Easygoing Guerin Ready to Whip MN Wild Players into Shape?
The Minnesota Wild (88 points) have lost three -straight games, entering their matchup tonight in Chicago against a down-and-out Blackhawks (61 points) team that, for the (essentially) the ninth-straight season of non-competitive hockey.
Before we get into how much better the Wild need to play, let’s quickly turn focus to the fact that Chicago hasn’t made the NHL Playoff field since the shortened 2019-20 season, when they lost in the first round of a fractured postseason field.
Outside of that weird season, the Blackhawks haven’t played in the postseason since 2016-17. They’ve only made the playoffs three times since winning the Stanley Cup three times between 2009-10 and 2014-15.
Not the best 1st period!pic.twitter.com/6xG0mTafVE
— Just Another Year Chicago: Blackhawks (@JAYChi_Hawks) March 15, 2026
Unlike the Hawks, the Minnesota Wild have everything to lose and gain Tuesday night at the United Center, especially after both Colorado (97 points) and Dallas (94) both lost on Monday night. Thus, we should expect the Wild to show up in the Windy City tonight and jump all over the outpowered Blackhawks early and often, rigtht?
Unfortunately, that’s far from guaranteed, given what we’ve seen out of the Wild this season, especially during this recent skid, where the quality of opponent has had an inverted effect on their chances to win.
Minnesota Wild losing to bad teams and Guerin is taking note
During this three game losing streak, they’ve dropped games vs the 7th place (Atlantic) Maple Leafs, last place Rangers (Metro) and 5th place Flyers (Metro). If you think Wild president of hockey operations hasn’t noticed his team’s issues with beating bad teams this season, you’d be wrong.
In a sit-down with Michael Russo (The Athletic), Guerin brought up the Wild’s winning percentage vs good and bad teams — noting that this is the wrong time of year to be playing as poorly as the 2025-26 Wild have been, of late.
“Our winning percentage is like .720 versus playoff teams, and then you get the non-playoff teams, and it’s like .620. We need to have more urgency in our game. We don’t want to be limping into the playoffs. So, it’s not a panic. But the way we’ve played lately is just a matter of fact. I have no problem telling the guys this, and Hynesy knows. He’s going to change things to try to get us back together. But this takes a concerted effort by the individuals that are playing the game.”
Bill Guerin – via The Athletic
The past few seasons, the Minnesota Wild have either missed or stumbled into the playoffs, mostly thanks to injuries that knocked key pieces out of the lineup. This season, that is not the problem.
Not only did Guerin deal for Quinn Hughes, giving head coach John Hynes one of the most star-studded lineups in the NHL. But the Hughes + Faber duo has been leaky of late and guys who usually contribute offensively have suddenly gone cold.
If injuries aren’t the problem, then what could possibly be holding a veteran-laden, Cup-hungry Wild down this late in the year, especially when they should be ramping up for what some project to be the franchise’s deepest postseason run in two decades?
Guerin, Hynes being too easy on Wild players, practice schedule?
Well, at the very bottom of his article, Russo buried the lead. Apparently, the Minnesota Wild have one of the easiest practice schedules in the league.
And if that wasn’t enough, Russo reports that they’ve been practicing even less of late. Most notably, the Wild have made morning skates optional — even when the team didn’t play the day/night before. Per Russo, that’s abnormal, even for the Wild’s easy-going practice habits.
Guerin reiterated what Hynes said after Saturday’s loss to the Rangers, that the Wild are looking internally at their routines. Few teams practice as infrequently as they do. Lately, they’ve even held optional morning skates the day after days off, which is abnormal even by their standards.
“We’re not getting results the way things are going right now,” Guerin said. “So, we need to change things and help the guys get through this. You can’t threaten guys to play better. It’s our job to help them get out of this. We are in this with them, but they need to take some ownership and realize the way they played these games and the outcomes are not acceptable and up to our standards, especially with the playoffs right around the corner.”
The Athletic
Look, Bill Guerin and John Hynes are one of the most-respected GM/coaching combinations in hockey. And some of their start players had a busy few weeks, during and after winning Team USA’s first men’s hockey Olympic Gold medal since 1980.
Thus, I find it difficult to virtually slap Guerin and/or Hynes around too much for how often or how hard they are practicing players, compared to other teams around the league.
Related: MN Wild Announce Grand Casino Arena Renovation Plans
With that being said, however, the Minnesota Wild have opened themselves up to scrutiny since the Olympic break, due to their poor play. Not only have they lost three-straight games but the Wild have dropped four of their last five and six of their last nine.
Obviously, the fact that Guerin and Hynes plan to rethink some of Minnesota’s current practice habits — and probably crack the whip a little bit — it’s pretty clear they feel a need to tighten the reins in St. Paul too. Now, we’ll see how Wild players initially respond tonight in Chicago.
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