Wild Warmup: Minnesota at Boston

The Essentials

The Opponent

The Boston Bruins will conclude a three-game homestand with the game against the Wild on Tuesday. The B's have been ravaged by injuries in the crease, which will lead to them starting 22-year-old Malcolm Subban. All-star goaltender Tuukka Rask remains out and is day-to-day with an undisclosed injury while former Wild goalie Anton Khudobin, Rask's backup, went down with an injury early in practice on Monday and could be sidelined indefinitely. Subban, on emergency recall from Providence of the AHL, has one game of NHL experience: he allowed three goals on just six shots against St. Louis two seasons ago. Thief River Falls native Zane McIntyre was also recalled to serve as Subban's backup. David Backes, of Spring Lake Park, will also miss the game with a "minor issue."

Connections

• Wild forward Charlie Coyle is a native of East Weymouth, Massachusetts, and played college hockey at Boston University.
• Wild defenseman Christian Folin played two seasons at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.
• In addition to hailing from Thief River Falls, McIntyre played three seasons at the University of North Dakota.
• Bruins forward Dominic Moore played 40 games for the Wild from 2006-08.

At the Rink

Things have gone swimmingly for the Wild on home ice, as it stands 3-0-0 at Xcel Energy Center so far. But Minnesota has found it more difficult to win on the road: the Wild is still in search of its first victory away from home.
Minnesota started the road trip out by picking up a point in New Jersey in a 2-1 overtime loss, but it was overmatched by the New York Islanders the following night and now stands 0-2-1 on the road. The Wild have two more games remaining on its current trip, which concludes Thursday in Buffalo.
But the Wild don't simply want to settle for trying to salvage a trip; a win tonight affords it the opportunity to go for a winning road swing on Thursday. It also breeds confidence that the Wild can play its game away from its own rink.

"We'd love to get one," said Wild forward Zach Parise. "Coming off the last game, not really having a great third period, that's two games in a row it felt like the game was there for us to win and we just didn't end up doing it. We'd love to get out of here with a win and give ourselves a chance to finish this trip .500."
Minnesota will go with the same lineup it dressed for Sunday's contest in Brooklyn, with forward Erik Haula and defenseman Jared Spurgeon sitting out.
The Wild got good news on the Spurgeon front on Tuesday as he took part in the morning skate. He won't play against the Bruins, but if he continues to progress from his upper-body injury, there's a chance Spurgeon makes his return against the Sabres on Thursday.
Haula could begin skating tomorrow as he continues to rehab a lower-body injury. He remains day-to-day.
Here are the projected lineups:
WILD
Zach Parise - Mikko Koivu - Mikael Granlund
Nino Niederreiter - Eric Staal - Charlie Coyle
Teemu Pulkkinen - Joel Eriksson Ek - Jason Pominville
Jason Zucker - Zac Dalpe - Chris Stewart
Ryan Suter - Matt Dumba
Jonas Brodin - Christian Folin
Marco Scandella - Nate Prosser
Devan Dubnyk
Darcy Kuemper
BRUINS
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - David Pastrnak
Matt Beleskey - David Krejci - Danton Heinen
Dominic Moore - Ryan Spooner - Jimmy Hayes
Tim Schaller - Riley Nash - Noel Acciari
Zdeno Chara - Brandon Carlo
Torey Krug - Adam McQuaid
John-Michael Liles - Colin Miller
Malcolm Subban
Zane McIntyre