Playoffs positioning and pride are at stake for the Wild against St. Louis

ST. LOUIS — The showdown between the Wild and Blues on Friday isn't just a potential playoff preview.

This rematch of the Winter Classic could also help decide which team snags home-ice advantage in the first round.

"It's going to be a big one," goaltender Cam Talbot said. "We owe them a few here. They've had our number as of late, but we're a different team than the last time we saw them. We're excited for the opportunity and ready to go."

Despite winning nine of its last 11 games to get to 91 points, the Wild hasn't run away with second place in the Central Division.

St. Louis, which is on a 5-0-1 run, is just one point back at 90 and can leapfrog the Wild with a regulation victory. The Wild would stay in second with an overtime or shootout loss because it currently holds the tiebreaker having played one fewer game.

In Round 1 of the playoffs, the second and third seeds will meet. The Wild and Blues also square off next Saturday in St. Louis.

"They kinda just have a good, complete team," Blues defenseman Colton Parayko said earlier in the week. "I think it's gonna be a good matchup because we have a good, complete team as well."

That 6-4 loss by the Wild on New Year's Day at Target Field was the only time it's faced St. Louis this season — a letdown fueled by a disastrous second period and a dominant performance by the Blues' Jordan Kyrou, who set an NHL outdoor game record by racking up an impressive four points.

Since then, the Wild has gone on two 10-game point streaks and bolstered its lineup ahead of the trade deadline, but the team still isn't at full strength.

Matt Boldy, Matt Dumba and Jon Merrill remain out, all with upper-body injuries. Boldy and Merrill did practice with the group on Thursday in St. Louis, and coach Dean Evason said the two are getting close to a return. As for Dumba, who left the 6-2 loss at Nashville on Tuesday after delivering a shoulder check, he's still with the Wild on this road trip and his status is "more positive than we anticipated," Evason said.

Jordie Benn, who's been scratched the last 19 games, is set to suit up on defense, and Talbot is scheduled to start in net — the only two changes expected after the Wild's special teams were exposed by the Predators, who scored three power play goals and went 5-for-6 on the penalty kill.

"We know who we are," Evason said. "We know that we're four [lines] deep and six defensemen [and] two goalies. We feel very comfortable with everybody, so we want to use our depth to our advantage. When you're in the penalty box, you cannot do that. People get shorted. People get extended too much.

"So, we want to play as much 5-on-5 as we possibly can."

Avoiding a special-teams battle isn't the only key for the Wild.

So is figuring out the Blues, who have been a pesky opponent in recent seasons.

Not only has St. Louis won five in a row at home, but the Wild has just two wins in the past 12 contests overall. The Blues also nabbed the last playoff series, eliminating the Wild in five games in 2017 after the Wild prevailed in six games two years earlier.

Another first-round clash could be imminent, but the remaining regular-season dates have more at stake than just being rehearsals. Positioning is still up for grabs.

"You look up and down their roster and there's not a lot of holes there," Talbot said. "It's going to be a good matchup. They're a big, heavy team just like we are. They got a bunch of skill in the top-six there, and they got a good back end.

"It's going to be a grind, and we know that we're built for that this time around and we're looking forward to the opportunity to kind of get back out there and right the ship a little bit."