Steven Kampfer, who came to the Wild in Monday's Greg Zanon trade, will make his Wild debut tonight against the Colorado Avalanche.
Kampfer, a former Michigan Wolverine who says he was a big fan of now-teammate Jed Ortmeyer "when I was a kid," will be paired with Tom Gilbert tonight and play on the No. 2 power-play unit. He's very excited and hopes to make a positive impression on coach Mike Yeo and management. He was a seventh defenseman for much of the year in Boston, barely playing because the Bruins have been healthy on the back end.
Kurtis Foster will be scratched in his place after a tough game in Detroit.
The rest of the lineup is up in the air. The Wild's even keeping the starting goalie a pleasant "surprise," which makes me think Matt Hackett is starting. Plus, Josh Harding was fairly loose this morning and he typically has his game face on in the morning if he is starting.
We'll see. If it's Hackett, it would be his second NHL start and first at home. He is 2-0 with the Wild in five appearances with a 0.63 goals against average and .980 save percentage (100 stops on 102 shots).
Cal Clutterbuck is a game-time decision with an upper body injury. He was hurt on a collision in Detroit. There were many, so not exactly positive on which one, but he bounced off Justin Abdelkader on one very hard hit near the referee's crease.
He skated this morning. If he plays, Erik Christensen looks like the scratch because he was playing D with Foster this morning, although Yeo said that's not necessarily the case because all the line combo's would change.
Chad Rau centered Matt Kassian and Clutterbuck in the skate, but who knows? Darroll Powe skated with Matt Cullen and Devin Setoguchi, while Nick Johnson was with Dany Heatley and Kyle Brodziak.
