Preview: Wild at Senators

WILD (7-5-1) at SENATORS (9-5-0)
5 p.m. ET; TVA Sports, TSN5, FS-N, FS-WI, NHL.TV

Wild team scope

The Minnesota Wild are concluding a four-game road trip with their third game in four days after a 3-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday. The Wild have been struggling with consistency. After what coach Bruce Boudreau thought was the team's best effort of the season in a 4-2 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday, he wasn't happy with the Wild's game against the Flyers. "[Saturday], we'd go in [on the forecheck], and we'd be one and done because there's only one guy going," Boudreau said. "If you're not tenacious enough, bad things happen." Goaltender Darcy Kuemper is expected to get his third start of the season. He has a 1-1-0 record with a 4.00 goals against average and .871 save percentage.

Senators team scope

The Ottawa Senators have won back-to-back games and will use the same lineup that rallied to defeat the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 on Friday. That means Craig Anderson (7-3-0, 2.18 goals-against average, .931 save percentage) will start in goal. When Guy Boucher became coach May 8, one of his goals was to improve special teams. Ottawa's penalty-killing was 29th last season (75.8 percent) and has improved to eighth so far this season (85.4 percent). The Senators have killed off 22 straight penalties since allowing a power-play goal to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Oct. 22. The power play is another story. It's 1-for-22 during the past eight games and is 28th in the League at 10.3 percent.

Wild projected lineup

Nino Niederreiter -- Eric Staal -- Charlie Coyle
Mikael Granlund -- Mikko Koivu -- Jason Pominville
Jason Zucker -- Erik Haula -- Christoph Bertschy
Joel Eriksson Ek -- Tyler Graovac -- Chris Stewart
Ryan Suter -- Matt Dumba
Jonas Brodin -- Christian Folin
Mike Reilly -- Jared Spurgeon
Darcy Kuemper
Devan Dubnyk
Scratched:Nate Prosser, Zack Mitchell
Injured:Victor Bartley (triceps), Marco Scandella (lower body), Zach Parise (foot), Zac Dalpe (knee)

Senators projected lineup

Mike Hoffman -- Derick Brassard -- Bobby Ryan
Ryan Dzingel -- Kyle Turris -- Tom Pyatt
Zack Smith -- Jean-Gabriel Pageau -- Mark Stone
Matt Puempel -- Chris Kelly -- Chris Neil
Marc Methot -- Erik Karlsson
Dion Phaneuf -- Cody Ceci
Mark Borowiecki -- Fredrik Claesson
Craig Anderson
Mike Condon
Scratched:None
Injured:Clarke MacArthur (concussion), Chris Wideman (upper body), Andrew Hammond

Status report

Parise, who has missed five games, has been skating and could return this week. … Wideman will miss his sixth consecutive game but is practicing and almost ready to return. Hammond, who has missed eight games with a groin injury, practiced Saturday.

Who's hot

Niederreiter has two goals and an assist in his past two games. Staal has a goal and three assists in his past two games. … Anderson is 3-2-0 in his past five games and has allowed seven goals in that span.