Wild Without Harding, Koivu On Road Trip
By Mark Okern
Good morning, State of Hockey! We’ve had a few days off, but that changes tonight with first game of our Panthers / Stars back-to-back.
No big news from the ice or the front office, except that the Wild are down Mikko Koivu and Josh Harding on this trip. Koivu is still MIA due to an undisclosed injury, and Harding supposedly “tweaked something” in practice. Houston goaltender Matt Hackett has been recalled and will be backing up Niklas Backstrom on the trip. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if Harding is truly injured or if a trade is in the works, but with the utter silence from the front office I’m guessing he’s actually hurt.
As always, live commentary on Twitter @gonepuckwild during the game tonight!
Some quick notes about the Wild’s performance vs. the Panthers…
The Wild have had great success against Florida, going 7-2-1 in their last 10. On the road, that’s been a solid 4-2-0 all time (we’ve only played the Panthers 11 times). The last time these teams met was November 12th, 2010; that one was a loss for the Wild.
The Wild have never allowed more than 3 goals against vs. Florida, but have scored 6 goals twice.
Should be interesting to watch two teams that know just about nothing about the other one going at it tonight. Tomorrow’s a different story against a club we know all too well.