The Minnesota Wild were once a feel-good story but now they have crashed in a huge way. With veterans such as Dany Heatley and Matt Cullen, this is the time to stop the doldrums while weathering injuries to key players.

PHILADELPHIA - The date was Dec. 18.

The Minnesota Wild weren't just sitting on top of the Western Conference. They were owning it. As the sun set on the 18^th, the Wild were enjoying 28-day stranglehold on the standings thanks to a 20-8-5 record.

Now, one month later, the Wild that exited the Wells Fargo Center after a 5-1 loss to the Flyers, with their fathers and a few brothers in tow on their annual bonding trip, doesn't even resemble the same team that was one of the true feel-good stories of the first half of the NHL campaign.

A 2-8-2 stretch, including an 0-8-2 run on the road, will do that to you.

Now, clinging to the eighth spot in the West, the Wild are hanging on for dear life. And they're doing it without their captain, Mikko Koivu, who is out week-to-week with a shoulder injury.

For me, they look like a team that is waiting for the next shoe to drop – whatever that may be.

Take, for instance, in their most recent loss in Philadelphia. The Wild entered the contest with a 9-8-0 record when trailing after the first period. Down 2-0 to the Flyers, Darroll Powe battled back to tie it for Minnesota, scoring in his first game back in Philadelphia.

It was supposed to be a goal that would energize the Wild, who were gunning to become just the fifth team in NHL history to post a winning record over an entire season when trailing after the first period.

Instead, the Flyers responded just 69 seconds after Powe's goal and the Wild quit. The Flyers piled on three more goals and the game got away from the Wild in a hurry.

Recently, so has Minnesota's season. Suddenly, rookie coach Mike Yeo – who looked like a miracle worker with the Wild's relatively thin lineup through the first 35 games of the season – has a real dilemma on his hands.

Yeo said one negative event – be it a penalty, turnover or goal-against – snowballs into an avalanche.

"That's ridiculous on our part," Yeo said. "That's something we have to correct. You know just because something bad happens in the game now, we can't go out and play our game. Bad things are going to happen.  Bad things happened to us when we were in first place and we were winning a lot of hockey games but we overcame then. Right now we let those affect us in a very negative way."

How can Minnesota move forward?

The Wild have used 32 different skaters in at least one game this season. They're missing Koivu, Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Guillaume Latendresse – all for what appears to be extended periods of time. That would take care of at least two of their top four scorers.

Yet, the rest of the Western Conference – dealing with the same crippling injury issues – isn't going to wait for the Wild to regroup. And they certainly aren't going to feel sorry for a team with one of the best goaltending tandems in the league.

For a team that did so many little things right – like winning one-goal games, dominating faceoff battles, blocking shots, and playing physical – the Wild have lost their identity. And they've lost it quick.

From this perch, this isn't the type of situation where a coach like Yeo is supposed to shake his team out of the doldrums. Instead, this is when the Wild need to rely on leaders in place like Matt Cullen and Dany Heatley – who have played more than 1,700 combined games in the NHL.

Extenuating circumstances or not, the Wild have shown too much promise this season to bow out of the playoff race in January.

"We can't lose our focus in any part of the game," Kyle Brodziak said. "I think it starts with an everyday mindset. We need to somehow find a way to somehow mentally keep that same focus every time we step on the ice. We just need to find a way to prepare ourselves mentally for a 60-minute game. Obviously some things are going to happen but one bad thing shouldn't turn into 10 bad things."

Frank Seravalli covers the Flyers for the Philadelphia Daily News. On Twitter: @DNFlyers

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