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  • Gamethread: Wild vs. Panthers (7:00 p.m.)

    Image courtesy of © Marilyn Indahl-USA TODAY Sports
    Thomas Williams

    By Thomas Williams -

    It is the first day of the Minnesota Wild season. A season that should be full of young players making their cases to stay in the NHL, Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy excelling even more, and older players trying to keep the status quo. It will no doubt be an interesting 82 games, no matter what happens.

    First of all, it's hosting last year's Stanley Cup finalists, the Florida Panthers. Along with their stars of Matt Tkachuk and Alex Barkov, they are getting some massive help from young talent like Anton Lundell and newcomer Mackie Samoskevich.

    Both teams are dealing with injuries to significant players. Jared Spurgeon is notably out of the Wild lineup for a couple weeks, testing the Wild's blue line. For Florida, Aaron Ekblad, Sam Bennett, and last year's breakout star Brandon Montour, are all out to start the season.

    Drop the puck already!

    When: 7:00 p.m. CT
    Where: Xcel Energy Center
    TV: Bally Sports North
    Radio: KFAN 100.3

    Projected Wild lineup

    Kirill Kaprizov -- Ryan Hartman -- Mats Zuccarello
    Marcus Johansson -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Matt Boldy
    Marcus Foligno -- Marco Rossi -- Frederick 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 Panthers lineup

    Carter Verhaeghe -- Aleksander Barkov -- Evan Rodrigues
    Nick Cousins -- Eetu Luostarinen -- Matthew Tkachuk
    Mackie Samoskevich -- Anton Lundell -- Sam Reinhart
    Ryan Lomberg -- Kevin Stenlund -- Steven Lorentz

    Gustav Forsling -- Oliver Ekman-Larsson
    Niko Mikkola -- Dmitry Kulikov
    Josh Mahura -- Uvis Balinskis

    Sergei Bobrovsky
    Anthony Stolarz

    By Thomas Williams  

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    Imyourhuckleberry
    7 minutes ago, Sviginak said:

    Learn from it and do better in Toronto tomorrow. Could be a high scoring game.

    Who will the Wild be bringing with from Iowa?

    Have to assume Johansson will miss a bit of time with how quickly he went down the tunnel following that interference check into the boards.

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    viper3119
    9 minutes ago, Sviginak said:

    Hoping Moose doesn’t make stupid unnecessary penalties a feature,

    On the one penalty it was Florida taking a dive plus the Florida bench selling it. should definitely not have been a penalty.

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    M_Nels
    12 minutes ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

    Who will the Wild be bringing with from Iowa?

    Have to assume Johansson will miss a bit of time with how quickly he went down the tunnel following that interference check into the boards.

    Believe they'd have to swap Mermis for a forward in Iowa or run 11/7 to be compliant. FREE SAMMY WALKER, think he would be the closest thing in Iowa to Mojo. Didn't like the look of him holding his wrist basically sprinting down the tunnel. Hope it's not too serious.

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    TheGoosesAreLooses

    Based on this game I think Rossi still reverts sometimes to his old stride out of habit. Once he settles in with skating the new way I'm thinking he will be even better. He looked good tonight but we weren't dominant as a team by any means.

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    Imyourhuckleberry
    1 hour ago, M_Nels said:

    Believe they'd have to swap Mermis for a forward in Iowa or run 11/7 to be compliant. FREE SAMMY WALKER, think he would be the closest thing in Iowa to Mojo. Didn't like the look of him holding his wrist basically sprinting down the tunnel. Hope it's not too serious

    My guess is Vinni Lettieri or Khaira, purely due to contract size.  Sammy Walker could make his way up next month if Johansson is out for an extended period, or if another forward misses time.

    Lettieri and Khaira have some NHL experience. Lettieri has some scoring ability and also was pretty good in training camp. Khaira has excellent size and grit.

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    M_Nels
    49 minutes ago, Imyourhuckleberry said:

    My guess is Vinni Lettieri or Khaira, purely due to contract size.  Sammy Walker could make his way up next month if Johansson is out for an extended period, or if another forward misses time.

    Lettieri and Khaira have some NHL experience. Lettieri has some scoring ability and also was pretty good in training camp. Khaira has excellent size and grit.

    Now that you say that about contract I think I do remember seeing something Russo put out that it would have to be Lettieri or Khaira. From the glimpses I saw of Lettieri I would rather have him up on that 2nd line to keep it scoring oriented. We have grit in spades with the current lineup already.

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