Three things: Wild and Blues meet in Des Moines

Minnesota Wild vs. St. Louis Blues (Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines, IA)

The Wild continues the 2018-19 preseason on Wednesday night in the home rink of its American Hockey League affiliate in Des Moines when Minnesota plays the St. Louis Blues at Wells Fargo Arena.
It will be the first-ever NHL game played in the state of Iowa, and a packed barn is expected.
Wild.com's Dan Myers has three things to keep an eye on during the game Wednesday night:

1. A rocking arena

For those who haven't been to Wells Fargo Arena, it's not your average minor-league rink. The building holds about 15,000 fans for hockey, and nearly that many are expected for the contest.
The Iowa Wild have yet to make the postseason in the five seasons since the AHL club arrived from Houston. Despite that, fan support has grown and gotten stronger every year.

"It's an NHL-quality building," said Wild goaltender Alex Stalock, who played one season for Iowa in 2016-17. "To see hopefully a full house would be pretty cool. Some of those big rinks, they're a little too big for the American League. But I think in this setting, it will be really cool."
The neutral site game against the Blues marks the second straight preseason the clubs have met on even ice. The teams played in Kansas City last September, with the Wild scoring a 3-2 win on a goal by Charlie Coyle with just 4.3 seconds left in the contest.

2. Stalock's chance between the posts

After watching Andrew Hammond make 28 saves in his preseason debut in Winnipeg on Monday, Stalock will have an opportunity to stake his claim to the backup goaltender job behind starter Devan Dubnyk.
Stalock, who went 10-10-4 with a .910 save percentage and a 2.85 goals-against average last season, would appear to be the early front runner, based on his status as the incumbent.
But the club brought Hammond in to compete, and he acquitted himself well against the Jets.
Stalock has had a strong camp so far and will look to continue it with a good first performance in game action in a place he knows well: he played in 50 games for Iowa two seasons ago, posting a 2.28 goals-against and .926 save percentage.
He'll certainly have the home crowd behind him, as well. Stalock became a fan favorite during his season in Des Moines.
"It'll be a ton of fun," Stalock said. "It was a great place to play, and you get treated great. It's an NHL-caliber building, and it sounds like the crowd is going to be really big, so it will be exciting."

3. Staal good

Eric Staal is expected to suit up and play for the first time during the preseason on Wednesday, bringing with him one of the most productive lines in hockey for a good chunk of last season.
In addition to Staal, who tied a franchise record with 42 goals a year ago, Jason Zucker and Mikael Granlund are also expected to make the trip and play in the game.
The trio, which was united for the first time midseason last year, has started training camp together in hopes of building on the chemistry it created during the stretch run. Zucker scored a career-best 33 goals last season, and Granlund record 67 points, his second-straight 65-plus point season.
"Last year, with the injuries we had, the way our lineup shook out, we played with a lot of different players," Staal said. "But during the year, at whatever point it was when I ended up with the two of them, we ended up with some good chemistry and had some really good games. Hopefully we can get to that early and be contributors at both ends of the rink."
Related:
- Hockey history in Des Moines dates back more than six decades - Iowa Wild benefits from state's under-the-radar hockey tradition