Wild face the Bruins tonight. Discover key player matchups and updated line combinations as Minnesota battles for a crucial home victory.
ST. PAUL, Minn - The Minnesota Wild (18-9-5) is set to host the Boston Bruins (19-13-0) for a second of a back-to-back.
Tonight marks the Wild debut for newly acquired defenseman Quinn Hughes. It is also the first game back in Minnesota for the former Wild center Marat Khusnutdinov.
Some injury updates. Jonas Brodin will miss his second-straight game tonight with an upper-body injury. Marcus Foligno will miss his ninth, Vinnie Hinostroza's 11th, Jake Middleton's third and Mats Zuccarello's third.
Foligno has started skating on his own which is a good sign. No one else has.
The Wild are coming off a win and are 3-2-0 in their last five and 7-2-1 in their last ten. Minnesota has won two straight at home and is 10-3-4 on the year at home.
Boston has won two straight on the road and is 8-8-0 overall. The Bruins are 4-1-0 in their last five games and 7-3-0 in their last ten.
Minnesota went 1-1-0 against the Bruins last year. Filip Gustavsson pitched a shutout in the Wild's win and Jeremy Swayman pitched a shutout in the Bruins win.
The Wild are 19-10-5 all-time against the Bruins and 9-5-3 at home against Boston. Marcus Johansson, the former Bruins forward, leads the Wild in points against Boston with 21 in 34 career games.
Gustavsson is 1-1-0 with a 2.03 goals-against average and a .938 save percentage in two career starts against Boston. Swayman is 1-3-0 with a 1.78 goals-against average and a .942 save percentage in four career starts against the Wild.
Here are tonight's projected lines.
Wild Projected Lines
Kirill Kaprizov - Danila Yurov - Vladimir Tarasenko
Marcus Johansson - Joel Eriksson Ek - Matt Boldy
Yakov Trenin - Ryan Hartman - Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Ben Jones - Nico Sturm - Tyler Pitlick
Defense:
Quinn Hughes - Brock Faber
Zach Bogosian - Jared Spurgeon
Daemon Hunt - David Jiricek
Starting Goaltender: Filip Gustavsson
Scratched: Hunter Haight, Matt Kiersted.
Injured: Jake Middleton (upper-body), Jonas Brodin (upper-body), Mats Zuccarello (upper-body), Marcus Foligno (lower-body), Vinnie Hinostroza (lower-body).
Bruins Projected Lines
Alex Steeves - Elias Lindholm - Morgan Geekie
Pavel Zacha - Fraser Minten - David Pastrnak
Marat Khusnutdinov - Casey Mittelstadt - Jeffrey Viel
Tanner Jeannot - Sean Kuraly - Mark Kastelic
Defense:
Nikita Zadorov - Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm - Andrew Peeke
Mason Lohrei - Victor Soderstrom
Starting Goaltender: Jeremy Swayman
Scratched: Michael Eyssimont.
Injured: Henri Jokiharju (undisclosed), onathan Aspirot (upper-body), Jordan Harris (ankle), Matej Blumel (lower-body), Michael Callahan (lower-body), Viktor Arvidsson (lower-body).
How to Watch & Listen: Tonight's game will be on Fanduel Sports Network North. Anthony LaPanta will be on the play-by-play with Alex Stalock 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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