Just the Facts
- The Time: 8pm EST
- The Place: Grand Casino Center, St. Paul, Minnesota
- Place to Watch: NESN, KTSC, MINNHL, Wild+
- Place to Listen: 98.5 The Sports Hub
What Happened Last Time?
Once again a Canadian team just proved they don’t want it enough as Boston spent a good portion of it on the back foot, but got a late tying goal from Elias Lindholm, had David Pastrnak playing pretty much all of Overtime, and then sent JJ Peterka on a break to finish the comeback in a 4-3 OT Win that featured Mason Lohrei doing correct things(!!), James Hagens’ first NHL goal, and the captain capturing 2 points when it mattered most.
On to Today’s preview
The Wild are once again poised to make noise in the Central Division.
At least, that’s what it looks like. Kinda hard to tell with them.
Minny is a weird team. On paper they should be a lot better than they are, and usually they end up being capable of some fairly strong games where they win like 5-1 for a week straight. They even got Quinn Hughes in a major coup that suggests whatever hard drugs Bill Guerin is doing these days is giving him deep, unique insights into how to convince bad teams to give them their best players. By all accounts, the season should be a cakewalk for Minnesota.
And yet the Quinn Hughes rumors seem to just kinda follow, huh.
They’re also kind of an odd team where their wingers are infinitely better than their centers (yes, yes, glass houses and stones I’ve heard it now watch this sinker) with the exception of one, and they will have to endure the first part of the season without Brock Faber or Filip Gustavsson. That shouldn’t be a deal breaker for them? But it will be a unique challenge for a team that is trying to win before just about their entire defense and most of their depth guys become UFAs.
Boston meanwhile is coming off of a back to back in a game that was probably more indicative of what their season is going to look like than the first game. Hard fought, back and forth, and reliant on big individual nights to see them to the end. Also .900+ SV% goaltending from Jeremy Swayman, but for right now I think he can handle that.
It’s gonna be a real sloppy one, especially given how some of the top 6 were skating after overtime, but if they can keep pace with the Wild, then they can get two points.
Let’s see if they can pull it off.
