NOW WHAT?

There might not be enough saliva available to lick the wounds after that "win and you're in" dud the Stars played in St. Paul yesterday.

Cripes, a Saint Bernard couldn't sloppily drool enough to sooth the mental scrapes and burns inflicted by the Wild.

A game - and the failure to muster up a "we will not be denied" effort - like that one should tell you plenty about your team. You couldn't beat a floundering club full of minor-league call-ups when it meant the most. Ugh!

Sure they played hard, and of course they tried, but just like when they needed to win at home and didn't, or beat a banged up Coyotes team in Phoenix or a depleted Kings team in LA and didn't, they failed to seize the day. No stellar individual efforts. No winning game plan. Instead, a 5-7 rookie defenseman, a backup goalie, and a young banging forward who spent most of the season in the AHL out-executed them, and in doing so - executed their season.

The autopsy of this non-playoff season - the third in a row - shouldn't need a microscope to reveal what ultimately killed a dream that seemed so vivid and luscious at mid-season. Over the full 82 games they weren't deep enough and didn't play good enough to make it into the top 8 in an epic "make the other guy set the record" playoff race.

Close? Yes.

Better than a year ago? In some areas.

Individual merit? Sure, and some guys more than others.

But all that leaves is a big fat burning question. A question that surely started to be mulled and pondered even as the clock ground painfully down to zero in the Xcel Energy Center, and will be further bandied about for the next six months. How does this team take the next step and again play games in mid to late April - at the very least?

As difficult as it might be to find, an answer to that query is needed, because in the galloping world of big time sports if you're stuck in neutral the cruel reality is - you're actually in reverse.