This evening the Wild get their first look at arguably the Eastern Conference's best team in Sunshine Florida, as they visit the FLA Live Arena to play the Panthers.
Florida sits atop the Atlantic Division with their 12-2-3 record and are loaded with talent across the board from the crease out. Starting goalie Sergei Bobrovsk has returned to top form after a few subpar seasons, posting sparkling statistics with a 1.78 GAA to go with his .942 save percentage. "Bob" is being pushed by the heir apparent to the Panthers crease, Spencer Knight giving Florida one of the best goalie tandems in the NHL.
The Panther defense is very strong and much like the Wild very mobile led by Aaron Ekblad and MacKenzie Weegar, while the offense oozes talent.
The Wild catch a bit of a break as Florida's top gun Aleksander Barkov is out of the lineup with a lower body injury. However there a precious few teams that can boast the depth down the middle of the ice like Florida has with Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart, future hall of famer, Joe Thornton, and rookie Anton Lundell.
This will be quite the test for Dean Evason's squad who has to be feeling much better about themselves after Thursday's drubbing of the Dallas Stars by the count of 7-2. Off one of their worst performances though, Tuesday in the 4-1 lackluster home loss to San Jose, the team knows it takes a full team effort each and every night.
Back to backs in the State of Florida are not easy and this weekend will give us a good look of just how far the Wild have come in establishing themselves as a contender with the league's upper echelon.
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!