from Michael Russo of Russo's Rants,

As bad as the Wild played in losing 11 of 17 games (6-7-4) prior to Friday’s win against Toronto, the Wild was never, ever humiliated.

It lacked the energy and excitement that became its trademark late last season. It made mistakes and gave up too many goals, either because of sloppy defense or a bad goal or two, but for the most part, the losses were of the one-goal variety (yeah, yeah, if you exclude the empty-net goals, which do count, I know).

But for the first time tonight, the Wild left an arena with its tail fully between its legs. Humbled, shamed by the team that used to reside in Minnesota.

I’ve seen the Wild play lousy in this rink 15 or 20 times, but this was just an awful, awful display by a flat, uninspired, tired-looking group tonight, and it was so obvious right from the opening draw that tonight’s outcome could get ugly.

The only question was how ugly because the Stars, who have now won eight of nine, had been off since Wednesday and were here for the killing.

continued

Oh, this happened to in the 2nd period...