Wild Warmup: Minnesota vs. St. Louis

The essentials

ST. PAUL -- The Wild's four-game homestand rolls on with perhaps the team's most critical game of the season Sunday afternoon at Xcel Energy Center.
Even after a pair of disappointing losses to Philadelphia and New Jersey, Minnesota remained in the second wild card position in the Western Conference entering play on Saturday.
Barely.
All the teams both in front and behind the Wild had games on Saturday while Minnesota was forced to wait on the sidelines for one of those clubs, the St. Louis Blues.

Despite a rough stretch of play coming out of the All-Star break, the Wild remains one quality win away from potentially righting its ship. Winnable games -- on paper -- follow on the docket after Sunday's game, and a victory against the Blues would certainly help soothe a battered dressing room.
Win Sunday and you have a chance to salvage your homestand Tuesday against the Ducks.
Win those and you have a chance to put together a winning streak in New York and Detroit next week.
Win those and all of the sudden, the Wild is back in a strong position heading into a rematch with St. Louis right back here next Sunday.
But first things first ... Minnesota needs to find a way to put all elements of its game together.
Lately, it's been goaltending, which has surrendered 10 goals in losses to the Flyers and Devils that has been sluggish. Minnesota has cranked up its offensive support over the past six games, scoring four goals in four of those six contests.
Unfortunately for the Wild, it has surrendered 22 goals during that stretch, an average of nearly 3.7 goals per game.
"It'll be a conversation that the coaches and the goalie coach have [Saturday] and the GM and we'll see what transpires," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said following the game on Friday. "There's a couple things: We're not blind. We saw how they went in, but the other thing that bothers me is we do this all the time we get them down and you don't get that killer instinct and you stop playing and you try to defend all the time and it's a losing way to play.
"When you get four you should be wanting to go to six but at the same time play safer that they're not going to get odd-man rushes and you're not going to make it a track meet. There's a couple things to deal with here."

Boudreau wasn't ready to reveal his starting goaltender for Sunday following a practice at TRIA Rink at Treasure Island Center on Saturday.
Alex Stalock has started just twice over the past month with mixed results. But with back-to-back games later in the week, it's at least possible he'll start one of those games, at a minimum.
On the other hand, Boudreau hasn't been afraid to ride Dubnyk through rough patches in the past.
Around the holidays, Dubnyk went winless in five-straight starts between Dec. 15 and Dec. 27, but Boudreau stuck with Dubnyk in a critical game at Winnipeg on Dec. 29, and the veteran responded, stopping 27 of 28 shots in a 3-1 win at Bell MTS Place.
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Offense by defense

Per NHL stats, Minnesota leads the NHL in goals scored (38) and PPG (12) by defensemen.
Amongst NHL defenseman, Matt Dumba (despite not playing since Dec. 15) ranks T-3rd with 12 goals and Jared Spurgeon ranks T-6th with 11, Ryan Suter ranks T-10th in scoring and assists.
Wild defensemen have totaled 123 of the team's 446 points this season, ranking fourth amongst NHL team defensemen at 27.6%.

In the Hunt

Brad Hunt tallied a power-play goal and an assist on Friday vs. NJ for his second multi-point game of the season and fifth of his career.
He owns three points (1-2=3) in five games with Minnesota since being acquired in a trade with Vegas on Jan. 21, including two PPG.
Hunt has tallied 21 (7-14=21) of his 37 career NHL points on the power play.

Series notes

All-Time Wild Record: 34-24-14 (21-9-6 at Xcel Energy Center, 13-15-8 at St. Louis)
2018-19: Minnesota leads the season series, 2-0-0, after earning a 5-1 victory (11/3) and a 3-2 win (11/11) at Enterprise Center…LW Jordan Greenway (0-3=3) and D Nick Seeler (1-2=3) lead the Wild with three points apiece…C Charlie Coyle (0-2=2), C Eric Fehr (1-1=2) and RW Mikael Granlund have two points each…G Devan Dubnyk is 2-0-0 with a 1.50 GAA and a .936 SV% in two starts…C Ryan O'Reilly leads the Blues with two points (1- 1=2)…D Alex Pietrangelo and C Oskar Sundqvist have each scored a goal…G Jake Allen made 40 saves in the first meeting…G Chad Johnson stopped 15-of-18 shots in the second meeting.
WILD LEADERS: C Mikko Koivu leads the Wild with 36 points (12- 24=36) in 52 games against St. Louis…D Ryan Suter has 36 points (5-31=36) in 69 matches…C Eric Staal owns 21 points (12-9=21) in 25 contests…Coyle owns 19 points (5-14=19) in 27 matches… LW Zach Parise has 19 points (11-8=19) in 29 games.
WILD GOALIES: Dubnyk is 11-13-2 with a 3.05 GAA and a .898 SV% in 26 career starts vs. the Blues…G Alex Stalock is 0-0-1 with a 4.21 GAA and a .800 SV% in three games.
BLUES LEADERS: LW Alexander Steen leads the Blues with 27 points (6-21=27) in 37 contests against Minnesota…LW David Perron owns 23 points (9-14=23) in 31 matches…RW Vladimir Tarasenko has 21 points (10-11=21) in 24 games…LW Jaden Schwartz owns 20 points (10-10=20) in 24 contests…Pietrangelo owns 16 points (4-12=16) in 35 matches.
BLUES GOALIES: Allen is 7-4-1 with a 2.63 GAA and a .904 SV% in 16 games (13 starts) vs. the Wild…G Jordan Binnington has not faced Minnesota.

Did you know?

The Wild is 7-2-0 in games that start at 3 p.m. or earlier this season, ranking T-1st in the NHL in wins and T-2nd in points in day games.