Wild at Devils preview

WILD (26-23-5) AT DEVILS (20-25-8)
1 p.m. ET; MSG, FS-N, FS-WI, NHL.TV

The Wild, 0-2-2 following a three-game winning streak, hold the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference and are four points behind the Dallas Stars for third place in the Central Division.
Forward Joey Anderson is expected to return to the Devils lineup after missing the past 33 games with a broken ankle. New Jersey, 15 points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference, has lost two straight (0-1-1) and is 4-8-1 in its past 13 games.

Players to watch

Wild defenseman Ryan Suter has six points (one goal, five assists) in his past six games.
Devils center Nico Hischier has four points (three goals, one assist) in his past four games.

They said it

"It's either find your sense of urgency and do what you have to do to win, or bad things are going to happen. If you look at our schedule starting at the end of the month, this is the time that you have to be successful." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau
"We are planning on [forward Taylor Hall] coming back and playing [this year]. As of now, he's on a progression plan to come back to play and we're anticipating that." -- Devils coach John Hynes

Wild projected lineup

Zach Parise -- Mikael Granlund -- Charlie Coyle
Jordan Greenway -- Eric Staal -- Jason Zucker
Marcus Foligno --
Joel Eriksson Ek
-- Luke Kunin
Kyle Rau -- Victor Rask -- Eric Fehr
Ryan Suter -- Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin -- Greg Pateryn
Nick Seeler -- Brad Hunt
Devan Dubnyk
Alex Stalock
Scratched: Anthony Bitetto, Matt Hendricks
Injured:Mathew Dumba (upper body), Mikko Koivu (knee), Pontus Aberg (lower body)

Devils projected lineup

Marcus Johansson -- Nico Hischier -- Kyle Palmieri
Blake Coleman -- Travis Zajac -- Joey Anderson
Jesper Bratt -- Pavel Zacha -- Drew Stafford
Brett Seney --
Kevin Rooney
-- Kurtis Gabriel
Andy Greene -- Damon Severson
Will Butcher -- Ben Lovejoy
Mirco Mueller -- Eric Gryba
Cory Schneider
Keith Kinkaid
Scratched: Steven Santini
Injured: Taylor Hall (lower body), Sami Vatanen (concussion), Stefan Noesen (lower body), Miles Wood (upper body)

Status report

Koivu underwent successful surgery to repair the torn anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in his right knee on Friday and will miss the remainder of the season. ... Hall will miss his 19th straight game. … The Devils assigned defenseman Egor Yakovlev to Binghamton of the American Hockey League. ... Wood is day-to-day. ... Kinkaid will start against the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday.

Stat pack

Boudreau will coach his 900th NHL game. He is 529-266-104 with the Washington Capitals, Anaheim Ducks and Wild. ... Dubnyk is 3-2-1 with a 2.48 goals-against average and .916 save percentage in his past six starts.