Minnesota Wild @ St. Louis Blues: Game Preview

Tonight, your Minnesota Wild take on the St. Louis Blues for the first time since this preseason this past September.

The Wild split their 2 meetings with them with a 3-1 win at home, and a 4-1 loss in St. Louis.

Right now, the Wild have started a little win streak, but they didn't make it look easy.  After that unnecessary thumping by the Canadiens, the Wild bounced right back to win against the Senators and Jets.  The tough thing to believe about these 2 wins is that once again the Wild got badly outplayed.  If we want to have a better chance of winning games, we've gotta come storming out the gates.

Now I can't be complaining too much though because despite getting outplayed, we've won 2 out of 3 games of this road trip so far.

Tonight's game will be a true test for them, as the Blues have been impressive lately.  In their last game against the Stars this past Saturday they came out with a big win over them 6-1.  This is now their third win in a row; this means both teams currently have a win streak.

Here are the current standings for both the Wild and Blues before tonight's game:

Minnesota Wild: 15-5-4 (34 points), 4th in central division, 6th in western conference and NHL

St. Louis Blues: 16-3-3 (35 points), 2nd in central division, 3rd in western conference and NHL

If the Wild want a fighting chance to win tonight's game, they're really going to have to be on their toes.  If the score from the Blues' last game tells us anything, it's that they know how to play some good defense.  That being said, we have to do whatever it takes to be all over the puck to generate as many scoring chances and SOGs that will bring us those much needed goals.  Our defensive lines will need to be on top of things too.  They cannot afford turning over the puck to them as we all know what that's done to us.  Lastly, for the love of God and all that is holy please try to stay out of the box tonight!  The Blues now have the best power play in the NHL (25.6%), while the Wild are tied with the Penguins for the 5th best (22.4%).  They also trump us in the penalty killing category with being the 10th best in the NHL (84%), while the Wild have the 24th best along with Anaheim (77%).

Can the Wild pull off a win tonight to be 3/4 on the road trip?  We'll all find out tonight at 7.

Note: tonight's game will be nationally televised on NBCSN, not FS-N.