It's gut check time kids! Time to put all the cards on the table. The Wild need to bring their "A" game. They need to get pucks to the dirty areas, they gotta get pucks on net, they gotta wear their heart on their sleeve and yadda-yadda-yadda.
A sports cliche, even when properly used doesn't make for much in the terms of writing about your favorite team or player. They tend to devolve the conversation from the game into some kind of pre-arranged conversation where real analytics get tossed out the window and are substituted for a broad stroke approach at making sense of what just happened, or what needs to happen.