The homestand continues tonight as the Wild host Vancouver. Of course the story line will focus around former Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau's return to Minnesota to face his former team.
That is the farthest from the Wild's thoughts as they are clearly focused on climbing the Western Conference standings and securing their playoff position. Vancouver is clawing their way up the standings in hopes of scratching their way into the dance.
Last night the Canucks won a hard fought tilt over the Western Conference leading Avalanche, in Colorado. Boudreau went with Jaroslav Halak last night, reserving starter, Thatcher Demko for his Minnesota return. One could look at that in one of two ways, either he was thinking that he had a better chance for two points against the Wild or he wanted his number one guy against his former team. Either way his team and in particular Halak rewarded BB with a huge W in Colorado and tonight they have an opportunity to snag two more key standings points.
New Wild additions Jake Middleton and Marc-Andre Fleury will both be in uniform but Fleury will once again be the backup to Cam Talbot. Middleton will pair with captain Jared Spurgeon and Alex Goligoski will slot in on the third pair with Jon Merrill. Dmitry Kulikov will be the odd man out tonight.
Middleton brings a presence to the Wild defense with his size and physicality. He should complement Spurgeon better and give the Wild a more formidable top four defensemen. Middleton should also be an upgrade to the Wild penalty kill as well.
In Minnesota, Wild fans have grown accustomed to a rock steady defense for the better part of the past decade having the top four of Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin, and Matt Dumba. With the buy out of Suter that has not been the case this season, despite the Wild's overall team success, their defense has been suspect at times.
The hope is with the addition of Middleton and the added vomoetition for ice time and to stay in the lineup, the Wild defense returns to the strength it had been.
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!