Two games left, tonight against the Flames and tomorrow vs the Avalanche. The task at hand for the Wild is to secure three points in the standings to gain home ice in the first round.
Now just how important is home ice? I feel it is more important as the series moves forward than it does at the beginning of a series. No matter where this series starts I see the teams most likely splitting before the series shifts for games three and four. So would the Wild feel better being 1-1 coming home or 1-1 heading to St. Louis?
So tonight the Wild will be facing a Flames club that has beaten them twice fairly handily, however this is a different Wild team since the deadline acquisitions. Minnesota is a much bigger more physical team now and on paper stacks up with Calgary far better.
Calgary comes in with nothing left to play for as far as the standings are concerned so they to may be resting players heading into the playoffs. They too play tomorrow night, and their opponent is the Jets, in Winnipeg. Calgary is much like the Wild in the fact that they have had very limited success recently in the playoffs so the regular season means nothing without a strong playoff run.
Cam Talbot gets the start tonight for the Wild and Marc-Andre Fleury will go tomorrow against Colorado.
The Wild will be without Matt Dumba and Jared Spurgeon on defense and Mats Zuccarello up front. All three skated this morning and some or all of them may play tomorrow in the season finale against the Avalanche.
Dean Evason is managing the team very well down the stretch and Tuesday's hiccup aside it has worked like a charm. Tonight is less of a playoff tuneup than many had hoped when the revised schedule came out, but still should be very entertaining.
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!