Tonight the Wild host the Red Wings as they come off a strong performance in their 3-2 victory Saturday over the Hurricanes. Carolina is one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference and Saturday's tilt was a battle to the end.
Yes the Wild did get out to a three goal lead early in the third period, but the game was never a one sided affair. Andrei Svechnikov tallied two goals a minute and 29 seconds apart to bring the game back to a one goal contest and the Wild defense and Cam Talbot slammed the door from there.
Having the top six defensemen back in the Wild lineup was absolutely a boost to the home squad and Talbot is on top of his game once again. The recent strong play of Kaapo Kahkonen has once again energized Talbot and the competition is huge for the Wild success the rest of the way.
Kevin Fiala coniltinues to fly leading the Wild charge once again along with his linemates Freddie Gaudreau and Matt Boldy. Fiala got the scoring started with a lasor off a great feed from Gaudreau. Gaudreau potted the eventual game winner in the third.
The Wild have three legitimate scoring lines for the first time in the history of the franchise. However the real difference between this Wild team and others that were seemingly good regular season clubs, ,is this teambtakes care of business when they play teams they absolutely should beat. That could not be said in the past as the Wild would notoriously play up or down to the level of their competition.
That can be a sign of two factors, one the coaching staff that has instilled in the team that they play within the system always regardless of the opponent, and two, this is a far better collection of talent that believes in each other.
Tonight is one of those games although Detroit is not at all the push over they have been in previous years. They are an exciting up and coming group with a lot of young talent that plays the game very fast.
They are not yet in the Wild's class just yet but you can bet they are measuring themselves up against the league's best to see just how close they are and what they may need to be doing differently to close the gap.
Kahkonen will be in net as the alternation of goalies continues tonight. Marcus Foligno will compete his two game ban so Brandon Duhaime will again skate with Jordan Greenway and Joel Eriksson Ek. Victor Rask will take Duhaime's place with Nico Sturm and Connor Dewar on the fourth line.
Rask has been good in games he has had to fill in. He takes a lot of heat from the Wild faithful, largely due to the fact that he was acquired for the ever popular Nino Niederreiter. The fact that Niederreiter has had better scoringbsuccess with the Hurricanes since the trade adds some more fuel to that fire.
The fact of the matter is that Nino was struggling here and really had no role on the top six forward lines, while carrying a $5.25M per year cap hit. Rask gave the Wild a little cap relief but also a center which was much needed and has been ever since. For what it is worth the deal goes down absolutely as an "L" for the Wild, but it is not as bad as many like to think.
Either way Rask and his $4M per season contract are up at the end of this season and his Wild future would appear to be non-existent beyond that. For now though Rask is giving the Wild a quality depth player that can fill in up and down the lineup when called upon.
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!
Update: Matt Dumba will miss tonight's game with a lower body injury. So that was a short lived stint with all 6 of the Wild top defensemen in the lineup together. Jordie Benn will once againnstep back into the lineup.