"I don't understand it. Ever since I've been here, playing at home has been a huge advantage for us. For whatever reason, we haven't been able to do that this year," said Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk. "It's a huge opportunity to try to get that going. I think if we get some momentum at home, it'll really snowball for us. We need to start that now."
There is no better time for the Wild to get things going on home ice.
The St. Louis Blues have tied Minnesota in the standings and currently hold the top wild card spot in the Western Conference based on its two games in hand.
Vancouver, Chicago, Colorado and Los Angeles are each within four points.
On the other side, the Wild and Blues are each within two points of third-place Dallas.
There's no question, players inside the dressing room know what the stakes of the homestand are. With the number of games dwindling and the schedule becoming increasingly difficult into early March, the time to put together some wins is now.
"Our urgency has been here for an awful long time. We just haven't gotten it done on a consistent basis. We can look like world beaters one night but the next night we just don't look good enough," said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. "So it's one of those times where … for the last 26 games you've got to play to win. Like not that we don't play to win, but you've got to play playoff hockey every night."
Philadelphia will be playing the second half of back-to-back games following a 4-1 loss against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday.
Since defeating the Wild 7-4 in Philadelphia on Jan. 14, the Flyers have posted a record of 9-1-1.
Claude Giroux leads the Flyers offensively with 43 assists and 59 points. Sean Couturier and Jakub Voracek each have 48 points with Couturier leading the club with 23 goals.
Goaltender Carter Hart started against the Penguins on Monday, which could indicate Anthony Stolarz will get the nod on Tuesday. Stolarz has started nine games and is 3-3-3 with a 3.26 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage.
