The Wild are back in action tonight against the Detroit Red Wings after the short Christmas break. Here's everything you need to know before the game.
The Wild are back in action tonight against the Detroit Red Wings hoping to pick right back up where they left off. The Wild are 7-3-0 in their last ten games and have been climbing the standings a little bit looking to get back into the playoff picture.
The Red Wings on the other hand have been struggling recently. They are 2-7-1 in the last ten games and are quickly falling out of the playoff race in the East. They are 16-14-4 overall and are desperate to get back into the win column.
Good news for the Wild, Ryan Hartman is back in the lineup tonight after missing the last two games with an upper-body injury.
Jared Spurgeon was on the ice for morning skate for the second straight game but will not be in the lineup again tonight.
Mats Zuccarello was not on the ice for morning skate but head coach John Hynes said that Zuccarello has skated recently but his status remains the same as week-to-week.
Hartman will play with Marco Rossi and Marcus Johansson which was a great line before Hartman got hurt. The rest of the lines are the same with Filip Gustavsson in net.
Patrick Kane has torched the Wild in his career before and will get another chance to do that again tonight. Kane has also played for Hynes before back when he was 17 with the US National Development Program.
Hynes said pregame that he has always stayed in touch with Kane throughout the years and even would call Kane when he broke into the NHL to see how NHL coaches would prepare for games and coach.
"I followed his career all the way through, even when he got into the NHL," Hynes said on Kane. "I called him when I was coming in as a new coach to see what it was like as players, 'what do you expect and what do you like.' All those types of things and he was really, really helpful."
Wild Projected Lines
Kaprizov - Eriksson Ek - Boldy
Johansson - Rossi - Hartman
Foligno - Gaudreau - Maroon
Duhaime - Dewar - Lettieri
Defense Pairs:
Middleton - Faber
Goligoski - Bogosian
Merrill - Mermis
Starting Goaltender: Gustavsson
Red Wings Projected Lines
Alex DeBrincat - Dylan Larkin - Patrick Kane
Jonatan Berggren - JT Compher - Lucus Raymond
Michael Rasmussen - Andrew Copp - David Perron
Robby Fabbri - Austin Czarnik - Daniel Sprong
Defense Pairs:
Jake Walman - Moritz Seider
Ben Chiarot - Simon Edvinsson
Shayne Gostisbehere - Justin Holl
Starting Goaltender: James Reimer