Here is everything you need to know before puck drop.
The Minnesota Wild (13-4-4) are back in action tonight against the Buffalo Sabres (11-9-1) on the road. The Wild are coming off a loss and are 5-3-2 in their last ten games.
The Sabres have won three straight and are 7-3-0 in their last ten games. Not only have the Sabres been playing well, but they are 7-1-1 in their last nine games against the Wild.
Minnesota is 2-3-4 in that span. Five of the last eight games between the two teams have gone to overtime or a shootout. The Sabres have won four of those games.
These games are always close and tonight could be the same.
Buffalo will welcome Tage Thompson back into the lineup tonight. For the Wild, Jakub Lauko will miss tonight's game. He left in the third period of the Wild's last game with a lower-body injury.
Marat Khusnutdinov will also miss tonight's game. Wild head coach John Hynes said this morning that he is day-to-day. He could return this weekend though.
Filip Gustavsson will start again for the Wild tonight. For the Sabres it will be Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
Here are tonight's projected lines (subject to change).
Wild's Projected Lines
Kirill Kaprizov - Joel Eriksson Ek - Matt Boldy
Marcus Johansson - Marco Rossi - Ryan Hartman
Marcus Foligno - Freddy Gaudreau - Yakov Trenin
Devin Shore - Ben Jones - Travis Boyd
Defense:
Jake Middleton - Brock Faber
Declan Chisholm - Jared Spurgeon
Jon Merrill - Zach Bogosian
Starting Goaltender: Filip Gustavsson
Scratched: None
Injured: Mats Zuccarello (lower), Marat Khusnutdinov (lower), Jakub Lauko (lower), Jonas Brodin (upper)
Sabres Projected Lines
JJ Peterka - Tage Thompson - Alex Tuch
Zach Benson - Dylan Cozens - Peyton Krebs
Jason Zucker - Jiri Kulich - Jack Quinn
Beck Malenstyn - Ryan McLeod - Sam Lafferty
Defense:
Rasmus Dahlin - Bo Byram
Owen Power - Henri Jokiharju
Jacob Bryson - Connor Clifton
Starting Goaltender: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
Scratched: Dennis Gilbert, Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Injured: Jordan Greenway (mid-body), Mattias Samuelsson (lower)
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 a 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.
Let us know what you think by commenting below or on the Forum.
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