Wild battle a five-game skid. Danila Yurov sits, Ben Jones in. Can Kiefer Sherwood continue his scoring surge against a struggling Wild squad?
ST. PAUL, Minn - The Minnesota Wild (3-6-3) host the Vancouver Canucks (6-6-0) tonight for a 6:00 game. The Wild have lost their last five games and are 0-3-2 in that span.
The Wild aren't expected to make many changes to their lines tonight. Filip Gustavsson will start in net for the third consecutive game.
Wild forward Danila Yurov will come out of the lineup for Ben Jones who has zero points in 31 career NHL games. Head coach John Hynes said this is a little reset for the rookie forward. He said that Yurov agreed.
Kiefer Sherwood, who set an NHL record for most hits in a single season last year, currently is tied for the lead league in goals with nine. He has zero assists in 12 games but the Wild will have to shut him down tonight.
Wild Projected Lines
Kirill Kaprizov - Marco Rossi - Marcus Johansson
Vladimir Tarasenko - Joel Eriksson Ek - Matt Boldy
Marcus Foligno - Ryan Hartman - Vinnie Hinostroza
Yakov Trenin - Ben Jones - Tyler Pitlick
Defense:
Jake Middleton - Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin - Brock Faber
Zeev Buium - David Jiricek
Starting Goaltender: Filip Gustavsson
Scratched: Dameon Hunt, Danila Yurov
Injured: Mats Zuccarello (lower-body), Nico Sturm (back), Zach Bogosian (lower).
Canucks Projected Lines
Jake DeBrusk - Elias Pettersson - Brock Boeser
Evander Kane - Lukas Reichel - Kiefer Sherwood
Drew O'Connor - Aatu Raty - Mackenzie MacEachern
Arshdeep Bains - Max Sasson - Linus Karlsson
Defense:
Marcus Pettersson - Filip Hronek
Elias Pettersson - Tom Willander
P.O Joseph - Tyler Myers
Starting Goaltender: Thatcher Demko
Scratched: Kirill Kudryavtsev.
Injured: Conor Garland (undisclosed), Victor Mancini (undisclosed), Quinn Hughes (lower-body), Filip Chytil (concussion protocol), Jonathan Lekkerimaki (upper-body), Teddy Blueger (lower-body), Nils Hoglander (lower-body), Derek Forbort (undisclosed).
How to Watch & Listen: Tonight's game will be on Fanduel Sports Network North. Anthony LaPanta will be on the play-by-play with Ryan Carter as the color analyst and Kevin Gorg the reporter. The radio broadcast will be on KFAN FM 100.3 with Joe O'Donnell behind the mic doing the play-by-play. Tom Reid as the color analyst and Kevin Falness as the Studio Host.
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