After dropping the final two games of their four game road trip, the Wild return home to face the Hurricanes tonight. Carolina comes to town a bit shorthanded with several Hurricanes out of action due to COVID-19.
Sebastià¡n Aho and Seth Jarvis will not play after entering Covid protocol on Sunday, but Tony DeAngelo and Brett Pesce will return to the lineup after being cleared.
The Wild will have Joan's Brodin back in the lineup following his two game absence with an upper body injury. That finally gets the Wild healthy on the back end and Jordie Benn back to the press box as a healthy scratch. Benn has played well filling in first for Jared Spurgeon who missed eight games, then for Matt Dumba when he was ill and kissed the game in San Jose, and then the last two for Brodin.
The big difference of course is that the Wild did not lose in regulation while Spurgeon was out, going 7-0-1 and then winning without Dumba in the lineup, but without Brodin the Wild lost both games.
Now to say that Brodin's absence was the sole reason for the losses in LA and Vegas is not entirely accurate, however it is a huge factor to say the least. Brodin is the Wild's best defenceman and is absolutely one of the finest defenders in the NHL.
Sunday in Vegas the Wild played a very sloppy game with very little attention to detail and a plethora of giveaways, combined with numerous soft passes. Vegas took full advantage of the Wild's lax play with precision passing and execution to burn the Wild for five goals. They added an empty netter for good measure sealing the Wild's fate 6-4.
In LA the Wild failed to take what the Kings gave her limiting their effectiveness and despite their final push they could not get the game evened up losing 2-1. Now we know the Wild cannot win every game, and losses are going to happen.
These two losses show the Wild things that they need to work on and sure up as they strive to be a contender. They are a very good team and the fact that when they did not play their best game they were still in both of the most recent losses all the way until the end.
The signs of a team making strides often times show up in games where the results are not entirely favorable.
Carolina will present a big challenge for the Wild even without their leading scorer, Aho. They are one of the Eastern Conference's finest teams with their 19-7-1 record currently sitting in 2nd place in the Metropolitan Division just one point behind the Capitals who have played one more game than has Carolina.
The Wild and Hurricanes have not met in over two years, with their last meeting back on December 7, 2019 when Carolina won 6-2 behind the five point effort of Sebastià¡n Aho.
Wild GM has officially been named Team USA General Mamger for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Of course the burning question is will the NHL be sending their players to Beijing in February as the COVID-19 outbreak and the risks involved are mounting.
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