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The collapse of the Minnesota Wild has been well documented. They lost Mikko Koivu, Devin Setoguchi, Guillaume Latendresse and practically everyone else at varying points through the season.
I have thought to myself at several points that the Wild were just an unfortunate goal away from being a respectable team this season. Is this really the case?
Obviously, the Wild have decided to mail it in for the rest of the year after struggling since the beginning of 2012. They revamped their defense and haven’t been able to keep the puck out of the net, while at the same time never scoring themselves. But how close have they been?
The Wild have lost 18 games, including via shootout, overtime and in regulation by a goal. That’s 18/41 total losses, again total games and in overtime. 10 of those games were lost after regulation, which isn’t that far above normal. So, they haven’t really been unlucky losers, at least not in terms of quantity.
The better question, obviously, is how many games they WON by 1 goal, so as to compare it with the games they lost by that margin. That total? 18. Exactly the same. They are .500 in 1 goal games, which indicates that the Wild deserve the record they are at. Is there hope? Maybe, if they can be healthy next season, but we Wild fans can be sure that the team is just as bad as the record indicates. No secrets there.

Ice Insiders Chris Berry Interactive Chris Berry Interactive