By Tony Abbott -
The Minnesota Wild passed their first test of the season, shutting out the Florida Panthers at home. Now it's time to hit the road and play the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Battle of Teams That Last Made The Conference Finals in the Bush Administration. Both teams have had this game circled on the calendar since Early May.
The biggest question for the Wild leading up to this game is the health of Marcus Johansson. Johansson departed Opening Night with an upper-body injury in the third-period. Question no longer: Dude is ready to play tonight, meaning the Wild won't be shorthanded on the road.
In addition, Filip Gustavsson draws in tonight to follow-up his 41-save shutout in the opener. Wow! After facing MVP-level forwards like Sasha Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, Gustavsson must be relieved to find he'll get a small break... wait a minute, it says "Auston Matthews" and "William Nylander" here. Our bad! When does Jared Spurgeon get back?
A big storyline tonight will be the first match-up between two rookie former Gophers in Brock Faber and Matthew Knies. So far, it's a Gallant and Goofuth situation for the two Calder Trophy hopefuls. Faber notched a goal on Opening Night, putting him on pace for 82, which would be a defenseman record. Meanwhile, Knies has struggled mightily without star Arizona Coyotes center Logan Cooley, producing zero points on just one shot. We'll see if these trends continue.
Old friend Ryan Reaves is in tonight, and he's looking forward to running into some green-and-white sweaters. He told The Athletic's Michael Russo, "Sometimes when you're better friends with them, you want to lay them out a little more. Unfortunately for them, I became pretty good friends with all of them." With that said, if he's anything like Playoff Reaves, it's a free pass for any Wild player to do their best Ryan Suter lumberjack impersonation on Matthews.
Speaking of old friends, you might also recognize John Klingberg from "Being in Minnesota last year for a bit."
On a personal note: If the refs take another Marco Rossi goal away tonight, I'm gonna scream.
Anyway, catch y'all in the comments.
When: 6:00 p.m. CT
Where: Scotiabank Arena
TV: Bally Sports North, Bally Sports Wisconsin
Radio: KFAN 100.3 with Joe O'Donnell on the call
Projected Wild lineup:
Kirill Kaprizov -- Ryan Hartman -- Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Matt Boldy
Marcus Foligno -- Marco Rossi -- Freddy Gaudreau
Patrick Maroon -- Connor Dewar -- Brandon Duhaime
Jonas Brodin -- Brock Faber
Jacob Middleton -- Alex Goligoski
Jon Merrill -- Calen Addison
Filip Gustavsson
Marc-Andre Fleury
Projected Leafs lineup:
Tyler Bertuzzi -- Auston Matthews -- Mitch Marner
Max Domi -- John Tavares -- William Nylander
Matthew Knies -- Fraser Minten -- Calle Jarnkrok
Noah Gregor -- David Kampf -- Ryan Reaves
Morgan Rielly -- T.J. Brodie
Jake McCabe -- John Klingberg
Mark Giordano -- Timothy Liljegren
Ilya Samsonov
Joseph Woll
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