Photo Credit: Matt Blewett-Imagn Images.ST. PAUL - The Minnesota Wild (34-19-4) is back in action tonight to face the Detroit Red Wings (29-22-6) for a 7:00 start.
The Wild will be without two key pieces tonight. Kirill Kaprizov still remains out but Joel Eriksson Ek was added to the injured reserve list this morning with a lower-body injury.
Jakub Lauko will re-entered the lineup tonight for his first game back. He missed the last three games with a lower-body injury. He has missed 24 games with year as well with an injury.
“I was struggling with little injuries throughout my career but I’ve never been like this that I play a couple games, get hurt again, heal up, get hurt again,” Lauko said. “It’s something new and like I said, it’s not easy but I just gotta work and we got like 25 games left so I’m aiming to be healthy for all those and help the team.”
He first missed six games with a lower-body injury then came back for three games but got hurt again and missed the next 15 games. He came back again and played nine games then missed the next three games.
Filip Gustavsson will start tonight for the Wild after Marc-Andre Fleury started the last game. Declan Chisholm is also in the lineup tonight. Jon Merrill will sit and Travis Dermott is on waivers.
Here are tonight’s projected lines, (subject to change).
Wild Projected Lines
Matt Boldy - Marco Rossi - Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson - Freddy Gaudreau- Vinnie Hinostroza
Marcus Foligno - Marat Khusnutdinov - Liam Ohgren
Jakub Lauko - Devin Shore - Yakov Trenin
Defense:
Jake Middleton - Brock Faber
Jonas Brodin - Jared Spurgeon
Declan Chisholm- Zach Bogosian
Starting Goaltender: Filip Gustavsson
Scratched: Travis Dermott (waivers), Jon Merrill, Ryan Hartman (suspended).
Injured: Kirill Kaprizov (lower), Joel Eriksson Ek (lower).
Red Wings Projected Lines
Marco Kasper - Dylan Larkin - Lucas Raymond
Alex DeBrincat - JT Compher - Patrick Kane
Elmer Soderblom - Joe Veleno- Vladimir Tarasenko
Tyler Motte- Sheldon Dries - Jonatan Berggren
Defense:
Ben Chiarot - Moritz Seider
Simon Edvinsson - Albert Johansson
Erik Gustafsson - Justin Holl
Starting Goaltender: Cam Talbot
Scratched: Christian Fischer
Injured: Jeff Petry (undisclosed), Andrew Copp (upper), Michael Rasmussen (upper).
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