Canadiens at Wild preview

Montreal, which won 5-2 at the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, has won three of its past four games after a 1-1-2 start to the season.

Minnesota has lost two games in a row and is tied for the worst start in its history (also 1-6-0 in 2009-10). It will be the Wild's second home game; they lost their home opener 7-4 to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Oct. 12.

Players to watch

Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin has eight points (three goals, five assists) in eight games and has had at least one point in seven of eight.

Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon has four points (one goal, three assists) in his past four games.

They said it

"We believe in each other as a good team. When we play like we know we can, we can go into any building and win. Obviously, it takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of effort, but this team is capable of a lot. Hopefully, we're just getting started." -- Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher

"If we get out of [this slump], it will make us a better team and better people. Only the strong survive, so I mean, you can sit there and whine and mope and talk behind people's backs, 'Well it's his fault, that fault.' But in the end, you look upon yourself and take the onus upon yourself, and good people find ways to make other people better and get out of these types of things." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau

Canadiens projected lineup

Tomas Tatar -- Phillip Danault -- Brendan Gallagher

Artturi Lehkonen -- Max Domi -- Paul Byron

Jonathan Drouin -- Jesperi Kotkaniemi -- Jordan Weal

Nick Cousins -- Nate Thompson - Nick Suzuki

Victor Mete -- Shea Weber

Brett Kulak -- Jeff Petry

Ben Chiarot -- Cale Fleury

Keith Kinkaid

Carey Price

Scratched: Mike Reilly, Christian Folin

Injured: Joel Armia (lower body)

Wild projected lineup

Jordan Greenway -- Eric Staal -- Kevin Fiala

Zach Parise -- Mikko Koivu -- Jason Zucker

Gerald Mayhew -- Ryan Donato -- Luke Kunin

Marcus Foligno -- Gabriel Dumont -- Ryan Hartman

Ryan Suter -- Jared Spurgeon

Jonas Brodin -- Matt Dumba

Nick Seeler -- Brad Hunt

Devan Dubnyk

Alex Stalock

Scratched: Carson Soucy

Injured: Joel Eriksson Ek (lower body), Victor Rask (lower body), Mats Zuccarello (undisclosed), Greg Pateryn (core)

Status report

Fleury returns to the Canadiens lineup in place of Folin. ... Armia was injured during warmups in St. Louis. ... The Wild recalled Dumont from Iowa of the American Hockey League on Saturday when Zuccarello was put on injured reserve. ... Rask is day to day. ... Eriksson Ek is 1-2 weeks from returning.

Stat pack

Gallagher has five points (three goals, two assists) in the past four games and is one point from 300 in the NHL. ... Dubnyk has not won a game (0-5-0) and has a 4.44 goals-against average and .867 save percentage in his first five starts. ... Boudreau is one win from tying Billy Reay for 23rd in NHL history (542).