Jared Spurgeon joined the injured list on Sunday when he was forced to leave the game in Nashville with an upper body injury. The injury is not as serious as first thought but he is out of the lineup and no timeliness set for the captain's return.
On the good news front, the GREEF line will be back intact as both Marcus Foligno and Jordan Greenway will be in the Wild lineup tonight. Joel Eriksson Ek has been riding the scoring wave with six points in the last two games. That includes back to back two goal efforts, and more importantly a huge assist on the overtime game winner in Nashville.
Matt Dumba is still out, so Jordie Benn will step back into the lineup tonight. Marc-Andre Fleury gets his third straight start in goal.
It is the last week of the season, the Wild and Blues each have 109 points with Minnesota having a game in hand. Both teams would like the home ice in the critical first round matchup, however for the Wild they are focused more on a healthy lineup.
They are clearly in this to finish ahead of St. Louis, as was evident in the effort they pit forth Sunday without four regulars to start the game and then losing Spurgeon in the first period. Dean Evason has an approach to each and every game and that is for his team to play Wild hockey regardless of the opponent or who is in the lineup.
That won't change over the last three home games, that is for certain.
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!