Wild Game Day number 36 Wild Record (23-8-4 50 pts) Home Record (13-3-0)
Opponent: Columbus Blue Jackets (25-5-4 54 pts) Road Record (11-2-3)
Site: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN
Time: 5:00PM CT
TV: Fox Sports North (FSN)
Last season results: 10/22 Blue Jackets 2 @ Wild 3 1/5 Wild 4 @ Blue Jackets 2
Happy New Year!!! The NHL schedule makers have given us the greatest gift a matchup between the NHL's best two teams with both on record setting win streaks. Columbus and Minnesota entered the league together in 2000 and now they close out 2016 with one of the greatest regular season matchups in NHL history.
Columbus enters tonight's game with the NHL's best record at 25-5-4 while leading the league in offense averaging 3.44 goals per game. The Wild come in with the league's best defense, allowing 2.0 goals against per game. The streaks are epic for both squads, the Blue Jackets at 14 games and the Wild at 12 straight, and both are on longer streaks unbeaten in regulation, Columbus at 16 games (15-0-1) and Minnesota at 13 games (12-0-1).
For the Wild a win vaults them past the Blackhawks and into 1st place in the Central Division and 1st place in the Western Conference. That too is a big deal in validating the Wild's place among the NHL's elite.
It is still a regular season game but tonight will have a playoff feel for sure and should be a lot of fun to witness. Both teams appear to have this all in perspective and both seem to be relishing in the spotlight of the record setting regular season matchup.
Both Wild coach, Bruce Boudreau, and Blue Jackets bench boss, John Tortorella, have said all the right things in the media downplaying the streaks while focusing on the task at hand, while relishing in the moment.
Happy New Year!
Let's Play Hockey!