On March 6, the Wild was thrashed by Dallas 6-3 at the Xcel Energy Center, the team's eighth loss in 10 games. In a news conference following the game, the coach and several players used the word "fragile'' at least a dozen times while describing their team.
Three Sundays later, on March 27, the Wild defeated Colorado, the winningest team in the NHL, 3-2 in overtime for a six-game winning streak. In the postgame news conferences, no one used, or needed to consider using, the word "fragile.''
Credit General Manager Bill Guerin, who has proved repeatedly that he can read a locker room and give a team precisely what it needs.
