Wild Warmup: Minnesota at Vancouver

The essentials

The opponent

On the tail end of a five-game homestand, the Vancouver Canucks have won just one of the previous four games since returning to Rogers Arena at the end of February.
The lone victory during the stretch was a 5-4 overtime win against the Islanders on Monday, an effort the Canucks followed with a 2-1 loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday.
Following Friday's game against Minnesota, Vancouver will play on home ice just once over the next 16 days, traveling to California next week before beginning a four-game road trip against Vegas and three Central Division teams the following week.
Vancouver has won each of the first two games this season against the Wild, however, with both contests coming at Xcel Energy Center. The Canucks won 1-0 on Oct. 24 before scoring a 3-2 overtime win on Jan. 14.
The Canucks are led offensively by rookie forward Brock Boeser, who has 29 goals and 55 points this season. A frontrunner for the NHL's Calder Trophy granted to the League's best rookie, Boeser on Monday sustained a back injury that could keep him out the rest of the season.
Daniel and Henrik Sedin are the only other Canucks with more than 40 points, as Daniel has 21 goals and 46 points, while 41 of Henrik's 43 points have been assists.
Jacob Markstrom has earned a bulk of the action between the posts, going 18-22-6 with a 2.77 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage in 47 starts (50 games) this season.

Connections

• Wild assistant coach Darby Hendrickson skated in 27 games with the Canucks in 1998-99.
• Wild goaltending coach Bob Mason appeared in six games with Vancouver in 1990-91.
• Canucks forward Brock Boeser is a Burnsville native and played collegiately at the University of North Dakota.
• Canucks forward Markus Granlund is the younger brother of Wild forward Mikael Granlund.

Playoff push

The Wild sits in third place in the Central Division, three points ahead of the Dallas Stars, currently the West's first wild card team.
Minnesota is six points behind Winnipeg, which sits in the Central Division's second position.

Head west

Minnesota is 9-6-1 in its last 16 games against the Canucks, including a 5-2-0 mark in its past seven games in Vancouver. Minnesota's 89 points against the Canucks are its fourth-most against any NHL franchise.
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