Backstrom starts, Spurgeon returns for the Wild tonight

Wild and Boston Bruins in about an hour.

Niklas Backstrom feels good enough to start his second game in two nights and former Boston University goalie John Curry was recalled to back him up. Ill-stricken Darcy Kuemper was kept away today and is still not feeling well, coach Mike Yeo said.

The Bruins' goalie is unknown as of now. Niklas Svedberg was the only goalie to skate with the scratches this morning. Skilled forward David Krejci is expected to return from a lower-body injury.

Jared Spurgeon is expected to return tonight, meaning the Wild will have its top-4 defensemen in the same lineup for the fourth time in the past 23 games.

Yeo said Spurgeon is not quite 100 percent, but the Wild needs him.

The Wild hasn't win back-to-back games since Nov. 16 and 20.

"It's been a factor in us not being able to grab some traction," Yeo said. "We haven't won back-to-back games in a long time. I give our guys credit because we also haven't lost back-to-back games in a long time (Nov. 8 and 11)."

"There's been some good things, but there's probably been more frustration than anything else right now, and I think a big part of that is that defensive group, what they mean to us in terms of our offense, in terms of our execution, helping to alleviate pressure, helping to get the puck up to our forwards and how they defend, their gap control. I think that's been very noticeable since we haven't had them all intact."

The Wild has rallied in lots of game, but an example of this frustration may be the fact that often the Wild gives up a goal and that one goal seems to quickly become two or three in a row.

Yeo said, "We know that we need to win hockey games right now. When something bad happens in a game, when we're strong, it doesn't take us off our game, it doesn't rattle us, it doesn't carry over into the next shift.

"I think right now we're so wrapped up in the result, when something happens, we get a little bit off the tracks, off the rails and then one bad shift turns into two or three or four. It took us a full period to recover from that last game."

Defenseman Christian Folin will be scratched tonight. He had the one mistake that led to Jonathan Toews' goal last night. He didn't move the puck quick enough and Toews picked his pocket.

I asked Yeo about Nino Niederreiter only logging four shifts and 2:35 of ice time after his penalty-shot goal last night.

Yeo said the two penalties that were taken late in the third both were taken on shifts that he was due to come up on and then he was scheduled to come up with the goalie out but some guys extended their shifts.

Yeo also said he planned to use Niederreiter if the game got to a shootout presumably for Jason Pominville. Similarly, if the Arizona shootout got to Round 3, Yeo said Jason Zucker, who scored on a breakaway that game, was next up.

Of the top-20 goal scorers in the NHL, Niederreiter, who is tied for ninth in the NHL with 14 goals, is last in average ice time per game (14:18).

I asked Yeo about that.

Basically, and I'll write more about this in the paper the next few days, Yeo said this is not unlike Zucker last year. The Wild's trying to develop him and there are little details in his game that the Wild is trying to improve. He's a team-worst minus-5 and the Wild is really trying to get him to play better defensively. He is playing in a checking line role because of his frame and ability to skate and because of the top-6 guys ahead of him, so for him to play against good offensive players, Yeo is trying to help him improve defensively so he can trust him more in critical situations.