Time: 7:30 Eastern
Place: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN
TV: TNT, BSN
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket
Wild Blog: Hockey Wilderness
Last night’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes sucked in a number of ways. First and foremost was the injury to Dylan Larkin that removed him from the game sometime in the second (although the injury was probably sustained in the first.) Bear with us as we try to determine how that will affect the roster today. Obviously, it will have a big impact and we’ll do our best to be on top of those changes.
Secondly, though, was that last night’s game was brutally boring. Carolina scored their one power-play goal and then smothered Detroit to a 1-0 result. Brutal stuff, and if you made it through all sixty minutes, treat yourself tonight. You deserve it. Maybe a nice slice of pecan pie and a tall glass of 2% milk between the first and second (which is just what I want to eat at the moment of this writing, so please let me project my feelings onto you. kthx!)
The Minnesota Wild have come back from an ice cold start to the season to find their comfortable third place position in the Central division. Looks to be another good but not great year from Team Green, which most Minnesota fans will bemoan as their curse. Kirill the Thrill is stirs the drink in St. Paul, but Mats Zuccarello is having himself a year, hanging out just above a point-per-game pace. They still have their defensive core of Sprugeon, Brodin, and Dumba, which means they’ve still got plenty of weapons on the blue line. They also have a dude named Sam Steel, which I think was an action figure in the 90s.
If the Wings had Larkin I would say that Minnesota is a good match up for them, but losing your 1C really messes with forward depth, especially since the days of having the Zetterberg/Datsyuk 1A and 1B options are long gone, sadly. I like Detroit’s odds if they can elevate their game; I think their ceiling and talent is higher than Minnesota, if only they can get their ducks (and grey ducks) in a row in St. Paul tonight.
