The Minnesota Wild open the season Thursday night at home against a Florida Panthers side that rode a hot playoff streak to the Stanley Cup Final before losing 4-1 to the Las Vegas Knights last season.
Minnesota will be without defenseman Jared Spurgeon after the captain suffered an upper-body injury in the team’s fifth preseason game that has him week-to-week to start the season.
According to The Athletic’s Joe Smith, these were the lines head coach Dean Evason employed during Tuesday’s practice, which is a good indicator for how they’ll roll against the Panthers at Xcel Energy Center in the opener.
- L1: Kirill Kaprizov, Ryan Hartman, Mats Zuccarello
- L2: Marcus Johansson, Joel Eriksson Ek, Matthew Boldy
- L3: Marcus Foligno, Marco Rossi, Freddy Gaudreau
- L4: Pat Maroon, Connor Dewar, Brandon Duhaime
The trio of Kaprizov, Hartman and Zuccarello accounted for 77 goals and 102 assists last season and that line will be asked to carry the load offensively again in 2023, though a full season with Eriksson Ek centering Johansson and Boldy could produce big numbers as well. And if Rossi develops into the talent the Wild thought he could become when they drafted him in the first round, the third line could sting opponents, too.
Without Spurgeon, these are the expected defensive pairings.
- D1: Jonas Brodin, Brock Faber
- D2: Jacob Middleton, Alex Goligoski
- D3: Jon Merrill, Calen Addison
The Wild will be looking to get off to a better start than last season’s three-game losing streak.
To get fans ready for the season opener, the Wild released a fun video featuring Wild players waiting to board the Gus Bus, which was of course driven by Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson.
All aboard the Gus…you know the rest 🚌#mnwild x Not Weird. Wild pic.twitter.com/b7gCThtljW
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) October 11, 2023
