His 2.56 goals-against average is inflated because of a start against the Carolina Hurricanes last month where he allowed four goals. He was the Wild's best player in that game, and according to coach Bruce Boudreau, he has been every other time he's played as well.
Stalock has a .927 save percentage that would rank sixth-best in the NHL if he had enough starts but his 1-2-1 record isn't as good as Boudreau thinks it should be.
"He's given [us] a chance to win every game," Boudreau said.
Boudreau had said in Washington over the weekend that he didn't think the players in front of Stalock had played as well in his starts, something he hopes changes Friday.
"Hopefully they're aware," Boudreau said. "Here's a kid who practices like every practice is a game, makes them work, comes in to play in every game and I'm hoping that they take that and say, 'We gotta put a good game in front of this guy.'"
Here are the projected lineups:
WILD
Jason Zucker - Eric Staal - Nino Niederreiter
Daniel Winnik - Mikko Koivu - Mikael Granlund
Tyler Ennis - Charlie Coyle - Marcus Foligno
Chris Stewart - Matt Cullen - Zack Mitchell
Ryan Suter - Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin - Matt Dumba
Kyle Quincey - Gustav Olofsson
Alex Stalock
Devan Dubnyk
AVALANCHE
Gabriel Landeskog - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen
Colin Wilson - Alexander Kerfoot - JT Compher
Matt Nieto - Carl Soderberg - Blake Comeau
Sven Andrighetto - Dominic Toninato - Nail Yakupov
Samuel Girard - Erik Johnson
Andrei Mironov - Tyson Barrie
Mark Barberio - Nikita Zadorov
Jonathan Bernier
Andrew Hammond
