By Thomas Williams -
Is this going to be the start of the new era for the Minnesota Wild? Not much has changed but we are now officially having Marco Rossi as the team's top centerman.
The trio of Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, and Rossi -- essentially the three top producers on this team right now -- are sticking together and then the rest of the forwards will have to deal with their own and depend on structure over pure skill to carry them. Regardless, the Wild are trying something out many fans have been calling for a while now.
To try out the new lineup for the first full game, the New York Rangers are coming to St. Paul and are one of the NHL's hottest teams. The Blueshirts have not lost a game since Oct. 19, having won their last six consecutive games and only two of them needed overtime for them to claim those two points. They are absolutely on fire.
Luckily, the Rangers' offense isn't carrying them to new heights, though. The most goals they have scored during this winning stretch is just four and they are averaging just 3.16 goals per game. While that should win you a majority of games in this league, it certainly isn't perfect. And in this trip to Minnesota, they aren't able to depend on potentially the greatest goaltender in the world to carry them. Igor Shesterkin appears to be out day-to-day with an injury and Jonathan Quick or Louis Domingue will be in between the pipes at The X.
Can the Wild take advantage of the Russian world-beater being out of the lineup?
For Minnesota, they are getting some inexperience on the blue line as Daemon Hunt is making his first full NHL debut. He did technically play a game before but the handful of minutes he played as a seventh defensemen, shouldn't really count in our eyes. Jon Merrill is a healthy scratch to make way for the 21-year-old.
When: 7:00 p.m. CT
Where: Xcel Energy Center
TV: Bally Sports North
Radio: KFAN 100.3
Projected Wild lineup
Kirill Kaprizov -- Marco Rossi -- Matt Boldy
Marcus Johansson -- Ryan Hartman -- Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Foligno -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Patrick Maroon
Brandon Duhaime -- Connor Dewar -- Vinni Lettieri
Jonas Brodin -- Brock Faber
Jake Middleton -- Dakota Mermis
Daemon Hunt -- Calen Addison
Filip Gustavsson
Marc-Andre Fleury
Projected Rangers lineup
Chris Kreider -- Mika Zibanejad -- Kaapo Kakko
Artemi Panarin -- Vincent Trocheck -- Alex Lafreniere
Will Cuylle -- Jonny Brodzinski -- Blake Wheeler
Jimmy Vesey -- Nick Bonino -- Tyler Pitlick
K'Andre Miller -- Jacob Trouba
Ryan Lindgren -- Braden Schneider
Erik Gustafsson -- Zac Jones
Jonathan Quick
Louis Domingue
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