The Wild have five regulars injured, including their starting goaltender and one of their best forwards and defensemen, but now might be the perfect time for them to go toe-to-toe with the reigning Stanley Cup champions.

Their 5-1 dismissal of the Panthers on Oct. 22 still ranks as their statement victory of the season, a by-the-book clinic that showed how sharp the Wild can be when they execute their style to a T, and getting back to their identity is exactly what the Wild need after an uneven, ho-hum week-plus in which they rotated wins and losses.

“That was definitely one of our better games of the year,” defenseman Brock Faber recalled. “When we’re good, we’re a hard team to play against. But when we’re like that, we’re a really hard team to play against. That was a really big win for us.

“I feel like it started us off on the right direction, on the right foot.”

Nearly two months later, that effort is still the standard because of how precise the Wild were.

They were machine-like in how they operated all over the ice, from their offense to the defense. Although their 22 shots are among their fewest in a game this season, they capitalized at a mind-boggling efficiency, going 1-for-3, 2-for-4, 3-for-7, 4-for-13 and 5-for-14. They didn’t commit a single penalty, keeping Florida’s premier players out of a power-play setup, and they were stingy in front of goalie Filip Gustavsson: He had to face only one high-danger scoring chance in the third period.

“If we play to our structure, play the way we’re supposed to be playing,” Faber said, “we have a chance to win every night.”