Canadiens at Wild preview
Montreal looks for third straight victory; Minnesota goes for first win at home
by Jessi Pierce / NHL.com Independent Correspondent
CANADIENS (4-2-2) at WILD (1-6-0)
5 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-N, FS-WI, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV
The Game
The Montreal Canadiens will try for their third straight win when they play the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Sunday.
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).