Minnesota Wild: Big Weekend Ahead for The Wild

The Minnesota Wild are in for what seems to be the most important weekend of their season thus far kicking off tonight in Dallas against the Stars. With a win tonight and a win tomorrow in a follow on tilt in Chicago against the Blackhawks, the Wild could find themselves in sole possession of the Central Division by Monday morning.

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This weekend is going to be a huge one for the State of Hockey. The Minnesota Wild are flying high after their Thursday night 7-1 beatdown in the Dubnyk vs. Price re-match against Montreal at the X. The weekend holds two very important road games for the Wild against the Stars tonight and the Blackhawks tomorrow, with a possible shot at the Central Division lead.

The Wild are certainly on the surface at a bit of a disadvantage because of the back-to-back road games which are always a drain on player energy. The Blackhawks will be rested and at home, so they seem to have the advantage right now.

The Blackhawks played last night on the road in the nation’s capital and were dominated by the Capitals in a 6-0 shellacking. That means that if the Wild win tonight in Dallas the Wild will be tied for the division lead with the Hawks, and of course if the Wild win in Chicago tomorrow in addition to a win tonight they’ll be in the Central Division lead all by themselves.

#mnwild wins in Dallas, it takes over Central lead w 4 games in hand heading into Sunday's game in Chicago. #blackhawks may be surly 😳 pic.twitter.com/Tt1Zhqj8NF
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) January 14, 2017

Really what will determine how ready the Wild are to play in Chicago tomorrow will be how much of a fight the Stars put up in Dallas tonight. The expectation is that the Wild will be able to handle Dallas fairly easily.

NHL: Minnesota Wild at Ottawa Senators /

This is not the Stars team that played the Wild last season in the playoffs. They are struggling to stay around .500 and rank in the bottom half of the league in all major team statistics, whereas the Wild are in the top five in all but power play percentage which they are still in the top half in. Still anything can happen, epically with a team that still has one of the NHL’s most talented scorers in Tyler Seguin.

Look for the Wild to possibly start Darcy Kuemper on tonight as Bruce Boudreau has already said yesterday that he expects to start both goaltenders this weekend. Kuemper has faced the Stars 10 times in the regular season in his career, which is far and away the most of any NHL club, and owns a 4-3-3 record with a 3.21 GAA and .906 save percentage.

Boudreau says we'll probably see both goalies play this weekend. #mnwild
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) January 13, 2017

So, I’m making the broad assumption here that the Wild will more than likely need about 4 goals or higher to overcome what will likely be about a three goal game from Kuemper. That’s a completely doable considering the power output of the Wild lately with 17 goals in the last 4 games.

May 1, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; Minnesota Wild left wing Zach Parise (11) scores a goal past Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford (50) during the second period in game one of the second round of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports /

Then after the Stars looking ahead to Chicago tomorrow the Wild will be of course tested a bit more by the Blackhawks. The current division leaders were having a bit of a hot streak as well as they entered Friday’s tilt in D.C. having gone 5-4-1 in their last 10 games. But after that hard game where the Caps dominated them in every aspect, the Blackhawks could be a bit shell-shocked epically netminder Corey Crawford who gave up 5 of those 6 goals.

Make no mistake though this is the Chicago Blackhawks who are well coached and have a boatload of talent, they’ll put up a fight. Still the Wild seem to have the momentum and even though they’ll be playing back-to-back games this is a team that knows how important this game is.

That’s the difference between this team and the previous iterations of the Minnesota Wild, they are staying focused and have the goal insight. Not to mention Devan Dubnyk owned the Hawks last season with a 5-0-0 record, 1.77 goal against, and .937 save percentage and he’ll be rested and ready. If the Wild control their turnovers and make sure he sees all his shots, Dubs has proven and will shut down the high scoring forwards of the Blackhawks.