By Thomas Williams -
Our Minnesota Wild are hitting a rough patch. After strolling through their first handful of games under John Hynes, they have now lost two consecutive games and are visiting Seattle to face a Kraken team in a similar boat. Well, perhaps even worse.
They started the season off on a middling foot and now have not won a game since a Nov. 22 dismantling of the San Jose Sharks. Seven straight losses. That is some brutal stuff that we know too well.
For the Wild, to shake off the rust and hopefully make Seattle's season even more of a disaster, Hynes has shuffled the lines. It will be arguably the three most talented forwards playing with each other on the top line -- Kaprizov, Boldy, and Eriksson Ek -- and that means our rookie Marco Rossi will be partnering with Marcus Johansson and Mats Zuccarello on the second line.
Without Jonas Brodin, after losing him to a disastrous injury that will keep him out long-term, the blue line looks different too. That will be the big question for the foreseeable future. If a blue line that predominantly features Alex Goligoski, Jon Merrill (until Zach Bogosian is back), Dakota Mermis, and Jake Middleton, is enough to not fall apart.
When: 8:00 p.m. CT
Where: Climate Pledge Arena
TV: Bally Sports North
Radio: KFAN 100.3
Projected Wild lineup
Kirill Kaprizov -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Matt Boldy
Marcus Johansson -- Marco Rossi -- Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Foligno -- Frederick Gaudreau -- Patrick Maroon
Brandon Duhaime -- Connor Dewar -- Ryan Hartman
Alex Goligoski -- Jared Spurgeon
Jake Middleton -- Brock Faber
Dakota Mermis -- Jon Merrill
Filip Gustavsson
Marc-Andre Fleury
Projected Kraken lineup
Tye Kartye -- Matthiew Beniers -- Jordan Eberle
Jared McCann -- Alexander Wennberg -- Brandon Tanev
Eeli Tolvanen -- Yanni Gourde -- Oliver Bjorkstrand
Devin Shore -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Kailer Yamamoto
Vince Dunn -- Adam Larsson
Jamie Oleksiak -- William Borgen
Brian Dumoulin -- Ryker Evans
Joey Daccord
Chris Driedger
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