"It's not accurate to say the Wild went into a shell. It's more like they went into a coma.

Tuesday night's game against the Nashville Predators resulted in a miserable, heartbreaking, discouraging 5-4 loss. And the Wild deserved every bit of it. Cruise control is a nice feature to have on an automobile. But it is deadly for a hockey team. The Wild played about 2-1/2 periods of beautiful hockey against the Predators, and the results were astounding: a 4-1 lead against a good opponent.

Then they took their foot off the gas. That damned cruise control must look awfully inviting when a team isn't quite in shape after the all-star break. So they went into prevent mode. Just flip the puck out of the zone, just clear the blue line and sit back and defend.

And Nashville scored once, twice, three times, four times in the last 11 minutes. The Wild, so firmly in control for most of the game, skated off the ice to a storm of boos. They earned them. "