Wild Game Day number 80 Wild Record (46-25-8 100 pts) Home Record (26-12-2)
Opponent Carolina Hurricanes (35-29-14 84 pts) Road Record (12-18-9)
Site: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN
Time: 7:00PM CT
TV: Fox Sports North (FSN)
Last Season Results: 11/12 Wild 3 @ Hurricanes 2 (OT) 3/19 Hurricanes 2 @ Wild 3 (SO)
Last result: 3/16 Wild 1 @ Hurricanes 3
The Wild play their final regular season home game tonight when they play host to the Carolina Hurricanes.The Canes took the first meeting 3-1 in Carolina a few weeks back during the Wild's dreadful five game road trip. Carolina comes into tonight with their playoff hopes on life support following two straight losses after going 9-0-4, during a 13 game regulation unbeaten streak, that had gotten them back into the race. The Canes will need to win out and have Boston and Ottawa lose out, in order to keep playing past game 82.
Tonight the Wild will honor Eric Staal for playing in 1000 NHL games, appropriately against the team in which he played 909 of those games and of course won the Stanley Cup in 2006. The Staal family will be well represented including brother Jordan Staal who plays for Carolina.
Tonight also marks the return of Bryan Bickell, who was diagnosed earlier this season with MS. Bickell has played 10 games with Charlotte in the AHL in preparation for his return to the NHL. A notorious Wild killer, Bickell has been a thorn in the side of Minnesota fans from his Blackhawk days for years. Here's rooting for continued success to Bryan Bickell in his battle with the debilitating disease, but let's hope the trend of scoring against the Wild comes to an end.
Devan Dubnyk established the Wild single season wins Record on Sunday and should get the nod again tonight in the final home game of the season.
Tunemployment up week begins tonight for the Wild, and it is time to work on getting back to the fluid play that established the Wild as a force atop the Western Conference standings for the majority of the season.
The question marks abound and are too numerous to list, but who cares none of it matters until the playoffs start. The so called experts can chirp write and think anything they want but the slate will be wiped clean in a week and it all starts anew.
It's always Hockey Day in the State of Hockey!
Let's Play Hockey!
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