In the first 19 days of October, the Minnesota Wild play just four regular season games. The final 11 days of the month, they play 6 games. For the Wild, the injury bug could not have struck at a better, or worse time. With the likes of Zach Parise, Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter, and Charlie Coyle all missing time due to injury, a slow start to the season helps these guys get back on the ice with less games missed.
Converse to that, 6 games in the final 11 days of October, plus and additional 15 games in the month of November have the Wild queued up for an extremely difficult road ahead.