Wild Game Day number 35 Wild Record (18-13-3 39 pts) Road Record (8-9-1)
Opponent: Florida Panthers (13-16-5 31 pts) Home Record (6-6-3)
Site: BB&T Center, Sunrise, Florida
Time: 6:30PM CT
TV: Fox Sports North (FSN)
Last result: 12/13 Panthers 1 @ Wild 5 3/10 Wild 7 @ Panthers 4
The Wild head to South Florida to take on the Panthers with the players dads and mentors in attendance. It is always a treat for all of those involved as there are plenty of extracurricular activities for everyone to take part in. But for the Wild players nothing would be better than to get a win to give their dads and mentors some great performances on the ice, and that all begins versus the Panthers.
Last season the Wild took both meetings with Florida including a 7-4 drubbing in Sunrise, back in March.
The Panthers seemed to be a team on the rise in the Eastern Conference not too long ago. But an inexplicable change in the front office and subsequent dismissal of head coach Gerard Gallant has turned into a virtual disaster for the Panthers.
Florida has some quality talent with a dynamic duo up front in Aleksander Barkov (11G, 30Pts) Jonathan Huberdeau (9G, 32pts), Vincent Trocheck (13 G, 34 pts) and Aaron Ekblad is one of the league's best young defensemen.
The trouble in Florida is that they have had trouble keeping the puck out of their net yielding 3.38 goals against per game to rank 29th in the league in that category. The offense outside of the top end has not stepped up as had been expected either.
The Panthers may be having a down year, but they are more than capable of coming to play on any given night. They are returning home after a solid 5 game road trip[that saw them go 2-2-1 that ended with a 3-2 win in Arizona on Tuesday night.
Teams returning East from West Coast trips often have a little trouble in their first games back after the time change adjustment. We saw this happen to the Wild when they returned from their most recent California trip and their lackluster effort against Calgary.
So the formula for the Wild tonight should be to attack the Panthers from the opening draw getting the puck deep and establishing the forecheck early and often. Get as many shots on net and drive the goal for rebounds.
The Wild players are starting to get healthy and that could not be better news for Bruce Boudreau. He will finally have a bit if wiggle room with his lineup to force his players to step up or end up sitting in the press box. Competition breeds excellence and internal competition builds character and creates a healthy atmosphere for the team to realize their true potential.
Tonight is a game the Wild must have in the front end of back to back road games, they head to Tampa tomorrow to face the league leading Lightning.
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!
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