The Minnesota Wild (9-12-4) wrap up their four-game road trip Sunday night against the Seattle Kraken (8-13-6) inside Climate Pledge Arena.
The Wild enter the game with two straight losses, a 2-0 shutout loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday and a 4-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Friday. Before that, the Wild had earned victories in their first four games under head coach John Hynes.
The Kraken are on a seven-game losing streak. Their last win was on Nov. 22, a 7-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks. To make matters worse for the Kraken, it’s a quick turnaround after losing 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning last night.
The bad news for the Wild is they're without Jonas Brodin, who is out week-to-week with an upper-body injury after taking a dangerous hit from Oilers forward Evander Kane.
Brodin has been the Wild's best defenseman this season, so it's a significant loss. It comes at the worse time, too, with the Wild playing their best hockey of the season. And when you consider the Wild's lack of blueline depth, it's no doubt their biggest test so far this season.
Wild projected lines
Kaprizov — Eriksson Ek — Boldy
Johansson — Rossi — Zuccarello
Foligno — Gaudreau — Maroon
Duhaime — Dewar — Hartman
Defensive pairs:
Goligoski — Spurgeon
Middleton — Faber
Mermis — Merrill / Bogosian
Projected starter: Gustavsson
Kraken projected lines
Tye Kartye — Matthew Berniers — Jordan Eberle
Jared McCann — Alexander Wennberg — Brandon Tanev
Eeli Tolvanen — Yanni Gourde — Oliver Bjorkstrand
Devin Shore — Pierre-Edouard Bellemare — Kailer Yamamoto
Defensive pairs:
Vince Dunn — Adam Larsson
Jamie Oleksiak — William Borgen
Justin Schultz — Ryker Evans
Projected starter: Joey Daccord