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UPDATED: Wild Quick Canadian Road Trip, First Stop Winnipeg |
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Wild Game Day number 5
Wild Record (1-1-2 4 pts)
Road Record (1-1-1)
Opponent: Winnipeg Jets (3-3-0 6 pts)
Home Record (1-2-0)
Site: Bell MTS Place, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Time: 7:00PM CT
TV: Fox Sports North (FSN)
Last season results:
10/15 Jets 3 @ Wild 4
11/23 Jets 1 @ Wild 3
2/7 Wild 4 @ Jets 2
2/28 Wild 6 @ Jets 5
3/19 Wild 4 @ Jets 5
After a five day layoff the Wild are back at it tonight in Winnipeg in the front end of the teams' first back to back games of the season. The injury news is getting better for Minnesota as Marcus Foligno is expected back in the lineup after missing the last game with a facial fracture. Foligno will be sporting a cage in his return, so don't expect him to drop the mitts any time soon. Foligno's presence in the lineup is huge for the Wild, especially for this matchup with the always physical Jets.
Mikael Granlund has made great strides in his recovery from his groin injury, and has looked good in practice, but remains a game time decision as to whether or not he plays tonight. The Wild have recalled Luke Kunin, Landon Ferraro, and Zach Mitchell and at least two of them will be in the lineup tonight, possibly all three depending on Granlund's game time status.
The border war has been a back and forth seesaw affair ever since the Jets second incarnation, following their move North from Atlanta back in 2011. The teams have split the 22 games played, each winning 11 times, with only one of those 22 games being decided by more than 2 goals. The Wild did take 4 of the five meetings last season, but dropped the last one in March 5-4 in Winnipeg.
The Jets are a dynamic offensive team led by Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler, Patrick Laine, Nicolaj Ehlers. Add to that group the talented Kyle Connor and a very mobile defense corps with the rover Dustin Byfuglien always ready to jump into the rush or lead it himself.
The Wild game plan needs to be full of structure with their offense being generated as a byproduct of the strong positional play and solid team defense. What has gotten them in trouble in their three losses this season and even at times in their lone victory, has been their lack of focus and sticking to the game plan.
When the Wild try to just score goals, and they can do that under Boudreau, much better than in years past as they have proved finishing last season as the second highest scoring team in the league, they get themselves into trouble and the result is often times not a favorable one in the end. The Minnesota offense is off to a good start this season as well ranking 3rd at 3.75 goals per game, but they have also allowed the same 3.75 goals against per which ranks 25th in the league, while allowing 36.5 shots against per game which ranks 30th in the NHL. Not exactly the type game Boudreau wants his team to be playing, and you can bet that was the message all week at Wild practice.
Five days off and lots of practice time, should have the team focused and energized, despite the Wild injured forwards. Winnipeg has a few of their own key components on the shelf, with centers, Mathie Perreault and Adam Lowry, and left wing, Matt Hendricks, along with defenseman, Dmitry Kulikov all on IR.
The long awaited NHL debut, of Brendan Lemieux, after being acquired as part of the Evander Kane/Tyler Myers deal, back in February of 2015, is finally going to take place tonight.
Lemieux, son of notorious Stanley Cup legend and notorious NHL badboy, Claude Lemieux, was selected in the 2nd round (31st overall) in 2014 by the Sabres, but was sent to Winnipeg along with Joel Armia, Drew Stafford, goaltending prospect Jason Kasdorf, and the aforementioned Tyler Myers, in exchange for Evander Kane and defenseman, Zach Bogosian.
Lemieux has 3 goals and 5 points through 4 games with the Manitoba Moose of the AHL, to go along with 9 penalty minutes. Like his father, Lemieux is no stranger to the penalty box nor the fisticuffs as he racked up 130 PIMs with the Moose last season in 61 games. Marcus Foligno and Lemieux dropped the gloves back in September, in a preseason match in Winnipeg, but of course we know that won't happen again tonight. That does not mean we won't see them up close and personal as we know that is both player's game.
Goaltending has been the Jets troubles the last few seasons, with no one stepping up to grab the job fulltime. Connor Hellebuyck who will start tonight, is the guy the Jets had expected to be the guy, but the lack of consistency forced Kevin Chevaldayoff, to go out and sign Steve Mason as a free agent this off season to compete with Hellebuyck.
So far that has not worked out very well as Mason is off to an 0-3 start with a GAA of 5.98 and a save percentage of .846, while Hellebuyck has been near perfect going 3-0 with a 2.11 GAA and .937 save percentage.
Update: Granlund will not play tonight.
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!
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