When the Wild lost seven straight games in November (0-5-2), they reached rock bottom in a season that started poorly and got worse. That skid cost Dean Evason his job.

General manager Bill Guerin hired veteran John Hynes to take over, and it paid immediate dividends, a 10-3 run that pulled the Wild within two points of the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot.

Those gains, however, have been ceded since. The Wild entered Monday’s game against the New York Islanders at Xcel Energy Center 13th in the West, eight points out of a playoff spot and five behind 12th-place Arizona after Saturday’s 6-0 loss to the Coyotes.

After that loss, it was easy to see for anyone who had been watching the Wild, who started the season expecting to make the postseason for a fourth straight season, had landed back at square one.

Not Bill Guerin.

“I don’t think so. I don’t get that feeling,” the Wild general manager said before Monday’s puck drop. “I think that a lot has changed. I know that the guys enjoy playing for John. And I think they’re learning a lot of new things and different things that keep them positive and keep them encouraged about the upcoming games. … I don’t think we’re back to square one. I think it’s much different.”

It’s certainly true that Hynes pushed a lot of the right buttons upon arrival on Nov. 28, and showed the Wild they can win in bunches, even with injuries to key players, during an 11-3-0 run. But the Wild capped a rough two weeks with Saturday’s loss, 1-6-1 while getting outscored 21-5 in their last four.

A season that started with great expectations was cursed early by a series of injuries to key players such as Jared Spurgeon, Matt Boldy and Freddy Gaudreau, and it only got worse. By Nov. 8, Guerin had made a couple of trades to swap young defenseman Calen Addison for veteran Zach Bogosian, and 20 days later he was swapping Evason for Hynes. And because the team has a $14.7 million dead cap space hit from the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts, they’re essentially set with the team as composed.

But Guerin hasn’t given up on his team, he said during a 16-minute media session Monday. Or postseason hopes.

“It seems that we’ve lost our way a bit,” he said. “But, you know, look, there are some positives.”

For one, rookies Brock Faber and Marco Rossi are proving to be top-notch NHL players. Matt Boldy, who signed a seven-year, $49 million extension last January, has 15 goals — 14 since Hynes took over on Nov. 28. And the team was very good in Hynes’ first 14 games, 11-3-0 with victories over top NHL teams Boston (twice) and Vancouver.

On the other hand, it hasn’t gotten the Wild close where they want to be. They’re not the worst team in the West — a clear step above San Jose, Chicago and Anaheim — but they’re light years from the top, 23 points behind first-place Vancouver. And they’re at least 15 behind the next three teams — Winnipeg, Colorado and Dallas, and 0-6 against them.

And while this team is similar to the one that won 46 games last season, it’s also similar to the one the Wild will ice next season. Guerin signed veteran forwards Mats Zuccarello, Ryan Hartman, Marcus Foligno to long-term extensions during camp, and the team has only a handful of players who will be unrestricted free agents this summer, among them veterans Marc-Andre Fleury, Alex Goligoski, Pat Maroon and Zach Bogosian.

“I like the guys that we have here,” Guerin said. “I still believe in them.”

The goal, he said, is to mix those veterans with good young players such as Rossi and Faber. Next season the Wild will likely turn to a couple of young defensemen in the system — such as Damon Hunt or Carson Lambos — as well as goaltender Jesper Wallstedt, who made his NHL debut last week.

With the Wild in contention the past three seasons, Guerin has always added players at the trade deadline. This year is likely to be different, even if the Wild rebound. Besides, the Wild need to do an about-face if they’re going to jump the five teams ahead of them for that last playoff spot by the March 8 deadline.

Right now, the Wild would have the seventh pick in the June entry draft, their highest pick since they selected Matt Dumba seventh overall in 2012.

“We always have to think of the overall health of the organization and the team and do what’s right by that,” Guerin said. “There are short-term plans and there are long-term plans, and you have to make sure we’re staying on course with both of them.”