Wild vs Hurricanes: Game Preview and Line Combinations
The Minnesota Wild (5-6-3) head on the road tonight to face the Carolina Hurricanes (8-4-0) in the first half of a back-to-back series. There is one lineup change for the Wild: defenseman Daemon Hunt will make his season debut on the third defensive pair alongside Zeev Buium.
Hunt, 23, has not appeared in an NHL game since October. He will play on his offside, and because Minnesota is on the road, they have the last line change, making it interesting to see how this pairing will be utilized.
David Jiricek will be out of the lineup. He has zero points in ten games and a minus-3 rating.
The Wild will keep their fourth line intact, which means Danila Yurov will sit as a healthy scratch for the third straight game. The current fourth line of Ben Jones, Yakov Trenin, and Tyler Pitlick has played three games together, and the Wild have won all three.
Yurov played in one of the two games earlier, centering the third line in New York and scoring his first NHL goal. However, since being scratched the past two games, the Wild won both contests.
Watching Yurov's continued absence will be important moving forward. Meanwhile, Mats Zuccarello is probable to return for Saturday’s game.
Projected Line Combinations
- Kirill Kaprizov – Marco Rossi – Marcus Johansson
- Vladimir Tarasenko – Joel Eriksson Ek – Matt Boldy
- Marcus Foligno – Ryan Hartman – Vinnie Hinostroza
Defense Pairing Highlight
- Zeev Buium – Daemon Hunt
Author’s summary: The Wild introduce Daemon Hunt to their defense while Danila Yurov's continued scratches raise questions about his future role in the team lineup.