Wild Warmup: Minnesota vs. Nashville

The essentials

ST. PAUL -- The Wild and Nashville Predators will renew acquaintances for the final time during the 2018-19 regular season, but is a potential meeting in the postseason in the offing?
The contest Monday at Xcel Energy Center has major playoff implications for both teams, most importantly, Minnesota, which begins the night on the outside of the postseason picture and looking in.
Nashville still has its sights set on a second consecutive Central Division title and will begin the day Monday four points back of the Winnipeg Jets.
Should the Predators rally and win the Central, it could face the Wild if Minnesota gets hot and is able to take over the top wild card spot in the west, currently held by Dallas three points clear of the Wild.
Minnesota and Nashville have never met in the postseason.
But first things first: The Wild has to get back to the playoffs for a seventh consecutive year, and to do so, the game Monday could be crucial.
With road games in Vegas and Arizona looming later in the week, Minnesota must find a way to make hay on home ice, and translate its season-long success away from St. Paul to Xcel Energy Center.
The Wild's latest road win came Friday night in Washington against the defending Stanley Cup champions. Minnesota was unable to keep that momentum in a 5-1 loss to Carolina the following night.
With six games remaining in the regular season, Minnesota has three games each on the road and at Xcel Energy Center. Coach Bruce Boudreau said he believes the Wild must find a way to win at least four of those six games to be relevant in the playoff chase -- and even that might not be enough.
That makes winning its three remaining games in front of its home fans a critical component to the Wild's hopes of getting back to the postseason.
Nashville is coming off a 5-0 loss to the Jets in Winnipeg on Saturday night, a devastating blow to the Predators' division title hopes. While they are far from out of it, a win over the Jets would have tied the two clubs atop the division standings.
Instead, Winnipeg leads by four points, has one game in hand and has a nearly insurmountable 43-38 lead in regulation/overtime wins, the first tiebreaker should the teams finish with the same number of points at the end of the season.
Nashville now must be concerned with holding off third-place St. Louis, which crept to within two points of the Predators, while also holding a game in hand. The Blues and Predators are a likely first-round playoff matchup, but home ice in the series will be decided by who finishes higher in the standings.
Ryan Johansen leads Nashville with 49 assists and 60 points in 74 games this season. He also has a pair of shootout-deciding goals in two Predators wins over the Wild earlier this month.
Defenseman Roman Josi is second on the club with 40 assists and 55 points while Viktor Arvidsson has a team-leading 31 goals.
Former Wild forward Mikael Granlund has one goal and three assists and is a minus-4 in 10 games since the trade that brought Kevin Fiala to Minnesota on Feb. 25. Fiala has two goals and four assists in 13 games with the Wild.
Goaltender Pekka Rinne has played in 52 games this season (51 starts) and has a 26-19-4 record with a 2.48 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage.

Offense by defense

Minnesota leads the NHL in PPG (16) and ranks second in goals scored (43) by defensemen.
Amongst NHL defenseman, Jared Spurgeon ranks T-6th in goals and Matt Dumba (despite not playing since Dec. 15) ranks T-13th with 12 goals. Ryan Suter ranks 12th in assists and 13th in scoring.
Wild defensemen have totaled 144 of the team's 550 points this season, ranking seventh in the NHL at 26.2%.

Series notes

All-Time Wild Record: 33-30-11 (20-12-5 at Xcel Energy Center, 13-18-6 at Nashville)
2018-19: Minnesota is 0-1-2 after three season meetings against Nashville…The Wild fell in its first season meeting, 4-2, at Bridgestone Arena (10/15), earned a point in its second season meeting with a 3-2 shootout loss at Xcel Energy Center (3/3) and collected another point in its third season meeting with a 5-4 shootout loss in Nashville (3/5)…LW Zach Parise leads the team with three assists…C Eric Fehr (2- 0=2), LW Kevin Fiala (2-0=2), C Mikko Koivu (1-1=2) and C Eric Staal (0-2=2) have two points apiece…G Alex Stalock is 0-1-1 with 2.44 GAA and a .929 SV% in two starts…G Devan Dubnyk stopped 21-of-25 shots through overtime and three-of-four shootout attempts in the third contest…C Rocco Grimaldi (0-3=3) and D P.K. Subban (0-3=3) lead the Predators with three points each…RW Viktor Arvidsson (1-1=2), LW Filip Forsberg (2-0=2), C Ryan Johansen (0-2=2), D Roman Josi (1- 1=2), RW Craig Smith (2-0=2) and C Kyle Turris (0-2=2) have two points apiece…G Pekka Rinne is 2-0-0 with a 2.88 GAA and a .906 SV% in two starts…G Juuse Saros stopped 24-of-26 shots in the second game.
WILD LEADERS: Koivu leads the Wild with 43 points (9-34=43) in 48 matches vs. Nashville…Parise has 24 points (13-11=24) in 30 games…C Eric Staal owns 21 points (8-13=21) in 26 contests…D Ryan Suter has 18 points (2-16=18) in 30 matches.
WILD GOALIES: Dubnyk is 13-6-4 with a 2.21 GAA, a .927 SV% and two shutouts in 24 games (23 starts) against the Predators…Stalock is 0-4-1 with a 2.80 GAA and a .918 SV% in five starts.
PREDATORS LEADERS: D Dan Hamhuis leads the Predators with 20 points (6-14=20) in 53 games vs. Minnesota…Subban has 21 points (8-13=21) in 19 matches…Johansen owns 17 points (4-13=17) in 25 contests… Forsberg has 15 points (11-4=15) in 22 games…Josi owns 15 points (9- 6=15) in 30 matches…Smith owns 15 points (8-7=15) in 34 contests.
PREDATORS GOALIES: Rinne is 18-12-4 with a 2.45 GAA, a .913 SV% and four shutouts in 35 games (33 starts) against the Wild…Saros is 2-0-0 with a 0.96 GAA, a .964 SV% and one shutout in two starts.

Did you know?

Minnesota has sold out 226 consecutive regular season games at Xcel Energy Center. The last regular season game that was not a sellout was Dec. 2, 2013 vs. Philadelphia. Minnesota has registered 733 all-time sellouts at home, including 667 regular season matches