First, the Wild must contend with one of the Eastern Conference's best teams in an exceedingly difficult place for opponents to win.
Montreal has won 15 of its 19 games on home ice this season and has gained one point in two of its losses there.
"We'll see where we're at," said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau. "They've been a very strong team all year. We'll have to be at our absolute best."
Minnesota enters the game riding an eight-game winning streak; a victory would match the franchise's longest-ever streak at nine.
Thursday's game will mark the Wild's 10th trip to Montreal all-time, with Minnesota having earned at least a point in five of the previous nine meetings there. The Wild won 4-1 at Bell Centre last season and owns a three-game winning streak overall against the Canadiens, the longest stretch against Montreal in franchise history.
Defenseman Jared Spurgeon will play in his 400th NHL game on Thursday. He is the third Wild player to reach a games-played milestone in the past couple weeks; Charlie Coyle played in his 300th game last week when Minnesota played the Nashville Predators and Jason Zucker reached the 200-game plateau against Colorado on Tuesday.
Montreal will be without defenseman Andrei Markov for a second consecutive game. The veteran blue liner is nursing a lower-body injury and isn't likely to return until after Christmas.
The Canadiens also announced that goaltender Carey Price will get the start. It will be his seventh consecutive start between the pipes.
If, as expected, Devan Dubnyk is in goal, Thursday's game would feature two of the NHL's top three in both save percentage and goals-against average.
