It s his turn to go, coach Dean Evason said.
That ll be the only lineup change for the Wild, as forward Marcus Johansson remains out with an upper-body injury.
The last time the Wild and Kings faced off was the Wild s first game back from a COVID-19 shutdown, a 4-0 loss Feb.16 in Los Angeles.
Not only has the Wild improved since then, getting its roster healthy and scoring 20 goals during its season-long four-game win streak, but the Kings are rolling, too.
They ve won six in a row. Trip s over, Evason said. Yeah, we had a good road trip. So what? It s behind us. We talked to the group this morning already about the drop of the puck tonight. For whatever reason, the first game back after a road trip there seems to be a lull. If coaches could figure it out, we d know why. If players could figure it out, it would never happen.
So is its opponent across the ice.
Colorado superstar Nathan MacKinnon will be out for the remainder of the team s four-game series against the Wild, which resumes Tuesday at Ball Arena in Denver.
That game the Wild started a completely revamped lineup with regulars Marcus Foligno (COVID protocols), Marcus Johansson (upper-body injury), Matt Dumba (lower-body injury) and Kevin Fiala (suspension) sidelined.
And despite relying on three players from its taxi squad who hadn t played in almost a year, the Wild persevered with a no-nonsense approach that it ll try to duplicate in Round 3. Hopefully we can play that way and even better, coach Dean Evason said. We know they re going to be real good here. They always are. We have to play a very similar type of game. It needs to be a grinding game. Regardless if MacKinnon is in or not, they re a very special group. We ve got to pay attention to certain people, obviously, but we ve got to play the type of game, the type of gritty game,