Tonight the Flyers are the Wild opponent and this is a prime target for a let down game. That cannot be the case and the Flyers have proven they can step up their game recently beating Nashville at home and St. Louis on the road. Both of those Flyer victories helped the Wild in the playoff race and tonight the boys cannot give those same points away to a non-playoff team.
Marc-Andre Fleury will be back in goal for the Wild after watching Cam Talbot deliver yet another spectacular performance Sunday against Colorado. Talbot took home NHL player of the week honors for his three wins, 1.33 GAA, and .959 save percentage over that stretch, with one shutout. Talbot is on a personal seven game win streak and the addition of Fleury is pushing each of the Wild goalies to be their very best.
The pedal must be firmly pushed each and every game by this Wild team as the playoff push is in full swing. They squandered some standings points in February and early March for sure, but the team is rolling with a ton of confidence right now.
One of the areas this Wild team has been has been particularly good at is taking care of business against the lesser opponents. We have talked about this a lot over the course of the season and Dean Evason has stressed that his team play their game regardless of the opposition.
Tonight the Flyers will be playing loose, with nothing to lose. That makes thisba dangerous game all by itself. Add in the fact that the Wild are coming off an emotional win over their top division rival, Colorado, and tonight sets up as a sandwich game ahead of the Penguins visit to the XCEL Energy Center on Thursday.
The rotation of the third pair of Wild defenseman has worked through the first three games with Dmitry Kulikov sitting first, followed by Jon Merrill, and then last game it was Alex Goligoski. It appears that Goligoski is going to the odd man out once again tonight.
Former Wild head coach Mike Yeo has his Flyers team playing much better of late and we remember all too well how close the first meeting was in Philadelphia. In that game the Wild overcame four Flyer leads before taking the game with two third period goals by the count of 5-4.
The Wild announced the signing Sam Hentges, the St. Cloud State senior and former 2018 7th round draft pick, to a 2-year ELC. Hentges joins Wild 2019 second round pick, Vladislav Firstov who signed his ELC last week and has already joined the Iowa Wild.
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!