Wild makes final trip to Nassau Coliseum; Dubnyk awesome on the road; Brodziak injured

Afternoon from across the street of Hofstra University on Lawng Island, my old stomping ground where I don't mind admitting I'm exhausted from my 3:15 a.m. "wakeup call" in Toronto. I put that in quotes because I'm not entirely sure I actually got any sleep to "wake up" from.

Barring a Wild-Islanders Stanley Cup Final (which would be epic), tonight will be my last game at Nassau Coliseum. I'm not kidding you when I say it actually had me a bit glum walking around the bowels of the arena this morning as I stared at the banners on the rafters, the stained seats, the plaques in front of the Islanders room. I'll be on Fox Sports North gushing about this great franchise (sorry North Stars fans) tonight during the pregame show and first intermission. Or, if you want, you can read my gushing of the Coliseum and how I became a hockey fan in this old 2011 blog here.

The Wild will be trying to extend its franchise-record 9-game road winning streak tonight against John Tavares, Kyle Okposo, Anders Lee, Brock Nelson and the always-affable Nick Leddy. Leddy, whom I bumped into for a few minutes this morning, and Johnny Boychuk recently signed mega-extensions and this talented Islanders team looks like it's got something cooking for the next several years IN BROOKLYN!!!!

WHAT THE %&$@#???????????

But I digress.

Jaroslav Halak vs. Devan Dubnyk tonight, and more on Dooby, Dooby, Doo in a minute. If you didn't see my game notebook from last night on Mario Lucia and Thomas Vanek's return to Long Island, here it is.

Kyle Brodziak, a big part of the Wild's penalty kill and a solid fourth line for awhile, won't play tonight due to an upper-body injury sustained in last night's fight with Dion Phaneuf. Coach Mike Yeo said it's not a concussion and that it's minor tightness that just won't loosen up, so probably neck or back. He doesn't anticipate Brodziak will miss Friday's game against Calgary.

Brodziak got hurt standing up for Erik Haula and Jared Spurgeon. Players were still giving him props in the locker room this morning and, Yeo said, "Obviously, we wish he was in the lineup tonight, but those types of things are things that you have to do for your teammates. He sent a pretty good message to our group there."

Jordan Schroeder, scratched the past eight games, will play for the first time since March 6 at Raleigh. In his past 14 games, he has seven points and is plus-9.

Ryan Carter's return will wait at least a few more days. If you read between the lines from his quote in today's paper, he has to be comfortable he can play his brand of physical hockey after separating his shoulder. So a few more days won't hurt.

Dubnyk will start his 33^rd consecutive game tonight and 32^nd in a row for the Wild. The 33 is the most since Antti Niemi started 34 in a row in 2010-11. Next up is Dwayne Roloson, who started 36 straight in 2009. Obviously, at this point, Dubnyk in there until the Wild clinch. Pretty much no choice now considering Darcy Kuemper hasn't started since Jan. 6, Niklas Backstrom since Jan. 13 AND all Dubnyk does is win.

In last night's 2-1 win at Toronto, a game in which the Leafs drew an announced 18,366 fans (lowest attendance in 16 years at Air Canada Centre), Dubnyk made 35 saves to improve to 32-11-3 this season with a 2.10 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage. Since debuting with the Wild on Jan. 15, Dubnyk has a 23-6-1 record, 1.74 goals-against average, .937 save percentage and five shutouts. He has allowed two goals or less in 23 of those 31 games.

Dubnyk is 13-1-1 in 16 road starts with a 1.48 goals-against average and .951 save percentage (one no-decision in Detroit on Jan. 20, pulled at 4-1, Wild rallied for three in the third to make Kuemper the goalie of record. He stopped 14 of 14 shots in a great effort before a shootout loss).

Dubnyk has won a franchise-record nine straight road games. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only two other active goaltenders have posted a single-season road winning streak of nine or more consecutive decisions: Jimmy Howard (10-0-0) with the Red Wings in 2010-11 and Carey Price (10-0-0) with the Canadiens earlier this season (Dec. 23-Feb. 26).

This will be the fifth time he starts back-to-backs. Since being pulled Jan. 20 at Detroit, Dubnyk is 2-0-1 in the second of back-to-backs with a 1.30 goals-against average and .965 save percentage.

Yeo was more displeased with the Wild's game yesterday this morning than last night. Not a shock, since he got to watch it again and he's trying to ramp up the Wild's urgency.

"We weren't good enough in our game in a few areas," Yeo said. He said the Wild lost the details in its game, did a "a little too much circling, a little too much getting away from the structure we normally play with." He said the back and forth game suited the Leafs and because of the way the Wild managed the puck, there were too many one-and-done's in the offensive zone.

Tonight's start will be big. The Islanders usually come out fast and hard, so the Wild's got to be ready to try to jump out to a lead in case the legs become mush in the third period. Isles have been off since Saturday.

Before I go, I actually put the news of the day at the end: The Property Brothers were on my flight to JFK this morning. Seemed like good dudes and my hope was they were parachuting into Uniondale to save the Coliseum, but bummer, no. They're on their way to New Yawk City to film, I believe, and they were cool to the freaking-out flight attendants who were posing for pictures with them as we taxied out to the runway. One of the flight attendants didn't want me to feel left out, so she humorously posed for a picture with me after taking pictures with Drew and Jonathan Scott.