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A Night to Honor the Captain as Wild Host Ducks |
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Tonight will be a special night for the Minnesota Wild faithful as the club honors Mikko Koivu for his 1000th NHL game. Koivu has been the steadying force for the Wild franchise his entire career becoming the 1st and only full time captain back in 2009.
Koivu is the consummate professional coming to work every day with the mission of giving everything the man has in the tank to win. Tonight will be a special night for Mikko and his family and a well deserves honor for the captain.
On the ice there are points to be had for the Wild as they look to rebound off Saturday's 6-2 drubbing in Carolina. The loss was the club's first regulation defeat since November 12th when they lost at Los Angeles 3-1.
Another positive road trip saw the Wild take four of six points and for a brief time they had actually climbed into the second wild card position in the Western Conference. That is pretty impressive considering the start that the team had and all the talk about tanking the season.
There are too many good players with far too much pride to ever see the Wild throw in the towel.
Tonight the Ducks make a visit to the State of Hockey as the Wild begin their first 3-game home stand of the season. The Wild won the first meeting 4-2 in Anaheim last month.
Nico Sturm has been sent back to Iowa so it appears that he will have to wait a bit longer to make his NHL season debut. Brennan Menell could make his NHL debut as early as this evening and according to Boudreau it will happen on this home stand.
Menell, the Woodbury, MN native, has scored two goals and added 17 assists in 23 games with Iowa this season. Brad Hunt was skating on the left side at practice meaning that we could see Menell tonight on the third pair with Hunt. Menell could also see powerplay time as well when he does make his debut.
It is never good to lose or to be badly outplayed, however Saturday's rough performance by the Wild could serve them well as they continue to fight their way back into the playoff race. There will be no let down coming off off a successful road trip and the lessons learned through defeat are always the lasting ones.
Devan Dubnyk will not be with the team again tonight and not sure which way Boudreau goes in goal. If I had to guess BB goes with the kid tonight but that is just a hunch.
I want to send out prayers and best wishes to former NHLer and Grand Rapids, MN native, Scot Kleinendorst who was injured tragically Saturday evening while operating a crane at the Blandin Paper Mill in Grand Rapids. Kelinendorst suffered serious head injuries and multiple fractures in the accident.
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!
Minnesota Wild Blogger • 
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