ST. Paul. - The big news from practice today is that Wild captain, Jared Spurgeon is expected to miss some time with an upper-body injury that he got in Chicago against the Blackhawks.
After practice today, Wild head coach Dean Evason confirmed Alex Goligoski will replace Spurgeon on the first defense pair with Jacob Middleton. This will keep Jonas Brodin and Brock Faber together as well as Jon Merrill and Calen Addison.
Besides the absence of Spurgeon, the Wild worked on special teams the entire practice with more plays to run on the power play and more practice on the penalty kill.
The Wild also worked on some 6-on-5 and put a heavy emphasis on faceoffs which is something the Wild haven't been very good at in the last couple of years.
"Our guys have committed to do that," Evason said on challenging his players to work on face-offs in the off-season. "Now there is an emphasis that we have to be on our toes to win face-offs. Rarely is the puck snapped straight back, it's a team thing, you got to get in there, be ready, and win that battle for the puck. That's something we worked on today."
After practice and media availability were over, Connor Dewar was still on the ice with TJ Jindra, the Wild's Viedo coach, working on his face-offs and strategies on how to win them.
The Wild will host the Dallas Stars on Saturday the 7th for their final preseason game of the year before hosting game one of the regular season on the 12th.
• Jared Spurgeon expected to miss a few weeks