The Minnesota Wild (3-3-2) finish their three-game road trip today against the New Jersey Devils (4-2-1). The Wild lost 6-2 to the Philadelphia Flyers Thursday, but earned a point in their 3-2 shootout loss to the Washington Capitals Friday.
The Devils are coming off a 5-4 win over the Buffalo Sabres and are on a roll with three wins in their past four games. Both the Wild and Devils have three players inside the top-20 in NHL scoring.
For New Jersey, it's Jack Hughes who leads the league with 18 points so far this season as well as Jesper Bratt (tied for sixth with 11 points) and Tyler Toffoli (tied for 16th with nine points).
For the Wild, it's Joel Eriksson Ek (five goals and nine points), Kirill Kaprizov (two goals and nine points) and Mats Zuccarello (two goals and nine points).
The Wild need to continue to improve their starts and must bring their A-game defensively against an offensive heavyweight like the Devils. The Wild have been poor defensively so far this season, allowing 2.79 expected goals against per 60 (25th) and 3.51 goals against per 60 (31st) at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.
In addition to tightening up defensively, another key for the Wild is to limit New Jersey's power play opportunities. The Devils have the No. 1 ranked power play (40%) right now, but rank 21st in five-on-five scoring with 2.07 goals per 60.
Both the Wild (72%) and Devils (73%) have been poor on the penalty kill, ranking No. 28 and No. 26, respectively.
The Wild's power play has been a non-factor so far — converting on just four of their first 30 power plays — which also has to change in a game where they're going to especially need one.
Wild projected lines
Kaprizov – Hartman – Zuccarello
Johansson – Eriksson Ek – Maroon
Foligno – Rossi – Lettieri
Duhaime – Dewar
Defensive pairs:
Brodin – Faber
Middleton – Mermis
Merrill – Addison
Hunt
Projected starter: Gustavsson
Injured: Jared Spurgeon, Matt Boldy, Freddy Gaudreau and Alex Goligoski; Jujhar Khaira scratched
Devils projected lines
Tyler Toffoli – Jack Hughes – Timo Meier
Ondrej Palat – Dawson Mercer – Jesper Bratt
Chris Tierney – Erik Haula – Curtis Lazar
Alexander Holtz – Michael McLeod – Nathan Bastian
Defensive Pairs:
Jonas Siegenthaler – Dougie Hamilton
Kevin Bahl – John Marino
Brendan Smith – Luke Hughes
Projected starter: Akira Schmid / Vitek Vanecek
Injured: Nico Hischier, Tomas Nosek and Colin Miller; Cal Foote scratched