The Minnesota Wild (16-14-4) and Winnipeg Jets (21-9-4) rematch today in St. Paul after the Jets won 4-2 over the Wild yesterday in Winnipeg in the first of the home and home to end the calendar year. The Wild's four-game win streak came to an end in yesterday's loss, while the Jets improved to 9-1-2 in December.
Marc-Andre Fleury is set to play his 1,000th career game today after making his 999th career appearance yesterday when he came in relief for Filip Gustavsson, who didn't play in the third period after getting injured.
The Wild look to end the calendar year on a good note, and a win would move Fleury to 551 wins — tying Patrick Roy for second in NHL history.
In addition to Gustavsson's injury, Kirill Kaprizov, who is out of the lineup this afternoon, left yesterday's game in the third period after taking two crosschecks from Brenden Dillon.
Marcus Johansson takes Kaprizov's spot on the top line, while Nic Petan slides into Johansson's spot on the second line. Jake Lucchini appears to be playing his second game with the Wild with Vinni Lettieri missing from warmups. Jon Merrill is a healthy scratch today with Dakota Mermis taking his spot.
Wild projected lines
Johansson — Eriksson Ek — Boldy
Petan — Rossi — Hartman
Foligno — Gaudreau — Maroon
Duhaime — Dewar — Lucchini
Defensive pairs:
Middleton — Faber
Goligoski — Spurgeon
Mermis — Bogosian
Projected starter: Fleury
Jets projected lines
Nikolaj Ehlers — Mark Scheifele — Gabriel Vilardi
Cole Perfetti — Vladislav Namestnikov — Alex Iafallo
Nino Niederreiter — Adam Lowry — Mason Appleton
Morgan Barron — Dominic Toninato — Axel Jonsson-Fjallby
Defensive pairs:
Josh Morrissey — Dylan Demelo
Brenden Dillion — Neal Pionk
Dylan Samberg — Nate Schmidt
Projected starter: Laurent Brossoit