Good afternoon from the O.C., where the Wild wraps up its three-game trip today at 5 p.m. PT/7 p.m. CT at the Honda Center in Anaheim.
The Wild is 1-0-1 on the trip and faces what will surely be a desperate, surly Ducks team, a team many of us geniuses picked to win the Cup and a team that is winless in four games and has been shut out in three of them.
Yes, the Ducks, who employ Wild killers Ryan Kesler, Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, have one goal this year … by defenseman Sami Vatanen.
They played much better against the Avs the other night, but Colorado, as the Wild learned opening night, fronts shots superbly and blocked an asinine amount of 'em against the Ducks (40).
"Nobody anticipated them to have the record that they have," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "They've only scored, what is it, one goal so far this season. That's obviously a pretty big shock. We come into another building where we know what we're up again, but the focus has to be on ourselves. First road trip of the year, it's only been three games, but it feels like we've been on the road for a week here already. Bottom line is we have a chance to make it a great road trip. This will be a tough game, but we should welcome that challenge."
The Wild has lost four of its past five visits to Anaheim and nine of its past 10 (1-8-1) overall against the Ducks. Remember, the Wild hosts Anaheim six days from now (the Ducks have won six straight one-goal games in Minnesota).
Kesler ranks second all-time against the Wild with 24 goals and third with eight power-play goals. Perry and Getzlaf each have 32 points in 35 games against the Wild
No lineup changes other than Devan Dubnyk returns to the net. Niklas Backstrom will be scratched for a fifth game in a row and Nate Prosser scratched for the fourth time in five games.
