"I just thought the goals that have been scored against us in the third period have been because we've been soft. We have given too much room, too much time and space, and in this league if you give too much time and space to anybody, teams are going to make you pay. And that's what they've been doing to us in the third period," Boudreau said. "I think we still are the lowest team in the league for goals against in the first period. And we're starting to get better in the second period. Now we have to work on the third period, which was a strength of ours last year.
"I think we've, for want of a better term, [given] away four points so far. And what I told the guys earlier, we may not think it's much because we've got 78 games to go. If you're in Game 78, and you're one point out, you're going to think back to those games where we flubbed for points. They could come back to haunt you. Hopefully they don't because hopefully we talk about it and nip it in the bud now. Those are games we should've had."
Monday started off as good as the Wild could have hoped.
Mikael Granlund, who has missed the past three games with a groin injury, skated on his own before the team and looked good. He is so far progressing nicely, so well in fact, that Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher didn't rule him out to play against Winnipeg and Calgary this weekend, which didn't seem likely even last week.
Zach Parise, battling an undisclosed injury, was in a red jersey and skating on a line with Joel Eriksson Ek and Eric Staal. The goal for the past several days was for him to make his season debut this weekend.
But early in practice, Parise left the ice and did not return.