Tonight at 10:30 p.m. ET, the Minnesota Wild (22-17-5, 49 points) and Los Angeles Kings (26-13-4, 60 points) faceoff live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles for the second of three head-to-head meetings this season. The game can be live streamed here. Minnesota fans can hear all of the action on KFAN 100.3 while Los Angeles fans can do the same on KTLK 1150.
Minnesota enters a stretch of three road games in its next four and will have to go without its captain while Los Angeles play the second game of a five-game homestand after having snapped a five-game winless streak in the opening game of the homestand. The first time these two teams played, the Kings defeated the Wild 3-2 in a shootout on Oct. 3.
The Kings received some good news on the injury front when netminder Jonathan Quick returned to the team and led them to a 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday. The team was concerned that Quick had a day off so soon from returning.
"Probably the worst thing that could have happened was having the day off," goaltending coach Bill Ranford told L.A. Kings Insider on Monday. "So he had to kind of gut through it today."
Quick is 11-5-0 with a 2.27 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage this season. With Josh Harding (illness) on injured reserve, Niklas Backstrom is likely to start for the Wild and is 4-9-2 with a 3.15 GAA and a .896 save percentage.
The Wild lost top-scorer and captain Mikko Koivu (8-27-35) in Saturday's 5-3 win over the Washington Capitals and will look to carry on without him after he broke his ankle in the game and had to have surgery. The team will look to not tinker the lineup too much without him.
"We discussed a lot of options and scenarios. Hopefully, we don't see some of them," coach Mike Yeo said Monday via NHL.com. "We decided let's try to keep most of the lineup the same as we can. It's going to be a bit of a splash, but let's limit the ripple."
With Koivu out, Jason Pominville (18 goals, 11 assists) and Ryan Suter (five goals, 24 assists) each lead Minnesota with 29 points. Suter earned Third Star of the Week honors for the NHL last week after scoring four goals and adding two assists.
Anze Kopitar paces Los Angeles with 35 points off of 13 tallies and 22 assists while Mike Richards has lit the lamp six times and added 22 helpers for 28 points and Jeff Carter (15 goals, 11 assists) and Justin Williams (13 goals, 13 assists) each have 26 points. Carter has eight goals in his past 12 games.
The Wild hope that their rash of injuries to key players won't hamper them while the Kings look to continue their hot start to their homestand when the puck drops at the Staple Center tonight in Los Angeles.
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