The Minnesota Wild are coming off their first lack of the season Saturday night time (Oct. 12) at house versus the Seattle Kraken, 5-4 in a shootout. Sunday, Oct. 13, they appear to rebound rapidly as they face the Winnipeg Jets within the second of back-to-back video games.
Wild’s Lineup Is Up within the Air
The hardest a part of the loss Saturday was shedding Joel Eriksson Ek to presumably a damaged nostril after taking an elbow to the face by Adam Larsson. Eriksson Ek gained’t be taking part in Sunday after leaving final night time’s contest throughout the second interval.
The Wild should make a recall from the American Hockey League’s Iowa Wild. Needing a middle coming in, the recall would probably be Ben Jones, the final participant minimize in coaching camp.
Both manner, it throws a serious wrench into the Wild’s lineup as they should alter the underside three strains. To complete the sport Saturday, Ryan Hartman was moved as much as the second line with Matt Boldy and Marcus Johansson. Frédérick Gaudreau centered the third line with Marcus Foligno and Yakov Trenin; Jones might middle Jakub Lauko and Marat Khusnutdinov.
Minnesota’s high line is among the principal causes they ended the homestand with three out of 4 factors. Kirill Kaprizov, Mats Zuccarello, and Marco Rossi have mixed for 9 factors within the two video games and have been utterly dominant. Kaprizov is a person on a mission; he performed over 24 minutes and had three factors versus Seattle.
Wild’s Hardest Check of the Season
For a lot of causes, Sunday afternoon’s contest would be the hardest check early within the season. It’s the second half of a back-to-back with journey and Winnipeg is a rested group, taking part in final on Friday night time (Oct. 11).
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The Jets have all the time performed exhausting, rugged video games versus the Wild; Sunday gained’t be any completely different. The Wild’s high line can be challenged, primarily as a result of the Jets characteristic the very best checking line in hockey with Adam Lowry centering Nino Niederreiter and Mason Appleton. Regardless of the exhausting matchup, Kaprizov has excellent numbers versus Winnipeg, having six targets and 13 assists in solely 11 video games. He has a degree streak of eight video games, as properly.
A number of instances previously, Lowry and the Jets have knocked Kaprizov out of video games attributable to harm. With Eriksson Ek being out who is aware of how lengthy, the Wild have to be very conscious and tremendous delicate to make sure the Russian ahead isn’t abused. The Wild flat-out can’t have any extra accidents to their high gamers.
Wild Keys to Victory
Filip Gustavsson will make his second begin of the season, after having Saturday night time off in favor of Marc-André Fleury. Gustavsson will go head-to-head in opposition to one of many high goalies on the planet, Connor Hellebuyck. The Swedish goalie was stable in his first begin of the season versus the Columbus Blue Jackets in a 3-2 win for Minnesota.
The keys to victory can be discovering a strategy to shut down the Jets’ high line of Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, and Gabe Villardi. The penalty kill must discover a strategy to be higher, as they’ve given up two power-play targets whereas being shorthanded 5 instances.
Minnesota’s Lengthy Highway Journey
The sport on Sunday would be the first of a season-high seven-game street journey spanning over 19 days. The timing of the Eriksson Ek harm will not be good, regardless of it probably not being long-term. The Wild’s backside two strains have zero targets to start out the season and are each minus-1. Getting contributions from these gamers is required rapidly; the very last thing they want is to come back house and combat an uphill battle.
