The Wild plays its fifth of six preseason games today at 5 p.m. at Xcel Energy Center. The game can be seen on NHL Network.
The only regulars not in the game are injured Justin Fontaine, as well as Jason Zucker, Marco Scandella and Christian Folin. We'll have to check to see if Zucker is OK or if he's dealing with something. He last played in Columbus and had a goal and two assists, so perhaps he just has the night off like Scandella.
The Wild will execute a bunch of cuts today, so I'll be back with those later. The Wild also leaves for Duluth after the game. It'll be there until Wednesday afternoon.
Tonight's lineup:
Parise-Granlund-Pominville
XXXXX-Koivu-Niederreiter
Vanek-Coyle-XXXXXXXX
Carter-Haula-Schroeder
Tyler Graovac and Brett Bulmer will also slide into slots, so we'll see how coach Mike Yeo shuffles his lines. Maybe he moves Niederreiter to left wing. Maybe he plays Graovac at left wing and puts Bulmer at right wing on that third line to change things as little as possible. Maybe he moves Vanek up and shuffles the third and fourth lines. Maybe Coyle moves to right wing. We will see later...Yeo is available at 3 p.m.
Defense pairs likely
Suter-Spurgeon
Brodin-Dumba
Reilly-Prosser
Strachan
Dubnyk in goal with Backstrom backing up.
I'll be back later.
