Wild Warmup: Minnesota vs. Boston

The essentials

The opponent

Boston has already clinched its spot in the postseason and is the second Eastern Conference team to do so. Just four points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Bruins are playing to catch up and secure the top seed in the Atlantic Division.
Perhaps even more impressive is Boston's standing despite having a significant number of impact players out of the lineup with injuries. Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, Anders Bjork, Charlie McAvoy, David Backes, Torey Krug, Rick Nash and Jake DeBrusk have all missed action recently. Bergeron may join the team in Minnesota, and with the exception of Bjork, on injured reserve, and McAvoy, who has a sprained MCL, the others are all day-to-day.
The Bruins are coming off a comeback win against the Dallas Stars on Friday night, digging out of a 2-0 hole with three unanswered goals in the third period to seal the regulation win. Tuukka Rask made 40 saves en route to the victory.
Rask is 31-11-5 on the season, with a 2.34 goals-against average and save percentage of .917. Backup Anton Khudobin is 15-6-5 with a 2.48 goals-against and .917 save percentage. Rask made 27 saves in a win over the Wild the only previous time the teams met this season, at TD Garden in Boston.
Brad Marchand leads the Bruins in goals (32), assists (46) and points (78). Marchand did not play against the Wild on Nov. 6, then out of the lineup with an injury. Just behind Marchand, David Pastrnak sweeps the board in second place with 29 goals, 43 assists and 72 points.
Recent signee Ryan Donato is also a key figure to watch: in three games, Donato has scored two goals and two assists, with three of those points coming on his debut night. He went pointless against Dallas, however, and Minnesota will look to continue that trend and hold the former Harvard star off the scoresheet.

Connections

• Minnesota's Charlie Coyle is a native of East Weymouth, Mass., and played at Boston University (2010-12).
• Backes is a native of Minneapolis and played three seasons at Minnesota State Mankato (2003-06).
• Khudobin was selected by Minnesota in the seventh round (206th overall) of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft and went 4-1-0 with a 1.39 goals-against average, a .955 save percentage and one shutout in six games with the Wild. He made his NHL debut with Minnesota on Feb. 4, 2010.

Packed stands

Minnesota will welcome members of two notable hockey squads to the arena on Sunday to partake in Wild festivities -- five players from the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic women's hockey team, and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School team from Parkland, Florida.
Hannah Brandt, Kelly Pannek, Maddie Rooney, Dani Cameranesi and Lee Stecklein will perform a ceremonial puck drop before the game.
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas team, in town after competing in the 2018 Chipotle-USA High School National Championships, will give the traditional "Let's Play Hockey!" call. The team won a state championship and advanced to nationals 11 days after 14 students and three staff members were killed in the Feb. 14 shooting at the school.

Worthy thirty

Jason Zucker scored his 30th goal of the season on Saturday against the Nashville Predators, marking the first time in his career he's reached the 30-goal plateau. Zucker joins Eric Staal, who has 39, as the only two Wild players with 30-plus goals in the 2017-18 campaign.
This is the fourth season in Wild history that Minnesota has boasted two 30-goal scorers. The others (2005-06, 2006-07, and 2007-08) were each thanks to Marian Gaborik and Brian Rolston.
Zucker is the sixth player in Wild history to score 30 or more goals in a season.
Related:
- Boudreau notches 500th win - Watch: Zucker on NHL Tonight - Takeaways: Wild 4, Predators 1