Today the State of Hockey will be in display front and center for the hockey world to see in all it's glory. The Minnesota Wild will finally take their place as host to the NHL's mid-season spectacular, The Winter Classic, at Target Field, the home of the Minnesota Twins.
In true Minnesota fashion the weather is cooperating to bring arctic Temps that will not rise above 0 degrees all day and take temps to negative double digits Fahrenheit during the game. The winds will be a factor taking the wind chill into the negative 30s.
Perfect for the tough State of Hockey faithful who are well prepared and will be out 40,000 strong. The ice will actually have to be heated to achieve the optimal ice temperature between 22 and 24 degrees. Now isn't that ironic after previous Winter Classics and the ice crew have often had to work to keep the ice cold enough given some of the game time weather temperatures and conditions.
The NHL has done all of the preparation to ensure that the event goes on and that the fans that are in attendance are suited with hand warmers and toe warmers, along with numerous heaters and open restaurant and bar areas to provide fans with places to warm up.
There also will be plenty of hot chocolate, coffee, and tea along with Minnesota Hot Dish and Wild Rice Soup to warm the patrons.
Of course there is a game to be played between the Wild and the St. Louis Blues with an important two points on the line. This will be the first meeting of the season of the Central Division foes who met eight times last year when both were in the Honda West Division for the shortened 56-game division only schedule. St. Louis had the upper hand winning six of the eight games.
Brayden Schenn may make his return to the Blues lineup while Ivan Barbashev, Oskar Sunqvist, and Pavel Buchnevich will be back in uniform tonight. Joel Eriksson Ek and Jared Spurgeon are both out for the Wild and there is a possibility that Jonas Brodin could be cleared from COVID-19 protocol in time to play.
If Brodin does not go, Calen Addison will play in his place and team with Matt Dumba. Rem Pitlick will draw back into the lineup up front and the lines will be juggled across the board with the exception of thebtop line of Ryan Hartman, Kirill Kaprizov, and Mats Zuccarello.
Freddie Gaudreau will center Marcus Foligno and Kevin Fiala, Nico Sturm will center Jordan Greenway and Nrandon Duhaime, and Victor Rask will center Rem Pitlick and Nick Bjugstad
The Wild have not played in 12 days and have not win in 23 days after they had ripped off eight straight victories they have now dropped four in a row. St. Louis on the other hand have win six of their last eight (6-1-1) including a 4-2 victory Wednesday night over the Oilers at home.
The Wild have not played since being pounded in Dallas 7-4 back on December 20th. A bright spot from that game was the fact that Kevin Fiala scored twice his 5th and 6th goals of the season. Hopefully this is a sign of more to come from the talented Wild winger who has been snake bitten through most of the first third of the season.
With Eriksson Ek injured, the Wild will need production from other sources to fill the offensive void left with #14 out of the lineup. However the other aspects of JEE's game will be far more difficult to replace. His ability to draw penalties while shutting down the opposition top talent is where Eriksson Ek will be missed the most.
The Wild and State of Hockey faithful have been waiting a very long time to have the Winter Classic here and after having last year's event postponed one more calendar year, today will be a glorious celebration of Hockey in some very crisp conditions.
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!