The Minnesota Wild find themselves in third place in the Central Division, with a five-point buffer ahead of the Colorado Avalanche and a seven-point gap ahead of the Winnipeg Jets and Dallas Stars (tied). The Wild start a tough four-game road trip tonight against the Washington Capitals, but there will be no excuses; they have to pick up the pace if they want a shot at the top of the Central.
The team has only finished at the top of their division once in their history, in 2007-08 when they were part of the Northwest Division, but they have a realistic shot at it this season if they can continue improving.
The Capitals are in fourth place in a very tough Metropolitan Division but have gone 5-3-2 in their last 10 games, including an offensive explosion against the Montreal Canadiens on Dec.31 when they put up a remarkable nine goals. They will be hoping for the second win in as many nights after squeaking out an overtime win against the New York Islanders on Monday night.
Wild Projected Lineup
Kirill Kaprizov – Sam Steel – Mats Zuccarello
Jordan Greenway – Joel Eriksson Ek – Marcus Foligno
Matt Boldy – Frederick Gaudreau – Ryan Hartman
Brandon Duhaime – Connor Dewar – Ryan Reeves
Jake Middleton – Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin – Matt Dumba
Jon Merrill – Calen Addison
Filip Gustavsson – Marc-Andre Fleury
Capitals Projected Lineup
Alex Ovechkin – Dylan Strome – Conor Sheary
Anthony Mantha – Evgeny Kuznetsov – T.J. Oshie
Sonny Milano – Nicklas Backstrom – Tom Wilson
Marcus Johansson – Nic Dowd – Garnet Hathaway
Erik Gustafsson – Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Dmitry Orlov – Nick Jensen
Matt Irwin – Martin Fehervary
Charlie Lindgren – Darcy Kuemper
3 Keys to the Game
Kaprizov Against his Idol
Kaprizov is a massive Alex Ovechkin fan and, with 30 goals on the season and 810 in his career, who can blame him? He even wore an Ovechkin jersey at the shootout competition during the 2022 All-Star Skills Competition. The pair have only faced each other once so far, but Kaprizov was held scoreless despite usually upping his game against his countrymen.
Related: Wild By the Numbers: Midseason Report
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