Wild gameday
7 p.m. VS. Montreal • Xcel Energy Center • NBCSN, 100.3-FM
Preview: The Wild, 1-1-3 in the second of back-to-back games, hosts the Canadiens, who also played Monday night, losing 5-1 at Nashville. The Habs are 4-1-1 in the back end of back-to-backs. The Canadiens, who opened the season 9-0, have lost eight of their past nine games.
Players to watch: Darcy Kuemper may start for the Wild. He is 3-0-2 in his past five games (four starts) with a 1.31 goals-against average and .943 save percentage. Wild LW and former Canadien Thomas Vanek leads the Wild with 16 goals and 39 points in 55 games against Montreal. RW Jason Pominville has 34 points in 53 games against the Canadiens and LW Zach Parise has 25 points in 29 games against them. Canadiens D PK Subban and LW Max Pacioretty have two of the 16 all-time hat tricks against the Wild. Subban entered Monday ranked third among NHL defensemen with 22 assists. Pacioretty led the Habs with 14 goals.
Numbers: The Wild is 6-6-3 all-time vs. the Canadiens, 4-2-1 at home. … The Canadiens rank fourth in the NHL with 3.00 goals per game.
Injuries: Canadiens G Carey Price (abdominal), RW Brendan Gallagher (fingers) and RW Devante Smith-Pelly (lower body) are out. D Jeff Petry (upper body) is questionable.
Michael Russo
