Game Preview: Minnesota Wild @ Washington Capitals

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Tonight will see the no-longer last in the Western Conference, Minnesota Wild, travel to our great nation’s capital to take on the…wait for it…Washington Capitals.

The Wild come into tonight’s contest sporting a record of 7-10-1 (15 points), while the Caps are a sparkling 11-3-4 (26 points), which is good for a tie for first in the Eastern Conference with the Jacques Lemaire-helmed New Jersey Devils.

The Wild will be playing in their second of back-to-back games—the first of which saw the team fall in a shootout to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday in a heartbreaking loss.  Meanwhile, the Caps are coming off of a 5-4 victory over the New York Islanders on Wednesday.

Lineups

The Wild called up former Wisconsin Badger standout, Robbie Earl, from the Houston Aeros, their AHL affiliate, late Thursday night but it is doubtful that Earl will see action in Friday’s game.  Earl was called up in case forward Chuck Kobasew was too banged up to go, but Kobasew participated in the optional morning skate and looks like he’ll be ready.  Bearing that in mind, here are the probable line combos for the Wild.

Brunette-Koivu-Miettinen

Nolan-Belanger-Havlat

Kobasew-Brodziak-Clutterbuck

Boogaard-Sheppard-Pouliot

And the d-pairings are…

Zanon-Zidlicky

Burns-Johnsson

Hnidy-Schultz

Manning the crease for today’s game will be Josh Harding, who will get called on for his first start since a loss to Edmonton on October 16.

The Caps, meanwhile, will be sans-Alex Ovechkin for at least one more game, which is good news for the Wild.  The bad news?  The team still has Nicklas Backstrom (the one with the ‘c’ in his name), Alexander Semin, Mike Green, Brooks Laich and some guy that the Wild are pretty familiar with called Brendan Morrison.

For the Caps in net, look to Semyon (is that how he’s spelling it these days) Varlamov to get the call.

What to Watch For

If you missed it, go to YouTube and look it up.  Owen Nolan scored what is probably the goal of the year so far on Thursday.  The goal capped a strong two-goal performance that has seen the wily veteran step up in a big way in the absence of Petr Sykora. 

Nolan was demoted to the fourth line, not because of his play, but because of the fact that head coach Todd Richards thought that he was the one person who could handle it.

Nolan bided his time and has turned it on since being moved up to the team’s second line, with two goals and three points over the last two games—including some amazing chemistry with Martin Havlat.

Look for the team’s fourth line of Boogaard, Sheppard and Pouliot to get some more ice time tonight as well.

The line played what could possibly be their best game of the season against Tampa Bay, and Pouliot not only got his second goal of the season, but Sheppard also finally broke through on the scoresheet.

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