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UPDATED: Wild Look to Build On Comeback Win |
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Wild Game Day number 19
Wild Record (9-7-2 20 pts)
Road Record (4-4-1)
Opponent: Washington Capitals (10-9-1 21 pts)
Home Record (5-3-0)
Site: Verizon Center, Washington, DC
Time: 6:00PM CT
TV: Fox Sports North (FSN)
Last Season Result:
3/14 Wild 2 @ Capitals 4
3/28 Capitals 5 @ Wild 4
The Wild make a quick trip to DC to face the Capitals tonight. Washington has won the last five meetings in the series and seven of the last nine.
Interestingly the Wild and Caps matchups the past two seasons occurred within two weeks of each other and coincided with the Wild's worst stretches during both. Two seasons ago they met first just two days prior to the firing of Wild coach, Mike Yeo, and then less than two weeks into the John Torchetti's interim coaching tenure. Last season the Caps and Wild met both times during the Wild's dreadful 4-10-2 March that saw them fallout of first in the Western Conference.
The Capitals have been one of the league's elite teams, at least during the regular season, having won the last two Presidents Trophies and three of the last eight. That has done nothing for them as they have not been able to make it out of the second round of the playoffs during that time.
So much like the Wild the expectations have been raised but the teams have both disappointed when the games really counted in the Spring.
Washington enters tonight's game on a two game skid after falling 6-2 in Colorado on Thursday following their 6-3 defeat in Nashville on Tuesday.
The Capitals like the Wild went "all in" at the trade deadline last season making the biggest deals at the cost of first round draft choices. Neither has anything left to show for the price they paid as Martin Hanzal is in Dallas, and Ryan White is not currently on an NHL roster, while former Capital Kevin Shattenkirk signed with the Rangers.
We saw how that played out for both teams. Each then was then forced to make roster adjustments during the offseason to first deal with the expansion draft then work to replace the assets that they lost in those deals.
Each team has struggled to get consistency but both are in the thick of the race and can draw on their core which are still intact. For the Caps Alex Ovechkin is still one of the league's elite goal scorers, Nicklas Backstrom is probably the most underrated player in the league and least talked about star for sure. Former Warroad HS star, T.J. Oshie brings an all-out effort every night, and Evgeny Kuznetsov is a tremendously skilled player that can change the complexion of a game at any time.
The man behind the mask Braden Holtby may be the most important of all the stars that have dotted the Capital roster over the past decade. Holtby, is clearly one of the league's elite and is a calming force in the net for the Capitals.
Minnesota enters tonight's game on a four game win streak, following their exciting come from behind 6-4 win on Thursday.
Of course the Thursday win over Nashville was a highlight, but it was not the Wild's best performance by a long shot. They were widely outplayed for a good majority of the game and got sloppy during extended stretches. But the positives of building on the momentum swings and the never give up attitude proved enough to earn the Wild the win and the valuable two points.
The Wild powerplay showed signs of life scoring on two of their five opportunities after scoring only 2 in their previous 11 games. That is a good sign as they face a Capitals penalty kill unit that is one of the league's worst operating at below 78% ranking 27th in the NHL.
On Thursday Boudreau reunited Koivu and Granlund, with Jason Zucker, and it paid off as Zucker continued his hot streak, netting the game winner in the third period. Look for them to at least start tonight's game together as well.
Boudreau has a lot of options with the forwards that he has, but he would like to see some more production from several of them. We all know that Jason Zucker accounted for all the Wild goals during a three game stretch and has scored 8 of the teams last 15 goals.
With a balanced scoring attack there will always be forwards that are hot and ones that go through extended droughts, but that said the Wild need more from guys like Tyler Ennis (0 goals 7 games) , Marcus Foligno (0 goals 7 games), Luke Kunin (0 goals 8 games) and Joel Eriksson Ek (0 goals 17 games)
Tonight should be a good test for the Wild to see how they respond after their big comeback win.
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!
Follow me on Twitter @dwallace17
Update:
Alex Stalock to start tonight and Mike Reilly back in the lineup for the Wild.
Minnesota Wild Blogger • 
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