The reeling Minnesota Wild will get a boost with the return for right wing Matt Boldy when they host the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.
Boldy has missed the past seven games with an upper-body injury. He had a goal and an assist in two games to start the season before suffering the injury during the third period of Minnesota’s 7-4 loss in Toronto on Oct. 14. The 22-year-old had 31 goals and 32 assists in 81 games as a rookie last season.
Wednesday’s practice lines were reportedly:
- L1: Kirill Kaprizov-Ryan Hartman-Mats Zuccarello
- L2: Marcus Johansson-Joel Eriksson Ek-Matt Boldy
- L3: Pat Maroon-Marco Rossi-Marcus Foligno
- L4: Brandon Duhaime-Connor Dewar-Vinni Lettieri
Meanwhile, defenseman Jared Spurgeon is inching closer to his season debut as he continues to rehab a lower-body injury that he suffered during the preseason. According to Joe Smith of The Athletic, Spurgeon participated in practice for about a half-hour on Wednesday.
Spurgeon won’t be back Thursday but he has not yet been ruled out for Saturday’s game against the New York Rangers in St. Paul. If he doesn’t play Saturday, attention will turn to next week’s East Coast road trip when the Wild face the Islanders on Tuesday, Rangers on Thursday and the Buffalo Sabres on Friday.
Spurgeon was initially considered week to week after being hit from behind by Chicago’s Reese Johnson on Oct. 5.
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Minnesota is 3-4-2 to start the season, having lost five of the last six, including one in overtime and another in a shootout. Thursday’s game against the Devils, who are 5-2-1 and, like the Wild, haven’t played since beating the Wild 4-3 on Sunday, starts at 7:10 p.m.
