The Minnesota Wild (5-5-2) continue their three-game road trip in New York tonight against the Rangers (9-2-1) before facing Buffalo tomorrow night.
The Wild won their second game in a row Tuesday in their 4-2 victory over the Islanders and are looking to preserve their momentum tonight and tomorrow before returning home to play the Dallas Stars Sunday night.
The Rangers have only lost three times this season and one of them came against the Wild, who beat them 5-4 in shootout fashion in Minnesota last Saturday. The Rangers won 5-3 against the Detroit Red Wings Tuesday night, their only game since the Wild snapped their six-game winning streak.
As for the key to the game, the Wild need to stay out of the box because the Rangers have the second best power play percentage in the league at 34.1 — which is behind only the New Jersey Devils. If the Wild do that, it will lead to success because of their 32-20 edge over the Rangers in five-on-five scoring this season.
The Wild will have a new face in the lineup tonight: veteran defenseman Zach Bogosian, who the team acquired Wednesday in exchange for a seventh-round pick in 2025.
The move happened hours after the Wild shipped 23-year-old right-shot defenseman Calen Addison to the San Jose Sharks for a fifth-round pick in 2026 and 22-year-old winger Adam Raska.
The right-shot Bogosian, 33, is expected to play alongside Daemon Hunt on the third pair tonight against the Rangers.
Wild President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Bill Guerin said Wednesday that Jared Spurgeon — who is with the team on the road trip — will not play tonight or tomorrow against the Sabres.
As for Freddy Gaudreau (upper-body injury), or Alex Goligoski (long-term injured reserve) updates? "Nothing new," Guerin said.
Wild projected lines
Kaprizov — Rossi — Boldy
Johansson — Hartman — Zuccarello
Foligno — Eriksson Ek — Maroon
Duhaime — Dewar — Lettieri
Defensive pairs:
Brodin — Faber
Middleton — Mermis
Hunt — Bogosian
Projected starter: Fleury
Injured: Spurgeon, Goligoski and Gaudreau; Merrill scratched
Rangers projected lines
Chris Kreider — Mika Zibanejad — Blake Wheeler
Artemi Panarin — Vincent Trocheck — Alexis Lafreniere
Will Cuylle — Nick Bonino — Kaapo Kakko
Jimmy Vesey — Barclay Goodrow — Tyler Pitlick
Defensive pairs:
K'Andre Miller — Jacob Trouba
Ryan Lindgren — Erik Gustafsson
Zac Jones — Braden Schneider
Projected starter: Louis Domingue / Dylan Garand