Four games into the season the Wild are a disappointing 1-1-2, and have either had the lead in the third period or been tied in all four games, yet have just one win to show for it.

There are no excuses for what took place Saturday night in the home opener in St. Paul. The Wild blew two, 2-goal leads and were lucky to have even gotten the game to overtime, as Columbus dominated the third period.

Coach Bruce Boudreau, a man that always speaks his mind, did just that following the loss, saying that it was "embarrassing" and it was not the new guys that were to blame. Boudreau went on to say that the new additions to the Wild lineup played well, and in hindsight he should have played them more.

Cause for concern is how seemingly every time the Wild score and take a lead they sag and give a goal right back to their opponent. On Saturday, that happened three times, where the Blue Jackets answered a Wild goal with one of their own. First 35 seconds after the Eric Staal scored to give the Wild a 1-0 lead, then 2 minutes and 35 seconds after the Landon Ferraro had given the Wild their first 2-goal lead, and then 57 seconds after Tyler Ennis had scored his second PP goal of the night, giving the Wild yet another 2-goal lead at 4-2.

That is unacceptable from both the goaltender and the players on the ice. Come playoff time we all know that it is not the amount of goals that a team surrenders it is when they give them up and the type of goal that is scored that ultimately determines a team's fate.

Devan Dubnyk has not played well, outside of the strong second period in Chicago, he has looked below average at best. On Saturday he was fighting the puck all night leaving rebounds all over in front of him and seemingly, making every save into an adventure.

To Dubnyk's credit, he has been tracking the puck well, but has looked off balance on several of his saves and is going down far too quickly. The fourth goal on Saturday was a glaring example of both of these issues where Dubnyk went down and the puck was deflected over him, but worse was how awkwardly he hit the ice with his skates going backward into the goal.

It begins in the net for the Wild and goes out from there as this team is built on goaltending and defense. Ryan Suter and Jared Spurgeon were minus 4 and minus 3 respectively Saturday night. Not exactly the kind of performance one would expect from the top pair in a game where the Wild were playing significantly shorthanded up front.

I heard Ben Clymer say following the game that he was in a discussion with Tom Kurvers, Tampa Bay Senior Advisor to GM, Steve Yzerman, in the press box after the game and how Kurvers was saying the important thing from a management perspective is they at least got a point.

Squandered points come back to haunt teams in the end and so far the Wild have left several on the table through just four games. Subscribing to that school of thought is not exactly a winners mentality.

Through another quirk in the early schedule the Wild find themselves in a five day break after they have already experienced a four day break between their 2nd and 3rd games of the young season. Lots of practice time to work out the kinks, and also some more time to get some of their walking wounded back onto the ice, but frustrating all the same for a team looking to get into some sort of rhythm and build momentum.

It is expected that both Zach Parise and Marcus Foligino should be ready to go this weekend when the Wild head North for a quick two game Canadian road trip that takes them to Winnipeg Friday, Calgary on Saturday before returning home to face Vancouver next Tuesday.

Mike Reilly has been recalled, and Landon Ferraro, Zach Mitchell, Christoph Bertschy, and Luke Kunin have all been returned to Iowa. It remains to be seen what roster moves will be made before the Wild play again on Friday, but with Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter on IR, expect to see at least two players up from Iowa and depending on Foligno and Parise's status possibly more.

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