Wild Game Day number 79 Wild Record (43-25-10 96 pts) Home Record (26-6-8)
Opponent: Edmonton Oilers (34-39-6 74 pts) Road Record (17-21-2)
Site: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN
Time: 7:00PM CT
TV: Fox Sports North (FSN)
Last Season Results: 12/4 Wild 2 @ Oilers 1(OT) 12/9 Oilers 2 @ Wild 3(SO) 1/31 Wild 5 @ Oilers 2
Last result: 12/16 Oilers 3 @ Wild 2 3/10 Wild 1 @ Oilers 4
Game number 41 in St. Paul, the final home game of the 2017-18 season, will be the first without Ryan Suter this season. Suter, the rock of the Wild defense, the ironman that logs over 26 minutes of ice time per game is out with a broken right fibula.
It is gut check time for the Wild as they look to secure their sixth straight playoff berth without #20 in the lineup. This is uncharted territory for the Wild as Suter has only missed 5 games in his six seasons with the Wild.
There is no one on the roster that can replace the Ryan Suter alone, but as a collective group they must all step up and pull together in his absence. Through adversity comes opportunity and there will be plenty of that for the rest of the Wild defense core as they step in to take the place of Suter's minutes and role on special teams.
Carson Soucy has been recalled from Iowa and will make his NHL debut tonight. The 6'4" 210 lb former UMD Bulldog will get thrust right into the middle of the Wild playoff push. At 23 years of age and having played four full seasons of college hockey and nearly a full season of pro hockey, Soucy is not the typical starry eyed rookie, but nothing really prepares one for the bright lights and pressure of the NHL especially when the team you are joining is battling for the playoffs.
Bruce Boudreau said it best that if the Wild are not good enough to overcome the Ryan Suter injury, then they do not belong in the playoffs anyway.
That is the kind of mentality that this team needs to adopt and rally around. It has been said for a long time that the Wild have very good young defensemen now is their time to shine.
Edmonton is coming in on a four game losing streak but they have beaten the Wild in both previous meetings this season. Connor McDavid, the league's best player, is on fire after scoring 13 goals and adding 15 assists in 16 Oilers games in March. McDavid was named the NHL's first star in March following his 28 points in 16 game performance.
For the Wild this is a must win game as they wrap up their home schedule and head out to California to face three very tough games to finish out the regular season. The Wild got 4 out of 6 points against the league's top two teams, and they need to follow that up with 4 out of 6 against two non-playoff teams to set up the final road trip of the season, and a trip to the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Wild projected lines: Zucker-Staal-Niederreiter Granlund-Koivu-Parise Greenway/Ennis-Cullen-Coyle Foligno-Eriksson Ek-Winnik
Seeler-Dumba Brodin-Murphy Soucy-Prosser
Dubnyk
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