Last-minute Changes, Reports and News ahead of Wild vs. Maple Leafs

Minnesota Wild won on Tuesday. I was in the building and I'm still a little worried about tonight because their best player said it himself after the game. We didn't have a lot of chances tonight and while he played a really good game, That was a 2-1 overtime win in Montreal. It was their ninth game in a row with a point and their sixth road win in a row. So the question tonight in Toronto isn't whether the Wild are good. We know they are. It's whether they can win another one Everyone liked that. Because for about 40 of those 60 minutes against Montreal, Now that game was unreal, Carey Price tonight, the building was going crazy, he was put in the ring of honor, so that certainly didn't help out the atmosphere for this Minnesota Wild team because you could tell how special the night was. Even Bobby Brink felt it, growing up he was the best goalie in the league, when I was a kid it was pretty special to see the fans treat someone like that. And I'll be fair to the Wild, the first period was fine, they had 9 shots on goal to Montreal's 5, but then it flipped. In the second period, Montreal had 12 shots to the Wild's 6, and in the third, it was 11-8. And probably the worst part of the night for the Minnesota Wild was that they lost their face-off ability. Montreal was winning 65.6% of the face-offs, the Wild won only 19 of 55. When you lose 36 of 55 draws, you spend the night chasing the puck, and that was the story of the second half of this game. The Globe and Mail called the second period dominated by the Canadians, and from where I was sitting as well, that's a very nice way of putting it. John Hynes saw it a little differently, he said we were pretty buttoned up defensively, he said sometimes we had to bend, but we didn't break. And he's right about the bending, the Wild blocked 23 shots to Montreal's 12, but when you block 23 shots, you're defending, you're not playing offense. So how does a team play like that for 40 minutes and still walk out with two points? Firstly, it was Jesper Wallstedt that he made 27 saves on 28 shots with that goal being just a really unlucky play where it trickled in the net and a 964 save percentage, certainly the first star of the game deserved in that one. He's got a .925 save percentage on the season now and Tuesday, he was even better than that. Nobody is better than their season numbers every single night. Second was the only goal of the night and the guy who scored it Bobby Brink. Goal came out 253 of the third, and he scored on the breakaway after Josh Anderson mishandled the puck and put the shot just over the glove of Jacob Fowler. There was another break on top of that one when we saw Montreal have the power play. Newhook scored with 7:33 of the first, but it was overturned on review after hitting the crossbar and the post and came out. Montreal scored with a minute and 38 seconds left with the goalie pulled, brought it to overtime, The place has gone crazy, to be honest with you. But the big thing was the winner with 56 seconds left in overtime after a Caulfield slashing call broke Quinn Hughes' stick. I mean, a lot of people are calling it questionable, but if you're coming down on someone's stick, it's going to be a penalty. Kaprizov scored on the power play 21 seconds into overtime, his 17th goal of the season. If you take away Jesper Wallstedt, the turnover from Josh Anderson, the turned over goal from Newhook on the power play in the first period, we could be looking at a very, very different game. And Jesper Wallstedt can't do that every night, and here's what we do know ahead of tonight's game against the Maple Leafs. As of right now, being 13, 3 regulation losses and 4 in overtime, that's 30 points, first on the Central. Nashville's second with 25 in 19 games, Colorado has 24, and Dallas has 22. On the road, they're 8 wins, 3 regulation losses, and 2 in overtime. They've won 6 in a row away from home, Only Edmonton's streak at seven is longer. They've scored 65 goals, allowed 44. being a plus 21, and no team in the NHL allows fewer goals a game than the Wild's 2.2. And Wallstedt is a big reason why. 12 wins, 2 regulation losses, 3 in overtime, with a .193 goals against averaging a .925 save percentage. Big reason why he starts again tonight to get a bounce back for his team. And a goalie can steal a game, but he cannot steal a season. Brisboi's second in the NHL in goals with 17, Quinn Hughes has 27 points in 20 games, 6 goals, and 21 assists. Quinn Hughes has 80 points in 68 games since the Wild got him in December of last year. So that's the thing. It's a very good team that looked ordinary on Tuesday, and good teams get punished for ordinary sooner or later. They've already felt it this month. They lost 4-3 in overtime at home to Tampa Bay on November 7th, and by the same score, to the Islanders on October 29th. So, tonight is not whether they're going to be good or not. Like I said, we know they are. It's about what they do when things are not going their way. And looking at the lineup tonight, according to Michael Russo, the Wild are making no lineup changes tonight. That's including Jesper Wallstedt, as he is once again in net. Now, that is start number 18 of 20 for him. And Calvin Pickard, being the backup in three games, has eight. .55 save percentage, but Philip Gustafson out with a hip injury. And on defense, Brock Faber is still on the injury reserve with a skull fracture and is returning back to play very, very soon. John Hynes said Saturday's return is possible, but there are no guarantees. And I got to see both of them on the ice after practice at the Bell Center in the middle of the night. Brock Faber, skating very good, looking very good, as well as Philip Gustafson. So Quinn Hughes keeps playing 28 minutes and 8 seconds a night. Now that is a lot of ice time for one defenseman, and with Faber out, there's nobody else who can take it right now with a comfortable level like Quinn Hughes or Brock Faber. So if he gets hurt or runs out of gas in Toronto, the Wild have a problem and no goalie can fix that. And there is one change worth knowing about. Michael Russo said John Hynes plans to play Quinn Hughes when the other team pulls their goalie. And I like that, because that's exactly the spot Tuesday's tying goal came in. Suzuki scored with their net empty, and Quinn Hughes was very good by long stretch passes, dumping the puck very accurately. And now looking at Toronto's changes to the team that they're playing tonight. They have 8 wins, 10 regulation losses, 2 in overtime, they've lost 4 in a row. In their last 7 games, they have 1 win and 6 losses, and that win was over Vancouver, which doesn't count. They've scored 67 goals in the last 70, so it isn't that they can't score, it's that they can't stop anybody. Here's a little fun, when the Wild lost 4-2 to Montreal on November 7th, 3 days before the Wild won their game in overtime, same team, the Wild only needed 65 minutes. And they've given up 17 goals in 4 games of this homestand, and the last, a 6-3 loss to Colorado. And they have not been good at home, their 4 wins, 7 regulation losses, and 1 in overtime at Scotiabank Arena. And the roster is getting thinner. Sissons is on the injury reserve, Barrasso is called up from the Marlies, and Morgan Riley has been listed as day-to-day. Then there is Chris Tanev, who has been scratched for what the team calls planned maintenance in the second time in three games, and he's not happy about it. In net, Joseph Wall is gone, so it's Anthony Stolarz tonight. It's 5-2 with a 9.08 save percentage over Bobrovsky, who was at an 8.81 and has lost five in a row. Now this sounds like a free win, but it is not. A desperate home team with Austin Matthews with 28 points in 20 games. The kind of team that is playing their best games of the month against someone who is coasting. That's something you need to be very, very aware of. And with Matthews being a 28-point scorer so far this season, Nylander has 22, Jack Roslovich has 20, Kaprizov alone has 32, though, and it's not going to be an easy task still. And looking back in the past, the Wilds have had trouble here. They're 3-1 in their last four games against Toronto, but the last one was a 4-2 Leafs win in March. So what does the Wilds' night need to look like? Here's the recipe for tonight. Number one, win the face-offs. For 19 of 55 on Tuesday, and a team that never has the puck cannot get shots. Number two, stop giving it away. 17 giveaways in Montreal against the three takeaways. Montreal had seven. Number three, just put the puck on net. In the middle and last period in the game against Montreal, they had 14 shots total. Montreal had 23. That gave them a lot of pressure and ultimately led to Montreal coming back and leading it to overtime. And with Kaprizov, Eriksson, and Boldy with 32, 17, and 18 points respectively, Kaprizov himself said they didn't get a lot of chances. Their job is to make some more. And if Toronto pulls their goalie late, which against the Minnesota Wild is a very good chance they do, John Hines is ready to put Hughes out there. None of this needs a miracle. It just needs a Wild team to look like the team that has allowed the fewest goals in the NHL, 2.2 a game, and not the team where a goalie needs to steal a point. Not like we saw in Montreal, except for overtime. If you're enjoying this, be sure to subscribe to the channel. Give this video a like as well, folks, because that helps us spread this channel to every single Minnesota Wild fan to grow this community even bigger. That is the preview. If they play like the team on paper, it's a wild win. If it's Tuesday's middle period and the third period goes 40 minutes again, Toronto gets a real chance then to break their losing streak and... You can't blame them on that if they're catching up on a team that's not playing well. The Wild are the favorites tonight, around a minus 170 on the money line, and they should be their 13-3-4. Now my pick, I know I got the last one wrong. I'm going big again this one. I'm going 5-2 for the Minnesota Wild. Not because they'll be better than Tuesday for sure. But because they will not need to be as lucky, they know what they're doing. They know they have to be better than that. Now, I want yours down below. Who scores tonight? Kirill Kaprizov, Austin Matthews? Who scores more? Who scores first? Drop all that in the comments below with your final score.