GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Wild coach Mike Yeo stood at center ice with his team in front of him before the start of practice.
With an impassioned, expletive-laced speech that lasted nearly two minutes, Yeo made it incredibly clear that the Wild's play, which has them slotted 10th in the Western Conference, hasn't been nearly good enough the first two months of this season.
Largely, the Wild have played just good enough to lose, just inconsistent enough to keep themselves from a long winning streak. Wednesday's 2-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks was more of the same.
"We should be better," Zach Parise said. "We're underachieving. It had to be addressed. It was long overdue, I think."
There are several reasons for the Wild's 10th-place position. Among them is that they have played fewer games than any team in their conference. But they haven't benefited from their improved depth, and the goalie play hasn't been as expected.
So for the first time this season, the warning alarms were sounded Friday. Yeo put the team through an intense practice.
"You don't want to put yourself into that situation where you're forced into, and I know it's only 27 games in, but you don't want to put yourself in a situation where you're forced to string together eight wins just to have a sniff," Parise said. "Regardless of games in hand or what not, we're still five points back from Winnipeg and that's not good enough for us."
Last season, the Wild turned around their season with a win in Arizona on March 29 and earned the seventh seed in the playoffs.
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The season before that, the Wild fell apart late and earned the eighth seed in the playoffs. But this season, the Wild want to be one of the West's best.
"We're tired of being on the cusp," Yeo said. "We're tired of being close. And we need to demand better than what we're bringing."
All season, the Wild have started slowly in games. They don't appear to play with urgency until they trail by a goal or two.
"It just hasn't been acceptable the way that we've been playing," Parise said. "We expect a lot more of ourselves. But I think as individuals, we all have to be better. You can't sit around and hope that someone else will do it."
Follow Chad Graff at twitter.com/ChadGraff.