Wild Game Day number 38 Wild Record (24-9-4 52 pts) Road Record (11-5-4)
Opponent: Los Angeles Kings (19-16-4 42 pts) Home Record (11-5-1)
Site: Staples Center, Los Angeles, California
Time: 3:00PM CT
TV: Fox Sports North (FSN)
Last season results: 10/16/15 Wild 1 @ Kings 2 (OT) 1/21/16 Wild 3 @ Kings 0 3/22/16 Kings 1 @ Wild 2
Last result: 10/18 Kings 3 @ Wild 6
The Wild California trip takes them to SoCal where they will face the Kings in LA this afternoon and then wrap up their road trip in Anaheim tomorrow. The trip got off to a rocky start in San Jose on Thursday night, but the team responded with a huge four goal third period to come out with the 5-4 victory.
Minnesota has clearly established themselves as a true force in the Western Conference, proving that they can compete and win in any type of game and in any building. The personnel has not changed much over the last three seasons for the Wild, but the attitude sure has. The Wild have always been a signature defense first team, but now they have the leading offense in the Western Conference as well. The Wild are doing this with a balanced attack as they still do not have a single scorer in the league's top 20. That is the biggest difference between this year's Wild team and the Wild teams we have known for much of the last four years.
Balanced attack and players competing for ice time is the theme of the 2016-17 Minnesota Wild. That combined with the stellar goaltending of Devan Dubnyk and the Wild rock solid and very mobile D corps have vaulted this Wild team into a position to compete for a top seed in the Western Conference standings.
The Kings have been an up and down team all season and that really is not unexpected after they lost their All-Star goalie Jonathan Quick in the 1st game of the season. Peter Budaj has stepped in for Quick and has been very strong for the Kings posting a 17-10-3 record with a 2.00 GAA to go along with a very respectable .921 save percentage. The inconsistent offense has been the Kings achilles heel this season with only Jeff Carter (21 goals and 33 pts) producing on a regular basis.
Darcy Kuemper has a great track record playing in LA over the last few years and will get the nod in net for the Wild today. Kuemper is 2-1-1 with a GAA below 1.00 in four starts at Staples Center including a 3-0 shutout in his most recent start in LA, last January.
The rest for Dubnyk comes at a good point as well. He has not been on the top of his game of late so a day off to watch from the bench could be just the formula to clear his mind and get him back on track. For the Wild as a unit this is also good for them as they too need to get back to their game plan of playing 2-1, 3-2 more disciplined style games.
The Wild made a statement Thursday night, that coming off their first loss in nearly a month, they were not going to make it a losing streak. That come from behind win was more than just your average win. It really says this team is here to stay at the top of the NHL standings. It could have been very easy for them to fold after tying the game at 2, then allowing two quick goals in the third, but they didn't. And the veteran leaders are the one's that stepped up, first Eric Staal and then captain, Mikko Koivu delivered the game tying and winning goals. Zach Parise had his best game of the season as well with a goal and two helpers.
The comeback, the resilency, the win after their first loss in 14 games are all great, but Zach Parise having his best game may actually be the best sign that came out of Thursday's game. The Wild need a healthy productive Parise as the second half approaches.
Let's Play Hockey!