The Minnesota Wild dropped to 11-10-3 with their blowout loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Monday night and now sit last in the Central Division.

On Wednesday, general manager Chuck Fletcher, who has seen the team reach the postseason in each of the past five seasons, called the team's start “incredibly disappointing.”

Fletcher took aim at the play of the team's forwards, whose mistakes in the neutral zone are leading to goals against.

“Until our forwards in particular start to play the game the right way, we will not win,” Fletcher told the Twin Cities Pioneer Press. “It’s somewhat surprising that Monday’s result hasn’t happened sooner… We want to encourage our forwards to make plays when they have open ice or when they have an odd-man rush. We want creativity. We want skill.

"That said, when we’re through the neutral zone and there’s three or four defenders lined up, to think that we can make cute plays through them, I think we’ve seen the results.”

Fletcher, who is in the final year of his contract with the Wild, said he still believes the Wild have the talent to win games, but their playing style must change in order to do so.

It’s a high-character group,” said Fletcher, who was named general manager in 2009. “It’s a good enough group to win. That said, right now, it has to change, the focus has to change, and if it doesn’t, then this is what we are. We will win one, lose one, get blown out occasionally, and (Devan Dubnyk and Alex Stalock) are going to have a lot of long nights.”

The Wild lost 7-2 to the Jets on Monday, allowing seven straight goals after opening a two-goal lead in the first period. Fletcher said he hoped the loss would serve as a wake-up call for the group.

“Maybe a game like that will reinforce what we need to do,” Fletcher said. “Maybe actions speak louder than words and we’ll be tired of lining up at center ice with the other team celebrating.”

According to CapFriendly, the Wild have less than $50,000 in cap space remaining in their budget. The team traded highly touted prospect Alex Tuch to the Vegas Golden Knights in June to keep their core intact during the expansion draft, but the results this season have not been as expected.

“This is what we wanted,” Fletcher said about his roster. “I think we kept the right guys. We couldn’t keep everybody. There were expansion pressures and (salary) cap pressures, and I thought we did what we could to keep our core.

“...As a team, we just need to play smarter. We are capable of it, and we will have to prove it to everybody. We did it last year, and we can do it this year. Will we? We’ll all find out.”

The Wild host the Golden Knights on Thursday.