With the 2025-26 NHL schedule officially released, it’s time for the dissection to start. Much like last season, an international tournament throws a wrench into things and creates a little compression at times. Due to the break, which will last from February 5 to February 25 for the Wild, they will be playing an unhealthy amount of back-to-back games. They will finish off the season with 8 games in 14 days, ending the season with their 14th back-to-back series of the season.
There aren’t many teams offering their sympathies, as every team has their own tough stretches to go through. One nice thing for the Wild is that they get their longest road trip of the season out of the way relatively early, and should be rested for it. Coming out of the holiday break they had to Winnipeg to kick off a seven-game road trip that also knocks out their California trip.
It’ll be after another break that the Wild’s most important stretch of the season happens. Following the Olympic break, Minnesota hits a 13-game stretch highlighted by 8 games within their division. With 7 of the 8 divisional teams having a reasonable shot at a playoff spot (sorry Chicago) these four-point games will have a tremendous amount of importance in determining the final standings.
With the possibility of up to 6 players participating in the Olympic games, the Wild aren’t going to have quite as much rest as some of the other teams in the league. Nico Sturm has already been named to the German squad and while no one else was named to their respective First 6 rosters, there is a good chance Sturm is sharing a flight with several Minnesota teammates to Italy. Matt Boldy has a good shot at making Team USA while Brock Faber has been on a lot of the preliminary roster guesses. If he’s healthy, Jonas Brodin should be on the Swedish defense in front of Filip Gustavsson. Joel Eriksson Ek should be on the team as well.
With the Germans not expected to compete for a medal, Sturm should be back early, but Team USA and Sweden should be there until the hockey portion of The Games is over on the 22nd. They’ll still have a few days to recover from the jet lag as the Wild get back to action on the 25th.
They’ll be able to do their laundry at home before catching another flight out west as Minnesota returns to action with a back-to-back against Colorado and Utah. They are back at home for St. Louis and an always tough Tampa Bay team. After a couple of days off it’s another quick road trip, this time to Vegas and Colorado (again). They return home for another match against Utah, and then it is three Eastern Conference teams with Philadelphia, New York, and Toronto. Then it’s a home-and-home with Chicago before finishing the stretch with a home game against Dallas.
While these four weeks are just a portion of the season, it could very well be the most series of games of the season. With each game against a central opponent basically counting for four points (two points for the winner, and a missed chance at two points for the loser) any type of winning streak for the Wild could help them separate from their divisional rivals.
Not only is it an important stretch, it’s going to be a tough one. Dallas, Colorado, Vegas, Toronto, and Tampa Bay are pretty much playoff locks and can make a case that they’re Stanley Cup contenders. St. Louis will be contending for a playoff spot, and while Chicago is likely a year or two away from contention, they will be better than last season.
It’s going to be a long, soul-crushing grind of a season, and if the Wild want to emerge in a playoff spot at the end of it, they’ll need to make sure their post-Olympic stretch is the best hockey they play in the regular season.