Wild continue stretch of playoff consistency, if not success, with 10th berth in 11 years

ST. PAUL, Minn. — In becoming style for Minnesota sports activities, the Wild backed into the playoffs Monday night time regardless of shedding to the Vegas Golden Knights.

The division-leading Dallas Stars misplaced to the Colorado Avalanche — who’re additionally jockeying atop the Central division — guaranteeing the Wild will play within the postseason.

Quietly, the Wild have been one in every of Minnesota’s most constant groups over the past decade or so. Solely the Minnesota Lynx, who made the playoffs in 11 straight seasons from 2011-2021, made it to 6 WNBA Finals and received 4 of them, have a extra spectacular resume over that point.

READ MORE: Wild’s Matt Boldy is on a goal-scoring tear, and simply within the nick of time

The Timberwolves — who, thoughts you, are 11 years older than the Wild — have made the playoffs 10 occasions of their total historical past. That they had a streak just like the Wild’s within the early aughts, making the postseason in eight straight years, however failing to advance previous the primary spherical in seven of them. The eighth berth was probably the most fruitful, with the workforce advancing to the Western Convention Finals, however falling in six video games to Kobe and Shaq’s Lakers.

The Twins can boast being the one main males’s workforce in Minnesota to win a championship. Since their first World Collection win in 1987, they’ve made the playoffs fewer occasions than the Wild. Counting ’87, they’ve performed October baseball 11 occasions in 37 years. Positive, they added one other World Collection in 1991, however apart from that, they racked up solely three playoff wins in that point.

Unhappy because it appears, we will in all probability put the woebegone Vikings third behind the Lynx and Wild by way of postseason success over the previous decade. Since 2012, they’ve made the playoffs in 5 of 11 seasons, notching two playoff wins in that point and coming one recreation from the Tremendous Bowl after the 2017 season.

Now, earlier than we give the Wild their flowers, let’s observe that making the playoffs and having playoff success are two very various things. In six of the ten postseasons, the Wild have been bounced within the opening spherical. They have not superior to the second spherical since 2014-2015, and so they have not gone previous that spherical throughout this stretch.

READ MORE: What the Minnesota Wild can study final yr’s playoff exit

There’s motive to imagine the Wild might make extra noise than ordinary this yr. They boast a pair of stellar scorers in Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy, who’ve put 39 and 30 within the web, respectively. Kaprizov has been injured, however reportedly has a great likelihood to return earlier than the playoffs, if not sooner. Their younger goalie, Filip Gustavsson, has the second-best save proportion (.932) and objectives in opposition to common (2.03) within the NHL.

The Wild’s skill to constantly compete has been spectacular, however followers are prepared for them to take the subsequent step. One other first-round exit would possibly ship followers into apoplexy. A aggressive second spherical would possibly not less than tame them, however a deep run would go a good distance towards proving this workforce isn’t just stagnantly bold, however progressively harmful.