What did yesterday's game in Brooklyn tell us about the Wild, if anything? With the win they drew within 1 point of St. Louis with a game in hand and more importantly, 1 point behind third place Dallas.

But can this Wild team develop some sort of consistency over the final quarter of the season, in order to make a real charge when the playoffs arrive?

Past Wild seasons have seen a much more structured Wild team enter the playoffs, with the results once they arrived, being an early exit.

This year's team has been frustrating at best with the team having some ups while experiencing several poor performances, with the majority of their games being incomplete efforts.

But here they are 59 games into the season, with 32 wins and 72 points, on pace for a 99 point season. The Wild hold down 8th place in the Western Conference and only trail Nashville and Winnipeg by 8 points atop the Central Division.

But something just seems off with this Wild team. Obviously the talent is there because they have not played at or near their best hockey and yet are right in the thick of the race.

There have been no long winning (4 games two times) or losing streaks (3 games, once back in early November) with the Wild this season. That is a good sign though as teams that know how to prevent consecutive losses, tend to do well when playoff time rolls around.

So why do we all have such questions when assessing the 2017-18 Minnesota Wild?

The glaring statistic that jumps off the page is the opportunities lost this season. The 15 games in which the team has either had the lead or been tied in the third period, yet lost the game. A total of 23 points that could have been. Now we all know that some of those points are going to be lost of course, but give the Wild a half of those points, they would be leading the Western Conference, and if they just got a quarter of them, they would be battling for the Central Division lead.

The trade deadline is approaching, what will Chuck Fletcher do to give his team THE spark it so desperately needs to make them a team that can make some real noise in the Spring?

Trading guys like Stewart and Cullen, are not really solving a whole lot, but if Fletch can get a couple of picks for them then make the moves. Cullen was brought in to be a leader on this team, and I am not saying that he hasn't done his job, but this team needs young leadership, not a veteran who speaks the same speak as the guys that already wear letters on their jerseys.

There are players that are caught in numbers games around the league, and trade deadline time is the prime opportunity to pry one or two loose from their current situation. When a team like the Wild, that has very few options when it comes to the salary cap situation, one must get creative and more importantly call on the scouts that log all those crazy miles during the season, taking in numerous games seemingly on a nightly basis. There has to be any number of options and players that they have seen.

Not all solutions come from obvious places.

Follow me on Twitter @dwallace17

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