Boudreau: Some Wild players are shells of the guys I've known

Minnesota Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau tore into his players after a disappointing 4-1 defeat to the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.

"There's some guys there that just are a shell of the players that I've known for two-and-a-half years," Boudreau told reporters.

Boudreau then expressed his frustration at Mikael Granlund specifically, as the star forward has now scored just two goals in his past 37 games.

"I can't go out there and hang on his back and follow him like a close-talker and say, 'Hey, shoot the puck," Boudreau said. "He's a smart enough player. The last two years he was one of the, I thought, top 10 players in the league. And now he's got two goals in (37) games."

Minnesota has now dropped four straight and sits in the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference, just two points up on the St. Louis Blues and Vancouver Canucks.

"This was sort of the last straw," Boudreau said. "Everybody now has caught us or within a point, so it's either find your sense of urgency and do what you have to do to win or bad things are going to happen."

The Wild will now embark on a mini two-game road trip, starting in New Jersey on Saturday, where they will look to get back into the win column.