Wild Game Day number 71
Wild Record (39-24-7 85 pts)
Road Record (15-18-1)

Opponent: Vegas Golden Knights (45-20-5 95 pts)
Home Record (24-8-2)

Site: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV

Time: 9:30PM CT

TV: Fox Sports North (FSN)

Last Result:
11/30 Golden Knights 2 @ Wild 4
2/2 Golden Knights 2 @ Wild 5

Twelve games left for the Wild and they find themselves up 1 point on the top wildcard team, Colorado, two points up on second wildcard team Dallas, and three points up on the first non-qualifier Anaheim. Seven of the twelve are away from home including tonight's first ever visit to Vegas to face the Western Conference leading Golden Knights.

Vegas has the best home record now, and the road ahead will not be easy for the Wild as they begin the final stretch without Jared Spurgeon.

The Golden Knights are coming off one of their worst performances of the season on home ice, an 8-3 loss to the Devils on Wednesday night. Vegas had just completed a highly successful five game (4-1-0) road trip that ended with 3 straight wins.

Often times when teams return home after a lengthy road trip that first game back is a bit rocky, as that proved to be for the Golden Knights on Wednesday. Tonight will be a lot different and the Wild will need to be ready for a fired up Vegas squad. Not only do they want to put that poor performance against the Devils behind them, but more importantly they want to pay the Wild back for the two losses they handed them in St. Paul earlier this season.

The Wild are looking to rebound themselves after losing their last two by a combined 9-2 score. Minnesota has only endured one 3-game losing streak this season, a strength of the Wild for sure. If they are going to avoid making that two 3-game skids, they will need to bring a solid team effort tonight.

The game plan needs to be simple get the puck out of the defensive zone quickly, nothing fancy, strong puck support, and even better puck protection. These all seem like the obvious, but for some very strange reason this Wild team thinks that they are a finesse team all too often and the turnovers become plentiful.

When that occurs this team is a below average club, and the results are usually not so pleasant for the Wild. Bruce Boudreau and company are tasked with the challenge of getting the troops to buy in totally and pull together in the face of adversity, with the loss of Spurgeon. They need to use #46 as a rallying point, and for everything Spurg has done for this team, they owe it to him that his last game this season did not end with him being helped off the ice.

So the first trip to Vegas for the Wild, and the Wild faithful, who have arrived in full force. There should be a significant roar when the Wild score tonight, and listen closely before puck drop for the faithful to yell "Let's Play Hockey!"

A homecoming for Jason Zucker and of course the Erik Haula and Alex Tuch storylines are nice little sidelights surrounding the Wild's first trip to "Sin City" but this is all about a key battle on the ice, and a critical 2 points in the standings.

No time to talk about storylines, this is crunch time. Jobs are on the line, because if the Wild fail to make the playoffs there will be a lot of soul searching to be had, and numerous changes in the offing.

Ryan Murphy and Zack Mitchell have been recalled from Iowa. Murphy, you may recall, played very well in his first recall filling in for Spurgeon when Jared missed nine games earlier in the year. Murphy has not been the same player in Iowa that we saw with the big club since being sent back down.

But here he is with a chance to showcase his talent in a twelve game playoff push. This is a critical time for the former first round pick, as he once again will be a UFA come July 1st. A good situation for the Wild as they have a player that is playing for his hockey future, something I hope can be infectious to his Wild teammates.

Projected Wild lines:
Zucker-Staal-Granlund
Parise-Koivu-Niederreiter
Ennis-Cullen-Coyle
Foligno-Eriksson Ek-Winnik

Suter-Dumba
Brodin-Murphy
Seeler-Prosser

Stalock
Dubnyk

It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!

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