ST. PAUL, Minn - The Minnesota Wild (1-0-0) host its expansion brothers the Columbus Blue Jackets (0-1-0) tonight for the Wild's home opener.
The Wild went 2-0-0 against the Blue Jackets last season which included a home opening 3-2 win over Columbus. The Wild are 35-22-11 against the Blue Jackets all-time and 22-7-6 at Grand Casino Arena.
Matt Boldy led the Wild with one goal and four points in the two games against the Blue Jackets last year. Filip Gustavsson went 2-0-0 with a 1.50 goals-against average and a .947 save percentage against Columbus last year.
He is 3-0-1 all-time against Columbus with a 2.18 goals-against average and a .938 save percentage. Gustavsson is coming off a shutout over the St. Louis Blues and will start again tonight.
For Columbus it will be Elvis Merzlikins. He is 2-1-2 against the Wild in his career with a 2.89 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage.
Vladimir Tarasenko leads the Wild in points against the Blue Jackets all time. He has 14 goals and 13 assists in 25 career games.
Sean Monahan leads Columbus with 15 points. He has six goals and nine assists in 31 career games against the Wild.
Jonas Brodin missed the Wild's first game of the season on Thursday but is back in the lineup tonight. David Jiricek will draw out of the lineup. Danila Yurov's NHL debut will have to wait at least another game. He is not in the lineup tonight.
Wild Projected Lines
Kirill Kaprizov - Marco Rossi - Matt Boldy
Marcus Foligno - Joel Eriksson Ek - Vladimir Tarasenko
Yakov Trenin - Ryan Hartman - Marcus Johansson
Liam Ohgren - Hunter Haight - Vinnie Hinostroza
Defense:
Jonas Brodin - Brock Faber
Zeev Buium - Jared Spurgeon
Jake Middleton - Zach Bogosian
Starting Goaltender: Filip Gustavsson
Scratched: Dameon Hunt, Danila Yurov
Injured: Mats Zuccarello (lower-body), Nico Sturm (back).
Blue Jackets Projected Lines
Dmitri Voronkov - Sean Monahan – Kirill Marchenko
Boone Jenner – Adam Fantilli – Cole Sillinger
Kent Johnson – Charlie Coyle – Mathieu Olivier
Zach Aston-Reese - Isac Lundeström – Miles Wood
Defense:
Zach Werenski - Dante Fabbro
Ivan Provorov - Damon Severson
Denton Mateychuk - Erik Gudbranson
Starting Goaltender: Elvis Merzļikins
Scratched: Jake Christiansen, Yegor Chinakhov.
Injured: None.
How to Watch & Listen: Tonight's game will be on Fanduel Sports Network North. Anthony LaPanta will be on the play-by-play with Ryan Carter as the color analyst and Kevin Gorg a reporter. The radio broadcast will be on KOOL FM 107.9 with Joe O'Donnell behind the mic doing the play-by-play. Tom Reid as the color analyst and Kevin Falness as the Studio Host.
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