Tonight at 8 p.m. ET, the Toronto Maple Leafs (21-14-3, 45 points) and Minnesota Wild (17-14-4, 38 points) face-off for the first of two meetings this season live from the Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota. The game can be live streamed here. Toronto fans can hear all of the action on TSN 1050 while Minnesota fans can do the same on KFAN 100.3.
Toronto has dropped two of its last three and sits in the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference while Minnesota has lost six of its last seven and is seven points out of the second and final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
The Maple Leafs are coming off of a 4-3 shootout victory over the Boston Bruins on Wednesday to close out 2014 that saw Nazem Kadri notch the clincher in the skills competition.
The team may be without Kadri (11-13--24) tonight as he hasn't skated in two days due to an undisclosed ailment.
"We obviously have some banged-up bodies," coach Randy Carlyle said via NHL.com. "Hopefully we have a contingent that's ready to compete tonight, whoever gets the opportunity, and that's the way you have to present it. Injuries are a part of life in the NHL and we're dealing with our fair share right now."
Phil Kessel has paced the Leafs with 41 points off of 18 goals and 23 assists while James van Riemsdyk has 17 tallies and 18 helpers for 35 points and Tyler Bozak has lit the lamp 13 times and added 17 assists for 30 points.
The Wild didn't close out their 2014 as well as tonight's opponent, as they dropped their New Year's Eve matchup with the Columbus Blue Jackets 3-1.
Minnesota was unhappy with their play up until the final 10 minutes of the game.
"At that time we started to have a little more pressure," Wild coach Mike Yeo told NHL.com about the ending moments of the game. "That was the first time in the game I thought we started getting some bodies to the net. We were very perimeter for most of the night. I thought we didn't challenge their goalie at all."
Zach Parise scored the only goal of the game for his side on the power play, but Minnesota let up three straight tallies after that. Parise also has a team-high 29 points off of 14 goals and 15 assists.
Jason Pominville is second on the team with 27 points off of eight markers and 19 helpers while Nino Niederreiter is tied for the team-lead by finding the back of the net 14 times and he has added three assists for 17 points.
In net, Minnesota is slated to turn to Darcy Kuemper and he is 12-11-0 with a 2.58 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage.
Toronto is likely to counter with Jonathan Bernier in between the pipes and he is 15-8-3 with a 2.65 GAA and a .921 save percentage.
The Maple Leafs and Wild play their first games of 2015 when the puck drops at the Xcel Energy Center tonight in Minnesota.
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