Spurgeon Is Out. Minnesota's Defense Is Now Quinn Hughes and a Prayer.

Jared Spurgeon did not play against Winnipeg on Wednesday with an upper-body injury, and at this point the Wild's blue line situation has moved past concerning into something closer to bare. Faber is out following fractured-skull surgery. Gustavsson remains on injured reserve after hip surgery. Olli Maatta was a late scratch earlier this week with a lower-body issue. Now Spurgeon, the team's second-ranked defenseman by playing time, is gone too.

What's left is Quinn Hughes carrying the load, with Zeev Buium — a minus-15 on the season — as the next man up. That's a steep drop. The depth chart lists David Spacek as a recent fill-in, which tells you everything about where Minnesota is right now on the back end.

The strange part is the goals-against number has actually tightened over the last 10 games. That's real, but it's also the kind of stat that can mislead you heading into a playoff series, where teams with time to prepare will find the soft spots. A blue line held together by youth and call-ups is a different thing in October than it was in November.

Minnesota clinched as the Western Conference's third seed and beat Vegas and Florida in back-to-back games not long ago, so the roster can still compete. But Spurgeon's absence removes the last experienced option behind Hughes, and the Wild are now entering the postseason with a defense corps that looks nothing like the one that earned this seed.