Postgame Hat Trick: Avalanche 5, Wild 1

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 5-1 loss against the Colorado Avalanche at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Saturday night:

1. It ain't the Pacific Division anymore.
With all due respect to the Wild's first three opponents this season, Los Angeles, Anaheim and San Jose, the Colorado Avalanche certainly appear like a team in a different class in the makeshift West Division.
The Kings, Ducks and Sharks were three of seven teams that did not qualify for the Edmonton bubble over the summer, and while each looks improved over last season, the Avalanche are a team with some serious Stanley Cup aspirations.
Colorado set the tone early, scoring 3:02 into the game, then adding a power-play goal in the final minute of the first period to take a lead into intermission that it would never relinquish.
Leading 3-1 after 40 minutes, nine different players had found the scoresheet for the Avs, a testament to their depth up and down the lineup. They will be a force to be reckoned with all season long, which makes the challenge this week for the Wild all the more daunting, especially because ...
2. ... Minnesota was without Kevin Fiala.
When playing a team as fast and skilled as the Avalanche, it's imperative you're equipped with your best, your brightest, and definitely your fastest.
Unfortunately for the Wild, it's going to have to find a different way this week, at least until Thursday night, to slow down the speedy Avs because perhaps its fastest and most explosive forward, Fiala, is out; suspended by the NHL for three games on Friday because of a hit on L.A.'s Matt Roy in the second period on Thursday.
Not only is Fiala's game built for nights like Saturday, he was in great form, having scored three goals in the previous four games.
With Fiala out, the Wild skated with 11 forwards and added defenseman Brad Hunt to the back end, hoping to use his booming shot to help boost a slumping power play.
3. Dumba continues his hot start.
With Fiala out, the Wild needed to find -- and will need to the next couple games -- scoring from all parts of its lineup, including its defensive core.
Matt Dumba answered the call 6:49 into the game, firing a shot from a tough angle near the right circle off the facemask of Philipp Grubauer and into the net, briefly tying the game at 1-1.

For Dumba, it was already his third goal in the first nine games of the season, a good sign from the offensively-gifted d-man who struggled a year ago in his first season back from a triceps injury.
One season removed from scoring 12 goals in the first 32 games before sustaining said injury a couple weeks before Chirstmas in 2018, one that would cost him the remainder of the season, Dumba had just six goals in 69 games last season.
Dumba didn't score his third goal last season until game No. 18, so the fact he got there this year in half the time is a good sign that the 26-year-old reigning King Clancy Award winner is on track for a bounceback.
The hope now is that Dumba's OK following an apparent lower-body injury in the third period after he fell awkwardly to the ice after getting tangled up with teammate Jordan Greenway. Dumba was slow to his feet and went to the dressing room and did not return to the game.