Wild Game Day number 68 Wild Record (38-22-7 83 pts) Road Record (14-17-1)
Opponent: Vancouver Canucks (25-33-9 59 pts) Home Record (12-16-6)
Site: Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC
Time: 9:00PM CT
TV: Fox Sports North (FSN)
Last Season Result: 11/29 Wild 4 @ Canucks 5 2/4 Wild 6 @ Canucks 3 3/25 Canucks 4 @ Wild 2
Last result: 10/24 Canucks 1 @ Wild 0 1/14 Canucks 3 @ Wild 2
Fifteen games to play and the road to the playoffs is just that for the Wild, as 9 of the those will be on the road. Beginning tonight the Wild play 4 of the next 5 away from the friendly confines of the Xcel Energy Center.
The road has seen a whole different Wild team than the one that shows up regularly in St. Paul. With a 14-17-1 road record things need to turn around pretty quickly for Bruce Boudreau's team away from home because barring a colossal collapse of Winnipeg, the Wild will begin the playoffs on the road.
Now the playoffs are no guarantee by any stretch at this point either but the Wild have put themselves in a good position none the less. That can all change fairly quickly these days in the NHL and if the Wild don't step up their play on the road things can get very dicey as far as even making the dance.
Vancouver has had the Wild number winning the last three times the teams have met with all coming in the State of Hockey.
No Brock Boeser unfortunately the Burnsville native, will miss the rest of the regular season with a lower back fracture. Boeser was on his way to a possible Calder Trophy (IMO he deserves it with 29 Goals) but trails the Islanders, Matthew Barzal in the scoring race, and now missing the final month will significantly hurt his chances.
Loui Eriksson and Sven Baertschi, notorious Wild killers, are also out of the Canuck lineup with injuries. But the Canucks somehow always find a way to play a gritty game and the longer they keep the game close the more dangerous they become.
For the Wild they must come out with their best effort right away with no letup. They are not good enough to get by on talent alone on any night. That is not saying they don't have the talent, that is clearly an indictment of their lack of focus that seems to show up far too often from a veteran team that has no track record of performing well beyond the regular season.
These next 15 games will tell everyone what this Minnesota Wild team is. They have the opportunity to get on a roll with some non-contenders the next couple weeks, but then the schedule turns to nearly all playoff teams with some huge road tests including the final three games in California.
Tonight falls into the must win category once again for the Wild, they are well rested and coming off two dominant wins the team should be flying from the start. The goal would be to get out early and put the Canucks out of the game quickly to allow Boudreau to roll his four lines to keep the team as fresh as possible for tomorrow's tilt in Edmonton.
Nick Seeler did not make the trip to Vancouver due to illness and is day to day. He may join the team tomorrow in Edmonton, but that is still up in the air.
Projected Wild Lines: Zucker-Staal-Granlund Parise-Koivu-Niederreiter Ennis-Cullen-Coyle Foligno-Eriksson Ek-Winnik
Suter-Spurgeon Brodin-Dumba Olofsson-Prosser
Dubnyk Stalock
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!
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