Lack of finish haunts Wild in loss to Predators

ST. PAUL -- Effort hasn't been a problem for the Wild in recent outings. And it certainly wasn't an issue on Monday night against the Nashville Predators.
Minnesota outshot its division rival, out-chanced them, out-attempted them and outhit them, but in the one category that mattered, it was the Predators that left St. Paul with a 1-0 victory at Xcel Energy Center.

At the most inopportune of times, the Wild's offense has dried up.
Since a 5-2 win against the New York Rangers on March 16, Minnesota has scored a grand total of six goals in five games. In the four games prior, it scored six goals.
"That seems to be the story of this season. We can't score goals," said Wild forward Jason Zucker. "I hate saying this. I know we've said it way too many times this season, but it's not like we didn't work. I thought we played a pretty good game, to be honest. Were there some blemishes and errors? Yeah. I mean, of course, but I thought overall it was a good effort. It doesn't count right now obviously."
Minnesota had boatloads of chances sail just wide, just over the net, or clank off the post.
According to the website NaturalStatTrick.com, Minnesota had a 20-14 edge in scoring chances, including a 10-6 advantage in high danger chances. The Wild's 10 high-danger chances were more than all but one of the 18 teams in action around the NHL on Monday. Pittsburgh had 12 in a 5-2 win over the Rangers.
Zucker, Luke Kunin and Ryan Donato rang posts, although it was Donato's with under two minutes left in regulation and the Wild's net empty that was perhaps the most painful.
Off a draw, Donato gained control of a puck in the slot and wired a shot past Predators goaltender Juuse Saros and off the crossbar.
"That sort of epitomizes the way it was going and the season," said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. "Getting chances to score and not burying them, it's not for a lack of effort I think. The guys tried really hard and we didn't give Nashville anything I don't think. What can you do? It's very frustrating."
Donato has put together several great games over the last little bit, and Boudreau admitted on Monday that he thinks his future is extremely bright.
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"I think the fans of Minnesota are going to really like what he does," Boudreau said.
But the coach badly wanted to see the results of that work on Monday. So did Donato.
"Sometimes you can throw everything you've got and it doesn't go in. And other nights, you throw a floater at the net, and it goes in too," Donato said. "I think for us it's just a matter of sticking with it. I thought we played a good game defensively, offensively. We just got to translate on our opportunities.
"That's what a good team does is score when they get those grade-A chances and obviously we didn't do enough to put one in the back of the net."
Unfortunately for the Wild, it is running out of time to work its way out of its offensive funk.
If it was October or November, and the Wild was playing like it has over the past two weeks, the belief in the room would be that it would eventually even itself out.
A team can't possibly create so many great scoring chances and not eventually capitalize.
But with just five games remaining in the regular season, and Minnesota potentially needing to win all five in order to get to the playoffs, the time is now for the Wild to find its goal-scoring ways.

"I think we just gotta focus on our next game, not look at all five thinking we gotta win all five, just look at our next opponent in Vegas, come out, do the things we need to do to win and just go from there," said Wild forward Luke Kunin.
The strategy will be a simple one.
"Shoot everything," Kunin said. "Try not to pick the little corners, try to pick a part of the net, don't try to pick the high couple inches or whatever. Just try and get it there, you never know how those will go in and that's the way it's going to happen for us. It probably won't be pretty ones all the time, it's going to be ones where you're going to the net, maybe one will bounce off you or you get the rebounds. But just not grip the stick too tight, keep it simple and just shoot everything and get to the net."
In the end, the Wild must hope the simplest explanation is the one that brings the most success.
"As long as we're in a position to be able to make the playoffs, we'll draw on that," Boudreau said. "It is a helpless position to not play until Friday]. There's not much we can do about it. Again, the dominoes have got to fall in the right area. As long as there's a breath in our body and we have an opportunity, we're going to go out and try to play like we did today."
**Related:**
[Postgame Hat Trick: Predators 1, Wild 0