Game Preview: Wild @ Wings

Detroit (49-19-9, 107 pts)
Minnesota (37-32-9, 83 pts)

Minnesota Outlook: The Wild are a bit of a jigsaw when it comes to predicting what you're gonna get out of them. They're second in fewest goals allowed in the league, as I write this San Jose allowed 2-knocking them down to 3rd. So they've allowed 189 goals but have only scored 11 more than they've allowed, but at least they're in the positive range (unlike fellow 8th seed candidates St. Louis, Nashville, & Edmonton). They're 2 pts down for a playoffs spot and are gonna be hungry for the playoffs coming into Hockeytown.

Detroit Outlook: The wings have been a bit on a slide recently (0-3, 5-4-1 last 10), but then again we don't need to win any of these games to keep our playoff hopes afloat. Vancouver/Calgary/Chicago can't catch us for 2 seed and we could finish with the 1 spot and home ice for the duration of the playoffs. Still we very much need to start getting back on the winning path. You can only take it so easy for so long or you're just going to end up hurting yourself for the start of the postseason. I don't know if Rafalski will be back but we sure did miss him in the lineup against the Blues :-/

What to Look for: A relatively low scoring game. From the Wild: Mikko Koivu, Andrew Brunette, Owen Nolan, Marian Gaborik, and the impenetrable Nick Backstrom. From Detroit: Marian Hossa, Johan Franzen, Nick Lidstrom, and Jiri Hudler.

Puck drops at 12:30 PM ET, Game is on NBC! Yay for watching it on a regular tv instead of my laptop!