Game Preview: Minnesota Wild vs. Los Angeles Kings 2/27/2017 @ 7:00PM CST at Xcel Energy Center

Minnesota Wild (39-14-6)  84pts  1st in the Central

3.31 Goals For Per Game (3rd in the NHL)

2.31 Goals Against Per Game (2nd in the NHL)

22.8% Power Play (1st in the NHL)

83.1% Penalty Kill (10th in the NHL)

Top 5 Scorers:

1. #64 Mikael Granlund ~ 19G 36A = 55pts

2. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 17G 29A = 46pts

3. #22 Nino Niederreiter ~ 19G 26A = 45pts

4. #12 Eric Staal ~ 17G 28A = 45pts

5. #3 Charlie Coyle ~ 14G 30A = 44pts

Top 3 PIM’s:

1. #7 Chris Stewart ~ 79 PIM’s

2. #21 Ryan White ~ 70 PIM’s

3. #24 Mathew Dumba ~ 43 PIM’s

Top Goaltenders:

1. #40 Devan Dubnyk (32-11-3)  2.01GAA  .933%SP  5SO

2. #35 Darcy Kuemper (7-3-3)  3.05GAA  .910%SP

Vs.

Los Angeles Kings (30-27-4)  64pts  5th in the Pacific

2.44 Goals For Per Game (24th in the NHL)

2.43 Goals Against Per Game (5th in the NHL)

16.7% Power Play (24th in the NHL)

84.5% Penalty Kill (5th in the NHL)

Top 5 Scorers:

1. #77 Jeff Carter ~ 30G 25A = 55pts

2. #70 Tanner Pearson ~ 19G 18A = 37pts

3. #11 Anze Kopitar ~ 6G 29A = 36pts

4. #8 Drew Doughty ~ 8G 26A = 34pts

5. #27 Alec Martinez ~ 7G 22A = 29pts

Top 3 PIM’s:

1. #13 Kyle Clifford ~ 71 PIM’s

2. #24 Derek Forbort ~ 48 PIM’s

3. #71 Jordan Nolan ~ 44 PIM’s

Top Goaltenders:

1. #32 Jonathan Quick (1-0-0)  1.50GAA  .958%SP

2. #?? Ben Bishop (16-12-3)  2.55GAA  .911%SP  1SO

Lines:

Los Angeles Kings

Kempe~Kopitar~Brown

Pearson~Carter~Toffoli

Clifford~Dowd~Lewis

King~Shore

Forbort~Doughty

McNabb~Martinez

Muzzin~Gravel

Quick

Bishop

Minnesota Wild

Niederreiter~Staal~Coyle

Zucker~Koivu~Granlund

Parise~Hanzal~Pominville

Stewart~Haula~White

Suter~Spurgeon

Olofsson~Brodin

Scandella~Dumba

Dubnyk

Kuemper

I hope you enjoyed that short trip down memory lane when the Wild made a trade in an effort to make themselves a contender.  Now the Wild have made a deal with the hope of securing a deep playoff run.  The deal with the Arizona Coyotes gives the Minnesota Wild center Martin Hanzal (with the Coyotes paying half of his salary) and rugged winger Ryan White as well as a 4th round pick in 2017 for a 1st round pick in 2017, a 2nd round pick in 2018 and a conditional (4th round or possibly 2nd round) pick in 2019 as well as sending Grayson Downing to Arizona.  Will that be the only deal the Wild make?  Hard to say.  The team also signed Ryan Carter to a two-way contract and also called up Zac Dalpe from Iowa who is finally healthy after being hurt most of the season with a knee injury.

The Los Angeles Kings were also busy last night as they surprised just about everyone by dealing a 1st round pick, prospect Eric Cernak, back up goaltender Peter Budaj (who more or less kept the Kings in the hunt), and a 5th and a 7th round pick in the 2017 draft to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Ben Bishop.  Bishop, one of the NHL’s better goaltenders arrives to the Kings coincidentally just after Jonathan Quick returns after sustaining a groin injury in his first period of action this season to give Los Angeles the best 1-2 goaltending tandem in the league.  Quick looked good in his first start in 4 months on Saturday, but no doubt the Kings wanted to leave nothing to chance.  While I think they might be tempted to give Bishop a shot, I think we’ll see Quick between the pipes this evening.

So yes, with all of that going on, there’s still a game to talk about. Amazing I know. We’re all coming back from the much needed break. However with that break comes more complications. It’s now going to be a chaotic push to the end of the season. However this season’s chaos is going to be far different from seasons past. For most Wild fans, we’re used to the frantic push at the end to just make the playoffs. Even worse, it’s wasn’t just the Wild having to make a push. Usually that playoff spot included a lot of dumb luck and hoping the other teams made mistakes. That’s not the way to make the post-season. This season however, is vastly different. This season we’re seeing a team if all things continue as they have, they’re guaranteed home ice throughout the Western Conference side of the playoffs. Heck, there’s even a chance (albeit a bit slim) that they could end up with home ice throughout the entire playoffs should they make the Stanley Cup Finals. Even with the Wild off on their bye week, they’re only five points behind the Washington Capitals who are leading the league. Of course as would be expected when you’ve been off for a week, you also have games in hand.

The push that is coming, is coming from lower in the standings. Minnesota is only one mere point ahead of Chicago. While I appreciate that lead, I would like to gain some distance. The main reason is simply to say that the Wild deserve their spot in the playoffs and the standings. But even more so, for pride’s sake. It would be nice to also head into the post-season with Chicago not sitting at the top of the standings. Of course with the Blackhawks it rarely seems to matter where they sit in the standings. They have a way of digging themselves out of whatever hole they’re in and make it seem more like a golf divot. And like I said earlier, there is a chance, albeit slim, that Minnesota could overtake the Capitals. Although that will be difficult to accomplish. They’ve already had their bye week and like Minnesota’s schedule, they’re pretty much playing every other day. However if the Wild can win both games against Washington next month it could just happen. I’m not going to hold my breath at this point, because I’ll simply be happy if Minnesota stays on top of the Western Conference.

Tonight’s opponent needs tonight’s points more than Minnesota. The Kings are currently on the outside looking in. They’re in ninth place in the Western Conference, and trailing Saint Louis by three points. Even if Los Angeles would win tonight, they’re still not in that eighth place spot. Right now, the Kings are looking like the Wild of past seasons. Los Angeles is going to need luck of their own as well as letdowns by the likes of Saint Louis and Calgary. It will be much, much harder for the Kings to catch up to the Flames, but crazier things have happened. Now that the Kings have Quick back in net and Bishop ready to serve as backup, there’s a very good chance that they could slip into that spot. And let’s face it, one of the main reasons that Los Angeles is on the outside looking in is because they’ve been without Quick pretty much the entire season. If their Renaissance comes, it wouldn’t be a huge shock either.

So here we go. Two teams with new faces. Two teams that want and need this win. Here’s the Minnesota Wild bucking the trend of losing after the bye week.