A quick trip to Canada for the Wild as they face Carey Price and the Montreal Canadiens tonight at the Bell Center. Price made his long awaited return to the Canadiens crease last Friday and played well despite the 3-0 loss to the >slanders.
Montreal deserved a much better fate as they controlled the territorial play through much of the contest, but a major blunder led to a rare three on none Islanders breakaway with former Wild winger, Zach Parise cashing in what ended up being the game winner.
Montreal was thumped the next night by Washington 8-4 also on home ice, so expect a fired up Canadiens squad heading into tonight's game vs. the Wild. Non-playoff teams at this point in the season can play spoiler in very big ways and the Wild need to be better prepared than they were on Sunday when they needed overtime to beat San Jose.
Marcus Foligno will not be in the Wild lineup, leaving the just Joel Eriksson Ek as the lone member of the GREEF line. The makeshift GREEF line will feature Nick Bjugstad with former Canadiens winger, Nicolas Deslauriers in for Foligno.
Mitchell Chaffee will make his NHL debut playing on the fourth line with Brandon Duhaime and Connor Dewar. Chaffee was leading the Iowa Wild with 22 goals in 45 games this season prior to his call up. Chaffee played his college hockey at UMass-Amherst prior to turning pro following his junior year, signing as a free agent with the Wild back in March 2020.
Cam Talbot makes the start for the Wild as the goaltending rotation continues. Talbot has played well going 10-0-3 since his last regulation loss which was back on March 1st, a 5-1 defeat to the Flames. Talbot played well on Saturday in St. Louis, despite the six goals allowed as the Wild left him high and dry on numerous occasions, giving the Blues point blank chances far too often.
The last two Wild games should give full to the boys to tighten up their structure and get vack to playing Wild hockey. Yes, the lineup is dinged a bit and there are some guys playing that would not be normally, however the Wild want to be a contender and by all counts they appear to be just that. Part of being a contender is overcoming injuries with depth. That is being tested right now and so far they are bending and not breaking.
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!