Maroon: 'Guys should be pissed off' after Wild's 7th straight loss
Minnesota Wild forward Pat Maroon didn't hold back after his team's seventh straight loss Sunday.
"F-----g unacceptable. … Guys should be pissed off," Maroon said, according to The Athletic's Joe Smith.
The Wild dropped Sunday's contest against the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 despite outshooting the opposition 38-23. The loss drops Minnesota to 5-10-4 on the campaign, with the team's last win coming against the New York Islanders on Nov. 7.
"We've gotta change something," head coach Dean Evason said postgame. "We can't just continue to (say), 'Well, it's a good effort, we outshot them, we had lots of chances.' We're still losing. So, we gotta find a way to win."
Evason added: "Same mistakes, same guys are not pulling their weight. Same mistakes that happen most nights and don't allow us to have a true, true chance of winning a hockey game."
The Wild are the league's third-most penalized team per game and have the NHL's worst penalty kill at 67.2%. Minnesota allowed another two power-play goals against the Red Wings on Sunday.
Maroon took a tripping penalty 52 seconds into the third period, and Detroit converted on the ensuing man advantage to go up 3-1. He called the play "stupid" and took the blame for his mistake, according to Smith.
Evason called out Matt Boldy on Friday, saying the forward "100%" needs to play better, according to The Athletic's Michael Russo. He reiterated the sentiment after Sunday's loss.
"Sometimes, we'll take accountability, but there are sometimes where the player's gotta step up," Evason said when asked about Boldy. "I don't care how old you are, and I don't care what's going on, these guys get paid a lot of money to score goals and to play better, and some guys aren't. We'll do what we can do from our end, but there's gotta be some looking in the mirror as well."
Boldy has one goal and eight points in 11 games. His lone goal came Oct. 14 against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The 22-year-old is in the first season of a seven-year, $49-million contract signed in January.
The Wild will look to snap their losing skid Tuesday against the St. Louis Blues.