Two struggling Central Division foes meet tonight in St. Paul as the Dallas Stars, losers of 5 of 6 visit the Wild who have lost three straight and 5 of 7.
The Wild got some very bad news yesterday concerning their top offensive blueliner, Matt Dumba. Dumba will be out for an extended period of time and will require surgery for his upper body injury suffered Saturday against the Flames.
Dallas on the other hand will be getting the services of their top defenseman back tonight, as John Klingberg returns to the Stars lineup following an 18 game absence with a hand injury.
The Wild won the previous meeting between the clubs, 3-1 un Dallas, back in October.
Bruce Boudreau has been mixing and matching his lines trying to re-energize his teams offense to no avail. His top guns have been nearly nonexistent as Mikael Granlund, Eric Staal, and Jason Zucker have struggled to find the back of the net recently.
The loss of Dumba is much bigger than just losing his 12 goals and 12 powerplay points. Dumba sees the ice better than any of the other Wild blue liners and creates so much offense through the transition game.
Moving former Star, Greg Pateryn, up in the lineup does not address the lost offense and Wild old standby, Nate Prosser, is a warrior who gives everything he has, but neither can replicate anything that Dumba does for the Wild offensive game.
A much better solution would be for a call up of either Ryan Murphy or Louie Belpedio from Iowa.
The Wild are built with a balanced offense which will always experience periods of ineffectiveness just by the nature of the game. But the Wild offense is a byproduct of strong defense and an effective transition.
So with Dumba on the shelf for an extended period of time, this could provide a great opportunity to see what Belpedio can do.
We have known for a long time this current Wild roster is not good enough to make a significant run in the playoffs. Combined with the extended poor play of the last 6 weeks, and the Dumba injury, why not give Louie an extended look.
The upside far outweighs any downside.
It's always Hockey Day in the State of Hockey!
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