The Minnesota Wild are smack dab in the middle of very familiar territory. It's the 2018 edition of the battle for a wildcard spot. It seems nearly every year the Wild find themselves in this same position. While last season they had a great middle-third of their season, which was good enough for them to secure 2nd in the Western Conference, it's more of an outlier than the norm.
Over the past 5 seasons the Wild have slid into a wildcard slot in 3 of those. Their other non-wildcard playoff berth came courtesy of a lockout shortened season.