Minnesota Wild Gameday Preview: Mid-Day Match-Up with the Canucks - 12/16/23
The Wild are in for a tough game with some key injuries looming large against a very good Vancouver Canucks team.
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The Minnesota Wild (11-12-4) are set to take on the surprisingly deadly Vancouver Canucks (20-9-1) as part of a Saturday matinee that will give the hockey world just a singular NHL game to watch five hours before the other 12 games all start within a two-hour window.
Storylines to Follow
Wild’s Chase for a Playoff Position
The Wild are in the midst of attempting to turn their season around since making a coaching change where they brought in John Hynes to replace Dean Evason after dropping seven games in a row. Since the change, they have gone 6-2-0 and will need to continue that momentum if they plan on making up some ground towards the playoff race.
The teams directly in front of them in the standings are not making it easy as the Nashville Predators (+8 pts) and Arizona Coyotes (+4 pts) both won their games last night. A win this afternoon would bring the Wild to an even .500 points percentage and temporarily leap-frog them over the Seattle Kraken, Calgary Flames, and Edmonton Oilers in the chase for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference; however, all three of those teams also play later this evening.
Injuries are Piling Up Again
It feels like the Wild just started to get rolling with a fully healthy roster when they lost Jonas Brodin to a less-than-clean hit from Evander Kane. Brodin is on long-term injury reserve (LTIR) and will miss some significant time. To make matters worse they had to play without captain Jared Spurgeon in their game on Dec. 14 against the Calgary Flames.
They managed to come away with a win in a shootout, but rookie Brock Faber had over 30 minutes of ice time in the game. A completely unsustainable practice, especially against a team playing as well as the Vancouver Canucks (active four-game win streak, 7-3-0 in last 10 games).
Spurgeon is still questionable for tonight’s game and if that wasn’t enough according to Marcus Foligno left practice yesterday after just 20 minutes. It was later stated in a follow-up tweet that Foligno is “fine”, but the same was said about Spurgeon the day before he was labelled as day-to-day. Foligno will likely still be in the line-up, but it is worth remembering that he is likely playing through a minor injury.
Boldy & Gustavsson are H-O-T
A new coach can spark different players in different ways and it is without a doubt Matt Boldy and Filip Gustavsson that have been the largest benefactors of the change. Gustavsson had been playing well before Evason was let go, but since Hynes has taken over he has a 5-1-0 record with a 1.33 goals against average and a .950 save percentage. Those numbers put him as the best goaltender in the NHL over that time-span.
If it is possible the improvement that Matt Boldy has seen is even more drastic than Gustavsson. In eight games under Hynes Boldy has nine points, seven of which are goals, and has a +7 rating. It probably also helps that he has been elevated to the top-line with the Wild’s leading goal scorer, Joel Eriksson Ek, and the face of the franchise, Kirill Kaprizov. This isn’t a new revelation as Boldy had a similar streak last season where he dominated every game that he played, if the Wild can get him to hold on to that level of play he could be the reason they end up sneaking into the post-season.
Projected Lines
Here is everyone’s favourite part, the projected lines for this afternoon:
Kirill Kaprizov – Joel Eriksson Ek – Matt Boldy
Marcus Johansson – Marco Rossi – Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Foligno – Freddy Gaudreau – Pat Maroon
Brandon Duhaime – Connor Dewar – Ryan Hartman
Jake Middleton – Brock Faber
Alex Goligoski – Daemon Hunt
Jon Merrill – Zach Bogosian
Filip Gustavsson – Marc-Andre Fleury
The forward lines remain the same, if Foligno does happen to be unavailable, Vinni Lettieri will likely just slide into his position. The defensive pairings will continue to be a complete shot in the dark as there is no morning skate before the early game. Spurgeon is a game-time decision so everything changes if he can play; however, if he doesn’t, Hunt will be sliding in which means one of Mermis or Merrill would have to sit out.
I believe Mermis will be the one in the press box because he has not built up any type of repertoire with Hynes, although I believe he is currently the better defender of the two. Gustavsson will look to continue being an absolute Vezina-caliber goalie.
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