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Updated: Wild Face Tough Test in Carolina |
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Wild Game Day number 2
Wild Record (0-1-0 0 pts)
Road Record (0-1-0)
Opponent: Carolina Hurricanes (0-0-0 0 pts)
Home Record (0-0-0)
Site: PNC Arena, Raleigh, North Carolina
Time: 6:00PM CT
TV: Fox Sports North (FSN)
Last Season Results:
3/16 Wild 1 @ Hurricanes 3
4/4 Hurricanes 3 @ Wild 5
It does not get any easier for the Wild as they take on the Hurricanes tonight in Carolina. The Canes will be playing their first game of the season, while the Wild look to rebound off their disappointing loss in Detroit, Thursday night.
The teams split both meetings last season with each winning on home ice. The Hurricanes made a late run at the final playoff spot in the East last season, falling just short in the end. They are looking to build on that late season surge right from the start this season and there is no reason to believe that this Hurricane team is not a playoff team.
The big offseason move for the Hurricanes, was the acquisition of Scott Darling from Chicago. Darling, the long time Blackhawk backup, is finally getting his shot to be the starter in Carolina. Darling has played very well both in the backup roll, as well as making a name for himself with a strong playoff performance in the first round of the 2015 playoffs.
The Hurricanes, like the Wild are built with a strong defense unit, and good goaltending. Carolina's D corps, may not have the name recognition of many other teams, but don't let that fool you. South St. Paul's, Justin Faulk is the leader(co-captain) of this group, but Jaccob Slavin, former fifth overall pick, Noah Hanifin, and Brett Pesce have established themselves as well and will only get better as the year progresses. Add to that group, former Blackhawk, Trevor van Riemsdyk and rookie Haydn Fleury the Canes 2014 1st round selection,7th overall, and you can see why there is a buzz about this Carolina team.
Up front the Hurricanes are led by veterans Jeff Skinner and newly named co-captain Jordan Staal. The offense is much deeper with the return of three time Cup champion, Justin Williams to add to the youth movement that has Sebastian Aho and Elias Lindholm on the cusp of becoming stars in this league.
For the Wild, they look to put forth a full 60 minute effort tonight, against a much better opponent than they faced in game one. The special teams need to be better beginning with the powerplay.
the Wild PP went 0-4 on Thursday and really did not generate much in the way of quality scoring opportunities. They had tremendous possession time during each of those four powerplays, but that was largely due to the very passive PK.
This Wild team has much better personnel to run an effective powerplay, with the addition of Marcus Foligno, combined with the maturation of Charlie Coyle and Nino Niedeirreter, they have three big strong wingers with great hands, to work the front of the opposing net. The perimeter play needs to stop and there needs to be quicker puck movement and more shots to the net with those big boys in front.
The minutes that Ryan Suter played on Thursday, over 28, is also alarming given the talent and depth of this Wild defense corps. Suter led the team in PP time, which again needs to be looked at as he really could be more effective 5 on 5, which is his strength, without all the PP time.
Devan Dubnyk needs to rebound after a subpar third period on Thursday. He looked very good through the first two periods, including that amazing acrobatic save on a Gustav Nyquist breakaway. But Dubnyk gets paid the big bucks to be one of the top notch goalies in the league. In order for him to fully ascend to that elite level is for him to cut down on those leaky goals.
Update: The Wild will be without Mikael Granlund tonight and Alex Stalock will be in net. Apparently Bruce Boudreau was not happy with Dubnyk's performance in the third period Thursday either and he is taking this opportunity to get Stalock in to game action right away. This could be a good thing given the fact the Wild will be off after tonight for four days and have an extremely light schedule over the season's first 3 weeks, playing just 6 games over that span.
With Granlund out the Wild will dress 7 defenseman tonight, meaning Gustav Olofsson will get his first game action of the regular season.
The lines will be juggled in the absence of Granlund
Projected lines for tonight
Niederreiter-Staal-Coyle
Zucker-Eriksson Ek-Stewart
Ennis-Koivu-Foligno
Winnik-Cullen-forward rotation
Surer-Spurgeon
Brodin-Dumba
Quincey-Reilly
Olofsson
Stalock
It's always Hockey Day in the State of Hockey
Minnesota Wild Blogger • 
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