Tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET, the Montreal Canadiens (8-5-0, 16 points) and Minnesota Wild (6-4-3, 15 points) hit the ice live from the Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota in the first of two meetings between these teams. The game can be live streamed here. Montreal fans can hear all the action by tuning into TSN Radio 690 while Minnesota fans can do the same on 830 WCCO Radio.
The Canadiens enter play in fourth place in the Atlantic Division and are four points behind the division-leading Toronto Maple Leafs while the Wild come into the contest in fourth place in the Central Division, five points behind the first place Colorado Avalanche.
Banged up Montreal enters play boasting one of the league's best power plays and is looking to continue its success on the man-advantage despite a rash of injuries as the team looks for its third straight win. The team has been showing their grit in blocking shots in order to win, much to the delight of their coach.
"You can see guys want to pay the price to get some wins, and that's a great sign," coach Michel Therrien said of his team to NHL.com. "When guys were blocking shots on the ice you could see the reaction from the guys on the bench. This is good for team spirit. They sacrificed their bodies to make sure we get the job done."
Injuries have also hampered the Wild, and coach Mike Yeo has been tinkering his lineup in practice.
"We're trying some stuff," Yeo said via NHL.com. "We know that [Koivu and Parise] are very good together and dangerous together. But we want to see if they can click with some other guys and strengthen our whole group."
Minnesota has been led by Zach Parise, who has a team-high nine points off of six goals and three assists while Matt Cooke (three goals, five assists),Mikko Koivu (one goal, seven assists) and Mikael Granlund (no goals, team-high eight assists) each have eight points.
Tomas Plekanec (6-5-11) and reigning Norris Trophy winner P.K. Subban (2-9-11) each pace the Canadiens while Lars Eller (five goals, four assists) and Alex Galchenyuk (two goals, seven assists) each have nine points.
In the crease for Minnesota has been mostly Josh Harding, whose played nine games and has gone 5-2-1 with a 1.00 goals-against average and a .953 save percentage while Carey Price has started 11 of 13 games for Montreal while going 6-5-0 with a 2.02 GAA and a .939 save percentage.
Two banged up teams look for victories as the Canadiens try to win their third straight game while the Wild will hope a changed up lineup will lead to more offense when the puck drops at Xcel Energy Center tonight.
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