Halloween night, around 9 o’clock. Perhaps even later. The wind whips, the branches wave. The candy bowl is empty. The doorbell has not rung for 90 minutes.

And then… DING DONG!

What infernal hell hath befallen us? Your spine stiffens and your blood runs cold. But you know the truth. The real Witching Hour has arrived. There’s a persistent second doorbell, followed by irritated mumbling through the walls — Dude, I saw a guy in the window, they’re home. … You open the door.

Teenagers. No costumes. No “Trick or treat!” They can barely deign to raise their leaden pillowcases. Something here — the bored stares, the nascent mustaches, their inability to read the room — feels off. You mutter that it’s late and have no more candy and they say nothing and spin on their heels and you close the door and sigh. Ten minutes later, another doorbell.

Oh, Great Pumpkin, please, an answer: How old is too old to trick or treat?

At least in Illinois, the answer — or rather, an answer — has more complexity, contemporary resonance and fascinating history than you might have considered. It is partly rooted in a chaotic Halloween party in Ogden Park exactly 100 years ago, a night when Chicago police found themselves shooting at teenagers, a night once defined by packs of older kids and vandalism. Before we embark, know this: There will be echoes of class resentment, and screams of gentrification. Here lies a holiday predicated on the idea that, for one night, we open our doors to our neighbors, even if we don’t recognize their masked faces. And yet, in the past century, that’s led to serious campaigns in Illinois to outlaw trick or treating.

For the record, there is no statewide age restriction on trick or treating in Illinois.

No state has such a law.

But many small communities around the country set formal and informal age limits. Some have for decades, including in Illinois. Virginia seems to have the most. As recently as 2017, Pennsauken, New Jersey, near Philadelphia, made an official statement: “Trick or treating is for kids, not adults. Anyone over the age of 14 cannot go out trick or treating, unless you’re acting as a chaperone. … And unfortunately, chaperones can’t ask for any candy.” Last fall, New Jersey’s Fairleigh Dickinson University asked 800 people nationally: How old is too old to trick or treat? The average reply was 13 and a half.

“People have always pointed out when a kid looks too old to be trick or treating, or when they didn’t put enough effort into their costumes,” said Dan Cassino, professor of government and politics at Fairleigh, and executive director of its polls, “but the problem (for a village or town looking to formalize age limits) is you get into race and class issues. People overestimate the ages of Black children. There are kids who want to trick or treat yet have less resources for costumes. That’s all true. I live in one of those neighborhoods where people arrive from outside to trick or treat, and so some people have a tendency to police who supposedly belongs or doesn’t. And doesn’t that go against the spirit of the holiday? Most teens will eventually opt out of trick or treating on their own.”

Still, since 2008, Belleville, Illinois, south of Springfield has had a controversial “Halloween solicitation” ordinance making it illegal for anyone older than 12 to wear a costume on a Belleville street any day other than Halloween “without permission of the Mayor or Chief of Police.”

“That’s in place to keep everybody safe,” said Mayor Jenny Gain Meyer. “We have a large senior citizen population not comfortable answering the door after a certain time of night.” But she acknowledges “We do get complaints (about the law),” and when she was a child, “You got home from school, got into your plastic costume, got a pillowcase and took off for hours on your own and got more candy than you knew what to do with. But I think the holiday just has a different feel now.”

In Marion, on the southern border of Illinois, the age limit is also 12, but according to city officials, it’s there primarily to allow room for smaller children to roam. In Forsyth, outside Decatur, village administrator Jill Applebee said there’s never been a call for age restrictions: “There are worse things kids could be doing that night.” But the village will also fine trick-or-treaters (up to $750) if they approach a home without its porch light on.

That’s one of the ways that towns, intentionally or not, discourage trick-or-treating into old age. In fact, the sporadic irritating surprise of a teenager on your porch is among the reasons why so many suburbs mandate specific times for trick-or-treating.

“Times are in place for that reason,” said Jan Tomaszewski, deputy city clerk of Palos Heights, “and it seems to work, we’ve never had trouble. If a doorbell rings after 7 p.m. now, you know it’s not a child.”

William, 4, left, and Zachary Schulte, 7, trick-or-treat in a neighborhood in Gurnee on Oct. 26, 2025. Gurnee does trick-or-treating on the Sunday before Halloween. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Many Lake County communities including Waukegan, Gurnee and Zion relocate trick-or-treating to several days before Oct. 31: “It’s become our tradition, for a long time now,” said Maurice Cashin, office manager of Wadsworth.

It’s also quite a way from the breathless dash of freedom Halloween night once offered, that classic autumn image popularized in part by Ray Bradbury, whose Halloween memories of Waukegan filled his beloved works: “Galloping, rushing, they seized a final sheet, adjusted a last mask, tugged at strange mushroom caps or wigs, shouting at the way the wind took them … just letting the sheer exhilaration of being alive and out on this night pull their lungs and shape their throats into a yell.”

Today, Bradbury would have to trick or treat five days before Halloween, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

“I bet 90% of the kids who trick or treat now have no real idea what the ‘trick’ part of what they’re saying really means anymore,” said Lisa Morton, a Halloween historian.

On the unlikely chance your child stumbles onto a time machine this Halloween and finds themselves in Chicago, Oct. 31, 1925, they might not even recognize the holiday.

That night, according to Chicago police, 25 drunk teens attacked a Halloween party in the field house at Ogden Park. Police arrived, found themselves outmatched and called for reinforcements. Some teenagers beat a few police, who responded by shooting at least two people. Nobody died, and one civic leader (unfortunately named R.O. Witcraft) told the Tribune the evening had otherwise been relatively sedate for the holiday. And in a way, it was.

Sure, besides the “Halloween riot,” the Tribune reported in the same article that several cars had been set on fire across the city; and several buildings were set on fire; and Chicagoans reported smashed windows and destroyed fences; and a 13- and 14-year old were arrested for hurling rocks at “L” trains; and 62 boys were caught in Evanston disrupting traffic and jumping on cars; and someone had attempted to burn down the stands at one of Northwestern University’s sports fields.

But “Otherwise,” the article decided, “Night Is Quiet With Usual Pranks.”

Because, by 1925, not just in Chicago but nationally, Halloween was nuts.

“We have a vision of the holiday as child-centered, innocent and by sixth grade, you’re too old,” said Joel Best, a sociology and criminal justice professor emeritus at the University of Delaware who studied crime and rumors of crime on Halloween. “Most of the traditions in the early 20th century were adolescent — a young woman who went into a dark room with a candle on Halloween could look into a mirror and see the face of the man she’d marry. That sort of thing. But on the other end, for years, there had been lots of violence and vandalism — and a lot of frustration over it.”

During much of the 19th century, Halloween gathered steam in the United States partly because of an influx of immigration from Ireland and England, where the holiday had ancient Celtic roots and early precursors to trick or treating included asking for candles to ward off demons and begging for money to pay for feasts on All Saints’ Day. A degree of class resentment, and pranking, carried into the New World. Doors were found barricaded in wealthy neighborhoods and soot was blown into the faces of well-to-do passersby. Newspaper accounts were of two minds about the hedonism: The Chicago Daily News ran a front-page editorial suggesting homeowners drive off Halloween pranksters by loading shotguns with rock salt and shooting. Conversely, many of those same papers welcomed a single night of letting off steam, jokingly reminding readers to tie down everything on their porches on Oct. 31. A Rock Island, Illinois, newspaper said Halloween was “license to do just the thing (youngsters) wouldn’t do any other night.”

A kind of non-lethal Purge.

Except people were getting hurt, and worse.

Children shot beans into the eyes of drivers and strung fishing line across public sidewalks. In 1924, two Chicago police officers were killed in a car crash when trash was stacked on a dark street. People were fed up with the holiday. In 1926, following the Ogden violence, Chicago school superintendent William McAndrew pushed for giving away movie tickets, good only at Halloween — as long as a child pledged to behave and sit through speeches by “prominent citizens.” He told the Tribune that he wanted kids to promise “garbage cans will preserve an upright position, swings will not barricade sidewalks, tires will remain inflated and cows will not be perched in trees.” The city said it handed out 80,000 free movie tickets that year.

Vandalism declined.

But by the end of World War II, and into the 1950s, communities found that trick or treating — which had been more of a sideline until midcentury — was an even better distraction, especially as suburbs grew and residents were feeling eager to meet new neighbors. Candy and costume companies, which finally went all-in on the holiday in the 1950s, agreed. “(Widespread vandalism on Halloween) was a problem that would solve itself,” said Best, “but then again, certain people are just wound a little tighter than others.”

On Long Island, in 1964, a woman was arrested for handing out dog biscuits, ant poison and steel wool to older trick-or-treaters; she swore she adored Halloween — her own sons, 14 and 16, had been trick-or-treating that night. By the 1960s, older kids without costumes, trick-or-treating late into the night, were a common gripe in Illinois town meetings.

In 1961, the city of Sparta, Illinois, proposed limiting trick-or-treat hours to combat the scourge. Others followed. Within a decade, as white flight was transforming suburbs, stories of trick-or-treat candy laced with razor blades and poison became conventional wisdom (despite being almost entirely apocryphal). Children from working-class communities trick-or-treating in wealthier communities were more common. As towns and villages increasingly fretted over safety on Halloween, a holiday once defined by lawlessness was gentrified. In 1972, for a brief time, Park Forest banned trick or treating altogether, on the rumor of razor blades in apples. That same year, after Burbank also banned trick or treating (on the grounds that it violated a solicitation ordinance), children picketed and the mayor set restricted hours for trick or treating — within two blocks of your home.

Fifty years later — and one Halloween season fueled by the 1982 Tylenol murders in Chicago — chances are, in your community, there are standardized civic guidelines for Halloween. Vandalism on Halloween does happen, though not nearly like in 1925.

You will still get a knock on your door late at night. In a way, that older kid on your porch is the last link to forgotten traditions. “When I was a kid, trick-or-treat lasted for days before, and sometimes after,” said David Motley, director of communications for the city of Waukegan. “You’d be gone for six or seven hours and come back with a pillowcase of candy and it was like magic. And now, conventional wisdom says tighten up, strive for less lawlessness and give it a timeline.”

Something mediocre this way comes.

cborrelli@chicagotribune.com

The federal government shutdown and new work requirements will throw New York’s food stamps program into chaos, New York Focus reports.

It’s likely that people enrolled in SNAP will see a delay or not receive benefits for the month of November due to the ongoing government shutdown. | Photos: Ottojula/Wikimedia Commons; Oba San/Canva | Illustration: Leor Stylar

This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for their newsletter here.

If you’re one of the nearly 3 million New Yorkers currently enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, you are likely to see delays in your food benefits next month as a result of the ongoing federal government shutdown. You may also be subject to new work requirements, which could cause hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers to lose their benefits.

That could trigger a hunger crisis. The average enrolled New York household receives $376 per month from the program, which is also a significant source of revenue for the state’s retailers and farmers. Gov. Kathy Hochul is facing calls to fund food benefits during the shutdown, but she has so far said the state can’t afford to.

Here’s what you need to know.

Will I receive my November SNAP benefits?

It’s likely that you will see a delay or not receive your benefits next month due to the government shutdown.

The federal government has been shut down since Oct. 1 over disagreements in Washington, D.C., over skyrocketing health insurance premiums. Until Congress strikes a deal, funding is frozen for programs like SNAP and food shipments for food banks. It’s not yet clear whether the Trump administration will later reimburse recipients for SNAP benefits they don’t receive in November.

Where can I get help with groceries?

For the latest snap developments, check this state website. The latest announcements for WIC can be found here. To locate your nearest food pantry or food bank, use this website. Local mutual aid groups in New York City and elsewhere in the state may also be offering assistance.

West Side Campaign Against Hunger in New York City is among several local organizations that will be providing more food to their clients in anticipation of snap disruptions. It has also expanded its delivery program in light of increased fears over immigration raids.

Local politicians’ offices may also be able to connect residents with local feeding resources and programs. You can look up your elected officials using this website. (Silverman also urged the public to contact their representatives and demand action.)

Food providers are aware that their efforts won’t be enough. “The value of SNAP is exponentially bigger than all the emergency feeding work that happens in NYC combined,” Silverman said. “Food pantries are not a substitute for SNAP. They never have been and they can’t be.”

Amie Parikh, chief executive officer for the Hudson Valley Care Coalition, agreed that there is no substitute for SNAP, but urged New Yorkers to tap into other existing programs they may not be aware of. As part of an ongoing state initiative, the Hudson Valley Social Care Network is currently screening Medicaid recipients in the region to connect them with free food and assistance with energy bills.

Many Medicaid recipients are enrolled in SNAP but may not be aware they qualify for this separate stream of nutritional assistance, which is funded through Medicaid, Parikh said. The program covers free, delivered medically tailored meals, cooking supplies and pantry items for certain Medicaid recipients.

What is New York doing in response?

New York is among 25 states suing the Trump administration for failing to use emergency contingency funds to keep SNAP running during the shutdown. (The administration had previously said it would keep SNAP benefits flowing during a shutdown, but has not done so.)

Hochul declared a state of emergency Thursday and committed over $106 million to support various food programs across the state that are expected to see increased demand while SNAP benefits are paused. The money includes a mix of new funding and fast-tracked grants that were already allocated to food providers for the upcoming calendar year.

Hochul plans to deploy student volunteers to help distribute food aid and has called on businesses to donate what they can. “This is a moment for our community to rise up and respond to something that can only be described as a moral crisis,” she said at a press conference Thursday.

Greg Silverman, who heads the West Side Campaign Against Hunger in New York City, urged city and state leaders to devise a more robust emergency plan to get aid directly to New Yorkers and support frontline food providers.

“They need to come together and come up with a solution that is cash-based,” he said. “We need our elected officials to step up and not just show up to some Thanksgiving turkey giveaway.” 

Hundreds of organizations are calling on state leaders to fully cover the funding loss—roughly $650 million in lost snap benefits per month—using New York’s sizable surplus or fiscal reserves. The Fiscal Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, points out the state could try to secure a deal with Congress to have these funds reimbursed by the federal government later.

“This is exactly what reserves should be used for,” said FPI economist Emily Eisner. “This will not put New York state in financial distress to cover the benefits.” She called on state lawmakers to convene in Albany immediately for an emergency session.

Other states have already stepped up. Virginia and Delaware have committed to covering SNAP benefits for their residents after declaring states of emergency. New Mexico will do the same for at least 10 days. California is pouring $80 million into its food bank network and has enlisted the help of the National Guard to keep facilities running, as it did during the pandemic.

What about the SNAP work requirements I’ve been hearing about?

Starting Nov. 1, some SNAP recipients will also be subject to new work requirements signed into law by President Donald Trump earlier this year. 

The announcement came as a surprise to states like New York, which originally had until next year to begin implementing the new requirements. Counties are now scrambling to communicate these changes to snap recipients, and it’s possible you may encounter some delays and confusion as agency staff adjust to the new guidelines.

Will I be subject to the work requirements?

The new rules may apply to you if you meet the following conditions:

Are an adult aged 18 to 64 

Do not live with dependents or children under age 14 

You aren’t disabled

You aren’t pregnant

The new mandate will also apply to veterans, the homeless, and aging foster youth who have been historically exempt from work requirements. 

Your county social service department should contact you soon if they determine you are subject to the new work rule requirements. Mailed notices for those living in New York City have begun going out and will outline the next steps you need to take. Other counties like Oswego and Erie are scheduling in-person orientations to notify residents of the changes, while those residing in Onondaga County may also receive automated calls in addition to formal notices.

To maintain SNAP benefits under the new work requirements, you’ll have to prove that you spent 80 hours each month working, in school or volunteering. (The monthly time requirement may be lower, based on the amount of SNAP benefits your household receives.) 

If you’re unable to comply with these requirements for more than three months, your SNAP benefits will be terminated.

How can I keep my SNAP benefits under the new work requirements?

While the new work rules go into effect on Nov. 1, the first month that will count toward the three-month limit starts on Dec. 1. This means that your SNAP benefits cannot be canceled due to the new three-month time limit before March 1, 2026. 

The state has instructed county social service departments to connect SNAP recipients with local programs that could help them meet the 80-hour monthly requirements, which could take the form of various workforce training programs or volunteer activities. New York is one of the few states that delegates SNAP administration to counties, so offerings may differ based on your county.

Scott French, who heads New York City’s Human Resources Administration, said his agency is doing all it can to ensure New Yorkers across the five boroughs are able to comply with the new requirements. “That’s our leading goal and mission in everything we’re setting up here, to make sure folks have every possibility to keep their benefits.”

The agency is in the process of scheduling appointments throughout November for New York City residents who are subject to the new work rules. The appointments will connect SNAP recipients with pre-approved workforce development programs that will help them satisfy the monthly requirement. 

The agency will also begin processing medical exemption forms for New Yorkers who are not able to meet the monthly requirements; the forms can be filled out by a wide variety of health providers. 

The new form will allow health providers to provide broad, non-specific reasons for why patients may be unable to meet the new SNAP work rules, such as temporary or permanent physical or mental health barriers. (It does not require a specific diagnosis, unlike disability benefits.)

If you’re a New York City resident without access to health care providers, the Human Resources Administration will connect you with professionals who can assess you for medical exemptions, French said.

Does my immigration status affect my eligibility for SNAP?

The new law passed in July restricts SNAP eligibility to “legally present” immigrants. 

This means that refugees and asylum-seekers may no longer be eligible for SNAP benefits. This includes New Yorkers who are trafficking victims and those with temporary protected status.

Legal permanent residents, such as green card holders, remain eligible for SNAP, but may be subject to a five-year waiting period before they can receive benefits. 

An estimated 41,000 New Yorkers could lose their SNAP benefits as a result of eligibility changes based on immigration status.

How will the shutdown affect my other benefits?

It’s not yet clear how the shutdown will affect the Women, Infants, Children program, or WIC, which provides nutritional assistance for nearly half a million pregnant women, new mothers, and their babies in New York.

Earlier this month, the White House used emergency funds to keep the program funded through the end of October—which advocates point out the administration could easily do for the SNAP program, too. An additional $300 million is needed to keep WIC running for the first half of November, but it’s unclear if the administration will do so again.

If you rely on the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or HEAP, to heat your home, you could see those benefits delayed or missing due to the shutdown. HEAP has been in limbo since earlier this year, when all federal staff for the program were let go. Many New Yorkers are enrolled in both SNAP and HEAP.

Medicaid and Medicare benefits will continue during the shutdown, though reduced federal staffing may make it harder to get help with tasks like eligibility verification.

Can I still apply for benefits?

Yes. All county agencies across the state are still processing applications, including renewals, for SNAP, WIC, and HEAP. Officials and advocates are urging New Yorkers to stay up to date on their renewals for these programs, despite the pause in payouts, to ensure they receive their benefits once the federal government reopens.

The post SNAP Is Set To Be Frozen in November. Here’s What New Yorkers Need to Know. appeared first on City Limits.

By JON GAMBRELL

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. national intelligence director told officials Friday in the Mideast that America’s former strategy of “regime change or nation building” had ended under President Donald Trump.

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Tulsi Gabbard ’s comments before the Manama Dialogue, an annual security summit in Bahrain put on by the International Institute for Security Studies, underlines remarks Trump offered on a trip earlier this year to the Middle East.

In Trump’s second term, previous American goals of fostering human rights and democracy promotion in the region have been replaced by an emphasis on economic prosperity and regional stability. That includes securing a ceasefire that has halted the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, as well as forcing an end to Israel’s 12-day war on Iran after sending American bombers to attack Iranian nuclear sites.

“For decades, our foreign policy has been trapped in a counterproductive and endless cycle of regime change or nation building,” said Gabbard, a former Congresswoman from Hawaii and U.S. Army National Guard veteran.

“It was a one-size-fits-all approach, of toppling regimes, trying to impose our system of governance on others, intervene in conflicts that were barely understood and walk away with more enemies than allies.”

She added: “The results: Trillions spent, countless lives lost and in many cases, the creation of greater security threats.”

That assessment mirrors Trump’s own thinking about the wars that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington. He reached a deal in his first term to withdraw from Afghanistan, which in the Biden administration became a chaotic departure in 2021. Meanwhile, he’s embraced Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaida fighter once held in an American prison in Iraq.

But serious challenges remain, particularly in the Middle East. Gabbard noted in her brief remarks that the ceasefire in Gaza remained “fragile.” She also acknowledged Iran remained a concern as the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said renewed movement has been detected recently at the country’s nuclear sites.

“The road ahead will not be simple or easy but the president is very committed down this road,” said Gabbard, who attended the event as a government shutdown grinds on back home.

An Associated Press journalist had been accredited and issued a visa to cover the summit, but the Bahraini government late Wednesday said it had been rescinded as it was conducting a “post-approval review” of that permission. The government did not elaborate on why the visa was revoked. Earlier that day, the AP published a story on long-detained activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja beginning an “open-ended” hunger strike in Bahrain over his internationally criticized imprisonment.

Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin did not offer any out clauses or caveats when asked if he would give head coach John Hynes a vote of confidence earlier this week.

“He’s not going anywhere,” Guerin said. At the time, the Wild had lost four in a row.

When the team closed October with a come-from-ahead home loss to Pittsburgh and the losing streak hit five, that endorsement by Hynes’ boss was promptly ignored by a small but vocal segment of the fanbase that seems to always have the torches and pitchforks at the ready.

“The coach is toast,” one posted on social media. Others called for a boycott of the team until changes are made. And some want Guerin’s head to roll, as well, after a coaching change is made.

One of the primary jobs for Guerin and Hynes is to cast aside all of that noise and run this team like the billion dollar business it is. That’s not just hyperbole. In a recent estimate of every NHL team’s value by Forbes, the Wild were pegged as being worth $1.55 billion. But if the seat upon which Hynes sits is getting hotter as the Minnesota weather gets colder, the coach’s past success, and the high expectations that winning produced, are partially to blame.

Less than 11 months ago, with a roster largely the same as this year’s, the Wild beat the Ducks in Anaheim, 5-1, to improve to 18-4-4. Minnesota, in its first full season under Hynes, had the best record in the NHL, and the best start in franchise history.

The 2024-25 season devolved into a mess of injuries. Kirill Kaprizov would miss half of the regular season. Mats Zuccarello and Jared Spurgeon missed a month each. Joel Eriksson Ek missed 36 games. Jonas Brodin missed 32. After that eye-popping start, the Wild needed a dramatic goal in the final half-minute of the regular season just to make the playoffs.

They didn’t stay long in the postseason, falling to Vegas in six games, but not before taking a 2-1 series lead and coming within a one-inch toe of Gustav Nyquist’s skate from flying back to Minnesota with a 3-2 series lead.

There were no eye-popping free agent moves over the summer, despite a notion that with money to spend, Minnesota would load up on July 1. They got veteran Vladimir Tarasenko for little in return, and he has scored one goal in the first dozen games. They signed faceoff specialist Nico Sturm, who has been injured and has an uncertain future following back surgery.

It doesn’t help that Zuccarello (lower body) has yet to play in a game this season.

But with Kaprizov locked up to the richest contract in NHL history, and top goalie Filip Gustavsson signed long term, there was a quiet expectation that another hot start and 41 fun-filled nights at the newly-renamed Grand Casino Arena were coming. A decisive 5-0 win in St. Louis on the opening night of the regular season only deepened that fanbase confidence.

Since that triumphant night in the Show Me State, the Wild are 2-6-3 and have shown very little to anyone. At their current pace of winning three out of every 12 games, the franchise’s 18th victory of the season would come on March 24, not Dec. 6 like it did a season ago.

“I think we have to get rid of last season in general,” Wild winger Marcus Foligno said Thursday. He has no goals or assists through his first 11 games.

“It’s not even close right now. It’s frustrating,” he said. “You know, last year’s last year. There’s new guys in the lineup. Every year brings something different. Right now we’re going through it. For whatever reason, it’s just mellow and vanilla right now. So, it’s not good enough.”

It’s common for Minnesota fans to be nostalgic for the good times. Recent reunions of former Wild players have, almost to a man, focused on the team’s unlikely 2003 run to the Western Conference Final. Vikings fans still dream of 1998 and what could have been had Gary Anderson stayed perfect for the season. Twins fans still come to the ballpark wearing vintage 1991 gear.

But it is now November 2025, and flashbacks to the good times a year ago will do nothing to clean up the early season mess the Wild find themselves in.

“Every year presents different challenges. You don’t pick (up) where you left off last year,” Hynes said after Thursday’s loss to Pittsburgh. “There’s four to five months in between the seasons, and there’s different dynamics to your team, and then you commit. Right now, we haven’t found that regularly. And that’s something that we’ve got to do.”

And soon.

The Wild were only three points out of a playoff spot Friday morning, with nearly the entire season ahead of them — 67 games starting Saturday against Vancouver. But this team knows better than most how much a team’s start, good or bad, can influence an entire season.

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