Wild is winning, and having fun doing it

ANAHEIM -- Apparently, #WinningIsFun.
And thanks to a dominating 5-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks, the Wild is assured of a winning record on its franchise-record seven-game road swing.
Jordan Greenway lobbed the game's opening salvo just 1:48 into the contest, and from that point on, it was seemingly never in doubt.

On display was a fast, confident and ... happy, hockey team.

"We're playing good right now. That's a fun way to play hockey," said Wild forward Mikael Granlund, who scored two goals and had an assist on Friday. "Obviously we're a good defending team and have been playing pretty much the whole season pretty good defensively. We are playing much better with the puck now and getting pressure on them and it's a fun way to play. You don't need to defend all night. We are doing a lot of good things. We just have to keep it going."
How loose is this group right now?
In a victorious dressing room, goaltender Alex Stalock has begun the tradition of holding his postgame scrum in front of the locker of Wild captain -- and Stalock's chief antagonist -- Mikko Koivu.
At home, it's merely a four or five step walk from Stalock's stall to Koivu's, which isn't in the way of foot traffic coming in and out of a door (which is why the tradition began in the first place).
On Friday, the stalls of Stalock and Koivu couldn't have been further apart, with Koivu's residing right next to the dressing room entrance.

About to begin his press availability near his locker, the goaltender quickly realized his error and migrated all the way across the dressing room to set up camp in Koivu's vacated space, a move which (playfully) pushed the captain's buttons.
Just as Stalock finished his 90-second session, Koivu entered and quickly shoed Stalock away, with a few choice words mixed in just for fun.
"We sat down early in the year when we had meetings and talked about how we wanted to be a much better team on the road this year," Stalock said. "I think what comes with that is having fun on the road as a group. You're seeing that with this group. Just the looseness of this group around the locker room. We are having big team dinners out away from the hotel. I think guys are having fun with this road trip. It's good."
Minnesota is now 4-2-0 on its seven-game road march, traversing back and forth between the Pacific Time Zone, back home and to St. Louis, with a Daylight Savings time changed mixed in for good measure.

It's a road trip that isn't easy. The California swing is considered perhaps the toughest three-game trip in the NHL. Vancouver and Edmonton on back-to-back nights is no piece of cake. And the St. Louis Blues were a popular choice to compete for a Stanley Cup this season.
Through it all, the Wild has persevered and had plenty of fun along the way. You can see it on their faces, you can see it at dinner and you can see it on the ice.
"The best teams have a lot of camaraderie and are really close and I feel we have a close group," said Wild forward Jason Zucker. "Whether I go to eat with Ryan Suter or Jordan Greenway, we're having fun and we feel we can get along really well."

And while Minnesota's 10-4-2 start to the regular season has played a big part in the loosey-goosey feeling around the team, it's a group that -- despite its longevity together -- really appears to be enjoying its company.
Following a flight back to St. Louis on Friday, the Wild will try and get greedy. A winning trip already assured, a victory on Sunday would move Minnesota nine points clear of the Blues in the Central Division standings and keep it on pace with the division-leading Nashville Predators, who play Dallas on Saturday with a two-point cushion on the Wild for the most points in the Western Conference.
It will also try to continue its #WinningIsFun mantra -- an aphorism that finds its way onto the team's Twitter account following victories like the one that transpired here Friday.
"I think it's fun coaching any team that's winning," said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. "And I've been on both ends of the thing. When everybody's happy and the players are happy and they're winning, it's a good feeling."
Related:
Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 5, Ducks 1