Thanks to their hot start to the season, and their ability to play roughly .500 hockey for the last two months while hit by injury after injury, the Minnesota Wild are all but a lock to make the NHL’s 16-team playoff field. It would be the first trip to the postseason with the team for head coach John Hynes, who took over in November 2023, and missed out last season, amid another rash of bad health.

For Minnesota hockey fans who have seen playoff appearances and first round exits aplenty over the past decade, the next question is how far, realistically, can they expect this Wild team to go once the elimination rounds begin?

That query won’t be answered for real until late April, but some hints of Minnesota’s playoff readiness and durability may be provided this week, thanks to a daunting schedule over the next four days or so.

The gauntlet begins with Monday’s road game in Dallas, where the Wild rallied late for a 3-2 overtime win on Dec. 27, in their first trip to the Lone Star State this season. The Stars were already solidly in control of second place in the Central Division before they tacked offensive star Mikko Rantanen onto their roster at the trade deadline, and are backstopped by Minnesota native Jake Oettinger..

Roughly 21 hours after the final horn in Dallas, the Wild are back home to face Pacific Division-leading Vegas, a team that has beaten Minnesota twice this season and is looking more and more likely to be Minnesota’s first round playoff foe.

And on Thursday the Capitals will make their only Xcel Energy Center appearance of the season. As of Sunday afternoon, Washington was the NHL’s only team to officially clinch a playoff spot, in addition to featuring Alex Ovechkin’s all but inevitable drive toward eclipsing the NHL’s all-time goals record. Prior to the Caps’ Sunday evening game versus Florida, he needed seven more to tie Wayne Gretzky’s career mark of 1,487.

Clearly not intimidated by anything, with his confidence in this roster (however it looks by game time) Hynes’ message looking ahead to the next three was essentially, “Bring it on.”

“Yeah, it’s exciting. This time of year, this week coming up, you’re playing all teams that are jockeying for position, high end competition,” he said on Saturday. “So you’re gonna have to be at your best, but that’s what this time of year’s about.”

Still, it all seems like a notable workload for a team that boarded their Texas-bound plane on Sunday knowing they would still be without top forwards Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek, and they would likely be without forward Marcus Foligno, who has missed the last three. Added to those absences, there were question marks on defense after Saturday’s win over Buffalo, which prompted the team to recall forward Liam Ohgren and defenseman Cameron Crotty from Iowa under emergency conditions.

But two days after Christmas, the Wild flew to Dallas without Kaprizov – who was on pace for serious NHL most valuable player consideration – on their plane for the first time this season. At the time he was listed as day to day, and his lower body injury was not considered serious. Since then, the superstar has played three games and registered two assists. But the Wild have held their own, and on that first visit to the Stars’ rink, pulled out an unexpected win.

A few more of the same this week would send a message not only about the Wild’s playoff readiness, but about how much noise they might be ready to make in late April and even May.

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