Minnesota Wild (31-34-10) vs New York Rangers (47-21-7)
Xcel Energy Center @ 7:00 PM CDTTelevision: FSN
Listen Live at: KFAN (100.3) or Wild.com
For the New York perspective, check out Blueshirt Banter
Minnesota Wild | New York Rangers |
Dany Heatley - Mikko Koivu - Devin Setoguchi Marco Scandella - Nate Prosser | Artem Anisimov - Brad Richards - Marian Gaborik Ryan McDonagh - Dan Girardi Henrik Lundqvist |
Oh, hello first place in the East New York Rangers. How are you today? Glad to see this fine evening. Any chance you could be kind tonight and not make this look really, really bad?
The Rangers are, to put it lightly, stacked. Gaborik, Richards, Anisimov, Stepan, Lundqvist... they are a good team from top to bottom, despite what their own coach might think. With the tune up for the playoffs on for them, and the Wild eliminated, this could get ugly and get there fast.
No one wants to see Gaborik put five goals in tonight. No one. The Wild can lose, they can even lose big. As long as Goaborik doesn't rub salt in the wound, Wild fans can take it. Of course, being a dirty, rotten European, he'll probably put up six just out of spite.
For the Wild, this is the last game outside the Jason Zucker era. Harding starts, Backstrom backs him up. Beyond that, everything remains exactly the same. The results? Likely exactly the same. This one, and six more to go, folks.
Enjoy the game.
Five Questions:
- Can the Wild find a way to shut down Gaborik?
- How does Harding look with Backstrom ready to take the reigns back?
- Is tonight the night Koivu gets on the score sheet?
- King Henrik is in the house. How does he look?
- Will the news of Zucker signing have any motivation for the team?