In four of the five cases, they lost the next THREE games. In all five cases they lost the next game. Five times the Wild have been up by one game in a series during this elimination stretch: Up 1-0 in the 2020 qualifying round, up 1-0 in 2021, up 2-1 in 2022 and then up 1-0 and 2-1 in 2023. *The lack of killer instinct might be the most maddening trait of all. Last year's Wild scored a franchise-record 310 goals but were held to two or fewer in four of six playoff games. In some cases, with that 2017 series with the Blues being a prime example, scoring has dried up as Wild players failed to capitalize on glorious chances. On average during these seven series when the Wild has been eliminated - six true first-round playoff series and the preliminary series in the 2020 COVID season - the Wild have allowed 3.2 goals per game while scoring 2.2. *But goaltending doesn't tell the full story. In 2017, it was Jake Allen outdoing Devan Dubnyk. Last year the Blues' Jordan Binnington saved the day while Marc-Andre Fleury and eventually Cam Talbot struggled. *As Reusse noted, how many times have the Wild reached the end of a series with the public conclusion that the other team's goalie played better than Minnesota's? This year the margin was thinner, but Dallas' Jake Oettinger was excellent while the Wild's Filip Gustavsson was merely good. Though the disappointments span multiple coaches, GMs and players, the reasons why the Wild have ended up back in this same place so many times are constant.

Warriors 1 into the wild