Pluses, minuses for Golden Knights-Wild

Each Wednesday throughout the regular season, Kevin Weekes will be offering his pluses and minuses for the teams competing in the "Wednesday Night Hockey" games on NBCSN in his Weekes on the Web blog.

The Vegas Golden Knights and Minnesota Wild complete a two-game set when they play at Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET, NBCSN).
Vegas (16-5-1) had won six straight prior to a 2-0 loss to Minnesota on Monday. The Wild (14-8-1) have won eight of 11 (8-2-1) and are four points behind the first-place Golden Knights in the Honda West Division.
Here's my breakdown of the game.

Golden Knights

Pluses:Marc-Andre Fleury is a Vezina Trophy candidate this season. He's expected to start for the 13th time in 14 games with Robin Lehner out with an upper-body injury. Vegas signed Lehner to a five-year contract this offseason and Fleury was supposed to be the backup. The injury has meant more playing time for Fleury, who has delivered. He's 12-4-0 and leads all goalies who have played at least 10 games with a 1.57 goals-against average, .943 save percentage and four shutouts.
Mark Stone is arguably the best two-way player in the game right now. He reminds me a lot of Marian Hossa, a three-time Stanley Cup winner with the Chicago Blackhawks who was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame earlier this year. Stone has delivered night in and night out for Vegas this season.
To me, the Golden Knights are the most complete team in the NHL. They have two great goalies when Lehner is healthy, excellent forward depth, and great defense. It seems like on any night, any player can step up, and we've seen that be the case this season.

Minuses: The only negative for this team right now is the injuries. Stone and defenseman Alex Pietrangelo each didn't play Monday. Pietrangelo was ruled out but it would be a huge boost if Stone were able to play.

Wild

Pluses: It's been a great turnaround for them since returning to play from a two-week absence because of NHL COVID-19 protocol with eight wins in 11 games. A lot of that credit belongs to two rookies. Forward Kirill Kaprizov leads the team and all NHL rookies with 19 points (six goals, 13 assists) in 23 games. I said four years ago when he was playing for Russia at the 2017 World Junior Championship that he was going to make an impact in the NHL. He scored nine goals in seven games and helped them to a second-place finish. Kaprizov is much-watch TV.
Rookie goalie Kaapo Kahkonen has won seven straight starts and is 10-4-0 with a 2.13 GAA and .924 save percentage. General manager Bill Guerin said this offseason the team needed better goaltending and they have gotten that from Kahkonen and Cam Talbot.
Lastly, Mat Zuccarello has looked like his old self. He's elevated the team since coming back from offseason surgery. He has scored 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in 12 games including at least a point in seven games and has been one of their best playmakers this season.

Minuses:The Wild absolutely have to improve on the power play. They rank last in the League (6.8 percent) and have scored five power play goals in 74 chances. That includes going 0 for 19 in their past eight games. If they can get it together with the man advantage, they'd be an even scarier team to play against.

THREE THINGS TO WATCH

1. Can the Wild match the Golden Knights physicality?
   2. Will the fourth line for Vegas continue to be effective?
   3. Will the Wild be able to repeat the game plan from the win Monday?