Wild at Rangers preview
Zuccarello faces New York for first time since trade; Minnesota can extend point streak to six
by Dan Rosen / NHL.com Independent Correspondent
WILD (9-11-3) at RANGERS (10-9-2)
7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, MSG, FS-N+, NHL.TV
The Game
Mats Zuccarello will face the New York Rangers for the first time since they traded him last season when the Minnesota Wild play at Madison Square Garden on Monday.
The Rangers traded Zuccarello to the Dallas Stars on Feb. 23, and he signed a five-year contract with the Wild on July 1. Zuccarello spent parts of nine seasons with New York (2010-19) and led them in scoring four times.
The Rangers are coming off a 6-5 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Saturday in which they came back after trailing 4-0 and 5-3.
Minnesota is 3-0-2 in its past five games following a 5-4 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Saturday.
Players to watch
Wild forward Jason Zucker has a three-game goal scoring streak.
Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba has goals in each of his past two games.
They said it
"I just try not to think about it too much, but you guys (media) make it hard for me mentioning it every minute I'm here and my teammates. I mean, obviously it's going to be a special game for me. We'll see how it's going to be." -- Wild forward Mats Zuccarello
"It felt different the other night. It felt different when we were down 3-0. It felt different when we got down 4-0. It felt different when we got down 5-3. It was probably the most emotion we had on the bench. … I felt like there was a level of belief in each other that I'm not sure we had [before]." -- Rangers coach David Quinn
Wild projected lineup
Jason Zucker -- Eric Staal -- Mats Zuccarello
Zach Parise -- Mikko Koivu -- Kevin Fiala
Jordan Greenway -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Luke Kunin
Ryan Donato -- Victor Rask -- Ryan Hartman
Ryan Suter -- Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin -- Matt Dumba
Carson Soucy -- Brad Hunt
Alex Stalock
Kaapo Kahkonen
Scratched: Devan Dubnyk, Nick Seeler
Injured: Marcus Foligno (lower body), Greg Pateryn (core muscle)
Rangers projected lineup
Artemi Panarin -- Ryan Strome -- Jesper Fast
Chris Kreider -- Filip Chytil -- Pavel Buchnevich
Brendan Lemieux -- Brett Howden -- Kaapo Kakko
Brendan Smith -- Boo Nieves -- Micheal Haley
Brady Skjei -- Jacob Trouba
Ryan Lindgren -- Adam Fox
Libor Hajek -- Tony DeAngelo
Henrik Lundqvist
Alexandar Georgiev
Scratched: None
Injured: Greg McKegg (lower body), Mika Zibanejad (upper body), Marc Staal (ankle)
Status report
Dubnyk will miss his fourth consecutive game. He is away from the team tending to a family issue. … Zibanejad will miss his 13th consecutive game. He is expected to practice Tuesday and the Rangers are hopeful he will be in the lineup against the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday. … Nieves was recalled from Hartford of the American Hockey League on Sunday to replace McKegg, who was injured in Montreal. … Quinn said the forward lines were still to be determined.
Stat pack
Zuccarello has points in three straight games (one goal, three assists). … The Rangers are 4-1-1 at home since Oct. 29. … Koivu needs one point to reach 700 in the NHL. ... Lundqvist needs one win to pass Curtis Joseph (454) for sole possession of fifth place on the NHL's all-time wins list.