Wild at Blackhawks preview

WILD (17-12-3) at BLACKHAWKS (16-11-5)
7 p.m. ET; NBCSCH, FS-N, NHL.TV

Goaltender Corey Crawford, who is expected to start, is 8-0-2 with a 2.07 goals-against-average and .936 save percentage in his past 10 starts. Chicago plays its next six games on the road and doesn't play at home again until hosting the Vegas Golden Knights on Jan. 5.
The Wild will have defenseman Jared Spurgeon back for the opener of a four-game road trip. He's missed nine games with a groin injury. Minnesota had its four-game winning streak ended in a 3-2 loss against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.

Players to watch

Wild forward Eric Staal has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past four games.
Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane has five points (two goals, three assists) in a three-game point streak. He is three goals shy of 300 for his NHL career.

They said it

"We're excited to get things going. It's going to be a quick turnaround here, Chicago tomorrow night, there are some really good teams on this trip too so we're going to be prepared for that and try to work our hardest." -- Wild defenseman Matt Dumba after a 3-2 loss against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.
"One thing about Minnesota, they're very consistent in how they play. It's a very patient team game, they don't give up much, they have a real check-first mentality, they've got some pace to their team, but you've got to be ready to play a low-chance game and try to win it that way." -- Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville

Wild projected lineup

Nino Niederreiter -- Mikko Koivu -- Mikael Granlund
Jason Zucker -- Eric Staal -- Charlie Coyle
Marcus Foligno -- Matt Cullen -- Joel Eriksson Ek
Tyler Ennis -- Daniel Winnik -- Chris Stewart
Ryan Suter -- Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin -- Matt Dumba
Mike Reilly -- Nate Prosser
Alex Stalock
Steve Michalek
Scratched:Zack Mitchell, Gustav Olofsson
Injured:Devan Dubnyk (lower body), Zach Parise (back)

Blackhawks projected lineup

Brandon Saad -- Jonathan Toews -- Alex DeBrincat
Nick Schmaltz -- Artem Anisimov -- Patrick Kane
Patrick Sharp --
Vinnie Hinostroza
-- Ryan Hartman
Lance Bouma -- Tommy Wingels -- John Hayden
Duncan Keith -- Jordan Oesterle
Michal Kempny -- Brent Seabrook
Gustav Forsling -- Connor Murphy
Corey Crawford
Anton Forsberg
Scratched:Richard Panik, Ville Pokka
Injured:Cody Franson (upper body), Michal Rozsival (concussion), Jan Rutta (upper body)

Status report

The Wild did not hold a morning skate. Minnesota assigned defenseman Ryan Murphy to Iowa of the American Hockey League. ... Franson and Rutta skated Sunday morning but will not play. Each hopes to return Thursday against the Dallas Stars, although Quenneville didn't guarantee they would automatically get their spots back.

Stat pack

Koivu hasn't had a point in 10 straight games, the longest drought of his career. ... DeBrincat has 10 points (five goals, five assists) in his past 10 games. Toews has 39 points (14 goals, 25 assists) in 38 games against the Wild.