it,\u201d Hynes said. \u201cIt really had a purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was similar tone from general manager Bill Guerin as he reflected on the players-only meeting that saved the Wild from themselves. He appreciated the maturity that was on display in the face of adversity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey realized that it has to come from within,\u201d Guerin said. \u201cI can say whatever I want and John can say whatever he wants. The real guts of it has to come from them. They have to be the drivers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The best part of the players-only meeting was everybody who wanted to speak up felt comfortable enough to speak up. That\u2019s a hallmark of the culture Spurgeon has worked hard to build since he was named the captain of the Wild more than five years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of trust in here,\u201d Spurgeon said. \u201cThat\u2019s really important when it gets a little bit tough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lead-by-example guy for most of his career, veteran defenseman Jared Spurgeon leaned into being more vocal after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5118],"tags":[5,161,38,5280,4,43,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-554668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-wild","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-minnesota","10":"tag-minnesota-wild","11":"tag-minnesotawild","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116421192338343146","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}