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Wild Host Washington, Desperate To Get Out Of Losing Skid

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- The Minnesota Wild welcomes the Washington Capitals to Xcel Energy Center Thursday night, but right now they'd like to welcome a win.

The future of head coach Mike Yeo is teetering, the team is in a downward spiral. What you do is what you've been doing, hoping you do it a little better.

"It's been very frustrating. It's not easy but at the same time we know we're in this together and the only way to get out of this is if you pull the same string," Nino Niederreiter said. "That's what we've been doing. We've got to find a way to complete a 60-minute hockey game."

When the Wild got away for the NHL All-Star break, the thought was they would break out after some relaxation and fun.

"You want to get your mind in the right place coming back and you do feel refreshed. Things don't go your way and it's tough to keep everything in check," Matt Dumba said.

So what's missing? Talent? No, just some good old fashioned confidence, which leads to a slump buster question.

"I think you build confidence by getting a point, that's for sure. But you really get it back after you win one, win two," Thomas Vanek said.

But that's what it looked like early in the year, so what happened?

"It's just not a lot of people are feeling good offensively. Just not a lot of offensive confidence going around the room right now," Zach Parise said. "It's hurting us."

Sounds like a good time for a shutout. But you want to be careful not to put too much pressure on Devan Dubnyk, Darcy Kuemper or whoever is in net for the Wild.

"It's not even that. It's just becomes more difficult not to look at the end result," Dubnyk said.

Because right now, there just isn't a part of the game you can rally around.

"It's difficult to keep trying to point towards positives even though there are signs that the game has been better," Yeo said.

And right now, everything is on the table.

"There's no reason why we wouldn't try some different things right now. That is for sure," Yeo said.

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