The Minnesota Wild are in New York this week for a three-game road trip before returning home to play the Dallas Stars Sunday night at 5 p.m. The Wild play the Islanders tonight to start the trip and then have a back-to-back against the Rangers Thursday and Sabres Friday.
Nic Petan and Daemon Hunt are with the Wild on the road trip. Hunt will play again tonight against the Islanders with Jon Merrill scratched.
There's a possibility that Jared Spurgeon, who traveled with the team to New York but won't play tonight, will return to the lineup in one of the final two games of the trip after fully practicing Monday. This will be a huge boost to the lineup after some uncharacteristic defensive numbers to start the season.
“There’s a possibility for sure," Wild head coach Dean Evason said Monday after practice. "When, where, who knows. But he’s progressing quite nicely into full practice.”
Marcus Johansson is also good to go after being unavailable for the Wild's outdoor practice on Sunday inside the Recreation Outdoor Center in St. Louis Park. But Freddy Gaudreau (upper-body injury) and Alex Goligoski (long-term injured reserve) remain out of the lineup.
The Wild start the trip tonight against the Islanders, who have points in eight of their first 10 games with a 5-2-3 record. The Islanders' power play has converted on 14.3 percent of their opportunities, which is tied for 22nd with the Wild. The Islanders have killed off 80 percent of their penalties for 12th league wide.
Then the Wild play the Rangers for the second time in six days. The Rangers are off to a strong 8-2-1 start with a top-10 power play (31.6 percent; fourth in the NHL) and penalty kill (83.8 percent; ninth in the NHL). However, the Rangers rank 25th in the NHL with 17 five-on-five goals, so staying out of the box is key.
Then the Wild finish the road trip in Buffalo against the Sabres, who have started the season with a 6-6 record. The Sabres have the fourth-best penalty kill percentage at 89.1, but rank 24th on the power play at 11.4 percent.
The Wild and Sabres are tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins for fourth in the NHL with 29 five-on-five goals.
This is an important road trip for the Wild who are looking to build on their best 40-minute span of the season in the final two periods in their 5-4 come-from-behind win over the Rangers at home this past Saturday.
"It's important because we hadn't had that type of game consistently," head coach Dean Evason said after Sunday's outdoor practice ... "Hopefully we can use that as a bar to how we want to continue to play all year."
It marked the first time this season that the Wild showed a glimpse of their potential with their slow starts, poor special teams and uncharacteristic defensive numbers grabbing the major storylines early this season.
So the Wild are eyeing to keep the momentum going this week in New York.