2015 NHL Draft
SHARE
Share with your Friends


At the Rink blog

Spurgeon back for Wild, Filppula returns to Lightning

Tuesday, 02.04.2014 / 2:04 PM

By NHL.com Staff -  / 2013-2014 At the Rink Blog

Share with your Friends


2013-2014 At the Rink Blog
Spurgeon back for Wild, Filppula returns to Lightning

The Minnesota Wild will get an important member of their defense corps back Tuesday as Jared Spurgeon will be in the lineup for the first time since sustaining a broken foot Jan. 2 against the Buffalo Sabres.

Spurgeon, who will pair with Marco Scandella, was plus-3 and played more than 27 minutes against the Sabres despite the injury.

"We're anxious to see where his game's at," Wild coach Mike Yeo told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "If he can step in and be close to the level that he was at before he got hurt, we're a lot stronger for it."

Yeo also made a pair of changes to his fourth line, with Stephane Veilleux and Torrey Mitchell taking the places of Mike Rupp and Justin Fontaine as wings for center Erik Haula.

The Tampa Bay Lightning, who are eagerly anticipating the return of Steven Stamkos in their final game prior to the Olympic break, Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings, could see another key piece return Tuesday.

Center Valtteri Filppula is considered a game-time decision but was practicing on his normal line with Alex Killorn and Teddy Purcell at the morning skate. Filppula was out of the lineup Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens due to a lower-body injury.

Ben Bishop will start in goal for Tampa Bay; Darcy Kuemper will be in net for Minnesota.

Here are the possible lineups when the Lightning face the Wild:

LIGHTNING

Ondrej Palat - Tyler Johnson - Martin St. Louis

Alex Killorn - Valtteri Filppula - Teddy Purcell

J.T. Brown - Nate Thompson - Nikita Kucherov

Ryan Malone - B.J. Crombeen

Victor Hedman - Sami Salo

Matthew Carle - Radko Gudas

Eric Brewer - Mark Barberio

Keith Aulie

Ben Bishop

Cedrick Desjardins

Scratched: Jean-Philippe Cote, Tom Pyatt

Injured: Steven Stamkos (leg), Anders Lindback (lower body)

WILD

Zach Parise - Mikael Granlund - Jason Pominville

Jason Zucker - Charlie Coyle - Dany Heatley

Matt Cooke - Kyle Brodziak - Nino Niederreiter

Stephane Veilleux - Erik Haula - Torrey Mitchell

Ryan Suter - Jonas Brodin

Marco Scandella - Jared Spurgeon

Keith Ballard - Nate Prosser

Darcy Kuemper

Niklas Backstrom

Scratched: Mike Rupp, Justin Fontaine, Clayton Stoner

Injured: Mikko Koivu (ankle fracture), Josh Harding (illness)

NHL.TV™

NHL GameCenter LIVE™ is now NHL.TV™.
Watch out-of-market games and replays with an all new redesigned media player, mobile and connected device apps.

LEARN MORE

NHL Mobile App

Introducing the new official NHL App, available for iPhone, iPad and Android smartphones and tablets. A host of new features and improved functionality are available across all platforms, including a redesigned league-wide scoreboard, expanded news coverage, searchable video highlights, individual team experiences* and more. The new NHL App on your tablet also introduces new offerings such as 60fps video, Multitasking** and Picture-in-Picture.

*Available only for smartphones
** Available only for suported iPads