A couple of alarming trends with the Minnesota Wild despite a 4-point weekend.

1. Not being mentally prepared to play some ofbthe lesser talented NHL teams. Three games in a row the Wild have sleep walked through games against some of the league's bottom feeders beginnignwith their shoot out loss to San Jose, and near total collapse against Arizon and Saturday's late game heroics needed to get the game to OT and eventual shootout victory over Anaheim.

2. The late game collapses when the Wild seemingly have the game in hand as was evident again yesterday and the aforementioned Arizona game.

Last season the Wild were brill8ant in games that they were supposed to win. That had been a b8g issue for previous Wild teams but last season it was so noticeable that the Wild took care 9f business in nearly every game that they were on paper suppoelsed to win.

That is far from the case this season and some of this must fall in the coaching staff just like it does the players themselves. Dean Evason wants to point out that they won these games and good teams do that, but great teams rarely make habits of these occurrences.

The trade talk is definitely heating up ar9und the league and Burnsville native Brock Boeser, is at the top of chatter box. Of course he makes logical sense for the Wild and Matt Dumba the natural player heading the other way.

Much has been speculates as to Dumba and trade partners and he has essentially been the trade target for seemingly the last four or five years. So does Bill Guerin, finally pull the trigger?

Calen Addison has played well on the powerplay and has brought and offensive spark from the backend, but he is no replacement for Dumba inbthe defensive zone. Many will argue that Dumba has his shortcomings there as well but his physical presence brings far more that Addison can.

The real solution for Dumba's replacement is more likely to be current Gophers Captain, Brock Faber, who was acquired in the Kevin Fiala trade with LA. Faber of course is a few months away from turning professional once the college season is complete. 9f course that is when the NHL season is at it's most competitive stage and more than likely not the greatest time to incorporate a rookie defenseman.

We will have to wait and see how this shakes out if.

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