Mittelstadt returns home as Sabres visit Wild

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Casey Mittelstadt has rejected the notion of nervousness already at multiple points of young NHL career, be it his debut as a 19-year-old last season or his first career shootout attempt last Saturday.
But his first time playing in the Minnesota State Boys Hockey Tournament at Xcel Energy Center as a sophomore at Eden Prairie High School - now thatwas enough shake him.
"I was nervous, man," Mittelstadt said. "I don't get nervous very much, but I was nervous that day. Warmups, I was probably skating 200 miles an hour. I was probably completely tired after warmups. But the adrenaline's pumping, the stands are full.
"When you're that young, you've never seen anything like it."

Mittelstadt scored two goals in that game. He doesn't imagine he'll be nearly as nervous when he dresses for his first NHL game in his hometown on Saturday, when the Buffalo Sabres visit the Minnesota Wild looking for their fifth win in a row..
Kyle Okposo, his linemate and a fellow St. Paul native, disagreed.
"Oh yeah, he'll be nervous for sure," Okposo said, smiling ear-to-ear. "My first time playing here, I put a lot of pressure on myself. It felt like a different game. It just wasn't hockey, it was, 'Oh man, I've got to play good.'
"You kind of have an out-of-body experience. I'm just going to try to calm him down and make sure that he's just thinking about playing and not trying to impress everybody."

Mittelstadt has spoken highly of his hometown since his draft year of 2017, when he opted to forego a full season of junior hockey for a chance to make one last run at the state championship with Eden Prairie. Prior to his draft, he compared the dream of winning that title to that of winning a Stanley Cup.
"For a young hockey player like me growing up, it was pretty much everything," he said. "I think that's what we always dreamed of. Those high school players became celebrities, they were pretty much even with an NHL player."
Mittelstadt grew up coming to Wild games with his father, Tom, who received tickets through his business. He estimates he'll have somewhere around 115 friends and family members in attendance on Saturday.
"One of my old coaches rented out a bar or something for everyone," he said. "There's like 85 of them going to that, plus all my friends which is like 30 more. I don't know. My parents did a good job of handling the whole thing."
Coverage on MSG-B begins at 5:30 p.m. with the GMC Game Night pregame show, or you can listen live on WGR 550. The puck drops at 6.

Lineup changes

Linus Ullmark will start in net, while Minnesota State alum Casey Nelson will step in on defense in place of Nathan Beaulieu.
The Sabres are looking to win five straight games for the first time since March 19 to 27, 2012. To do so, they'll have to build on a third period in Winnipeg on Friday in which they erased a one-goal deficit and outshot the Jets, 10-5.
"We got back to the way we want to play, and that's having a shot mentality," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "With the short turnaround, we're going to have to be smart and really manage our game today and not force things that aren't there, so we can use our energy in the right way."