The Wild have had a couple of wake-up calls this season, first after losing four of five in late October, then after taking a three-game skid into Minnesota’s NHL Global Series trip to Sweden.

Each time, the Wild responded — first with their only two-game win streak of the season, then with a pair of hard-fought overtime losses in Stockholm. But, obviously, neither of those stuck.

On Monday, Wild players got their biggest bracer when head coach Dean Evason was fired 19 games into the season after a 4-1 loss in Detroit extended Minnesota’s losing streak to seven games.

“It’s not fair, but at the same time, it’s a wake-up call,” said Marcus Foligno, “and we’ve had enough of these this year to understand what’s needed and we need to get out of it. It’s playing simple. It’s on us.”

Wild players were stuck in an odd limbo Tuesday after their morning skate, feeling guilty that their rough start to the season cost Evason his job yet excited for what might be triggered under new head coach John Hynes.

“You feel bad, right?” rookie defenseman Brock Faber said. “It was us that was losing the hockey games and it’s us that’s been underperforming here for a bit. Again, that’s how the job goes. We did what we had to do and, again, we’re excited to take this step and move on and just start building from here.”

Hynes has coached three Wild players at various stops, Marcus Johansson and Jon Merrill (in New Jersey) and Pat Maroon (on a World Championship team).

“I really enjoyed playing for Dean. It’s not on him,” Maroon said. “It’s on the players in here. We let him down.”

But, the veteran wing added, Hynes “is going to give us everything we need. He’s engaged with the players. He wants the best for the players. He brings the best out of players, too. … He’s an intense coach. He’ll bring some life back into this room that we need.”

Changes can wait

It was a quick matriculation for Hynes on Monday. He arrived at Xcel Energy Center for Tuesday’s 7 p.m. puck drop against St. Louis and was formerly introduced in a 9 a.m. news conference, then met with his new players.

“You could say he brings the energy to the team,” defenseman Jared Spurgeon said. “Not a huge meeting so far, but we’ll get there.”

Hynes wasn’t close to ready to start making changes, either.

“We’ll play tonight and practice tomorrow, and I think it’ll be really important to have that game under our belt, have a first practice, and then really be able to implement a lot of tweaks,” he said.

The two necessary game-time decisions were picking a goalie (Filip Gustavsson) and a player to replace Ryan Hartman, who was suspended for two games Monday for his slew foot of Detroit’s Alex DeBrincat on Sunday.

The Wild recalled Vinni Lettieri from Iowa to take Hartman’s place on the roster but the most likely was moving Freddy Gaudreau up from the fourth line to center the third line.

Dwyer promoted

With the dismissal of assistant coach Bob Woods on Monday, the Wild promoted Pat Dwyer from Iowa, where he was an assistant on coach Brett McLean’s staff.

“He’s gonna run the ‘D’ and handle the penalty kill,” general manager Bill Guerin said.

Dwyer, 40, played 416 NHL games as a right wing, all with the Carolina Hurricanes, from 2008 to 2015, going 42-52–93.

“He hasn’t been a lifelong coach, but he knows the game, for sure,” Guerin said. “And we’re excited to bring him on board. Another fresh face and fresh ideas.”

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New Wild head coach John Hynes planning to ‘come in and make small tweaks’