Wild Game Day number 44 Wild Record (28-10-5 61 pts) Home Record (14-5-0)
Opponent: Arizona Coyotes (13-25-6 32 pts) Road Record (5-14-4)
Site: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, Minnesota
Time: 7:00PM CT
TV: Fox Sports North (FSN)
Last season results: 10/15 Wild 4 @ Coyotes 3 12/11 Wild 1 @ Coyotes 2(OT) 1/25 Coyotes 2 @ Wild 1(SO)
Last result: 12/17 Coyotes 1 @ Wild 4
The Wild host the Coyotes tonight in the second game of their four game home stand looking to get back to their winning ways. After dropping the first game of this home swing Tuesday night 4-3 to the Devils, the Wild got a dose of reality. It has been a magical run these last couple of months but that is not the norm even for very good teams.
There are peaks and valleys as we always talk about here and there are games in an 82 game season that teams win when they really shouldn't have and vice versa. There is also travel schedules to contend with and injuries and uneven scheduling.
The Wild have been a fairly healthy bunch for good portions of the season, but when they have incurred injuries to key players they have had the organizational depth to withstand those injuries and continue their climb.
That depth will once again be tested as Jonas Brodin is expected to miss up to a month with a broken finger. The Wild have recalled Mike Reilly in the absence of Brodin. It is not certain if Reilly or Nate Prosser will get the call tonight to take Brodin's place in the lineup.
The Coyotes are obviously struggling, and they are coming off a rough performance last night in Winnipeg, which saw them yield three second period goals and five straight Jets tallies in a 6-3 defeat.
Mike Smith is the Coyotes lone All-Star representative and is definitely one of the better goaltenders in the NHL, but the youthful lineup in front of him can be very haphazard and suspect on many occasions.
That said Dave Tippett is a very good coach and his teams are never easy to play against. Combine that with a good goaltender and young talent and on any given night the Coyotes are very capable of the upset.
Tuesday's Wild loss is a good wakeup call to Bruce Boudreau's team. The NHL season is a grind and it is not all rosy along the way. That L in the win loss column will serve the team well moving forward as they learn from each and every game that in order to remain a top team the losses must not become habit forming.
Let's Play Hockey!