Wild Game Day number 64 Wild Record (36-20-7 79 pts) Road Record (14-15-1)
Opponent: Arizona Coyotes (18-34-10 46 pts) Home Record (10-18-4)
Site: Gila River Arena, Glendale, AZ
Time: 8:00PM CT
TV: Fox Sports North (FSN)
Last season results: 12/17 Coyotes 1 @ Wild 4 1/19 Coyotes 3 @ Wild 4 4/8 Wild 3 @ Coyotes 1
Last result: 2/8 Coyotes 4 @ Wild 3 (OT)
Tonight the Wild kick off the front end of a back to back two game road trip with a visit to Gila River Arena to face the pesky Coyotes. Arizona you may recall, overcame a 3-0 deficit in Minnesota three weeks ago and on the strength of two third period goals sent the game into overtime. In OT Arizona rookie standout Clayton Keller ripped home the game winner for his 15th goal of the season.
Since that game the Wild have gone 7-1-1 while Arizona has been almost as good going 5-2-1. The Coyotes are in the midst of a seven game homestand which saw them win the first two over Montreal and Edmonton before losing to Calgary and Vancouver sandwiched around an impressive 2-0 shutout of the Ducks.
Arizona is young and hungry, and this is the time of year where players from teams not in the playoff hunt are playing for jobs and to make a name for themselves. The Wild already saw what happens first hand with this Coyotes team if you allow them to hang around.
Bruce Boudreau said all the right things heading into Tuesday's game with the Blues how this was the most important game of the season to date, even though his team had won four straight and St. Louis came in on a six game skid.
That same message must be conveyed amongst the troops for tonight's game as well as each of the remaining games on the schedule. The Wild have put themselves into a good position, and with the upcoming schedule have a real shot and continuing their climb.
That said we have seen this team all season and just when it appears they are playing the way we all know that they are capable of performing, they regress or throw up a clunker of a game.
Luke Kunin is up with the Wild now and one would expect that he gets into the lineup tonight. No word officially but again healthy Boudreau has leverage with a healthy forward that will not dress and the same on defense.
Nick Seeler has played well and has earned his ice time. Last game we saw a bit of the edge that he plays when he came to the aid of his goaltender Devan Dubnyk. That is an element that the Wild have been missing on their blueline and Seeler will show more of that the more games that he plays.
As for the forward that may be the odd man out that remains to be seen and just where does Kunin slot into the lineup is still up to Boudreau.
Tyler Ennis or Marcus Foligno would seem to be the logical players for Boudreau to choose from as the healthy scratch.
Coyotes coach has named Antti Raanta his starter for tonight so it appears that it won't be former Wild backup, Darcy Kuemper to face his former mates.
The Wild have a chance to even their road record after being well below .500 away from home for much of the season. They have won four in a row on the road and 6 of the last 8 away from the Xcel.
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!
Update: looks like Kunin will not be in the lineup as Boudreau will go with the same lineup as Tuesday following the 8 goal outburst. Stalock gets the nod tonight and Dubnyk will go tomorrow.
Projected lines:
Zucker-Staal-Granlund Parise-Koivu-Niederreiter Ennis-Eriksson Ek-Coyle Foligno-Cullen-Winnik
Suter-Dumba Brodin-Spurgeon Seeler-Prosser
Stalock Dubnyk
Follow me on Twitter @dwallace17