Wild Warmup: Minnesota vs. Colorado

The Essentials

At the rink

After playing in Nashville on Saturday, the Minnesota Wild did not have a morning skate prior to the game.
Goaltender Devan Dubnyk is expected to get back into the crease on Sunday against the Colorado Avalanche after getting each of the past two games off. Wild coach Bruce Boudreau wanted Dubnyk -- who has played in 62 games this season, including 60 starts -- to get some rest down the stretch. The hope is that the rest and additional practice reps will help get Dubnyk back on track: He has allowed at least three goals in five of his past eight starts dating back to March 14.
"I thought three practices would be good for him, and three skates," Boudreau said.
Despite recent struggles, Dubnyk sits near the top of the NHL rankings in almost every goaltending category this season. Having Dubnyk rested and locked in will be one of the major objectives over the final week if the regular season.
Wild forward Jason Zucker is questionable to play with a lower-body injury that prevented him from suiting up against the Predators.
"He was sore. Could have played. I didn't see the point at this stage where he could do something more damaging and give him that extra day," Boudreau said after the game in Nashville. "I don't even know if he's going to be ready [Sunday]. But I just didn't see the point."
Here are the projected lineups:
WILD
Chris Stewart - Eric Staal - Zach Parise
Joel Eriksson Ek - Mikko Koivu - Mikael Granlund
Nino Niederreiter - Martin Hanzal - Jason Pominville
Charlie Coyle - Erik Haula - Ryan White
Ryan Suter - Jared Spurgeon
Marco Scandella - Matt Dumba
Jonas Brodin - Christian Folin
Devan Dubnyk
Alex Stalock
AVALANCHE
Gabriel Landeskog - Matt Duchene - Tyson Jost
Sven Andrighetto - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen
Blake Comeau - Carl Soderberg - Rene Bourque
Mikhai Grigorenko - J.T. Compher - Matthew Nieto
Erik Johnson - Mark Barberio
Fedor Tyutin - Tyson Barrie
Anton Lindholm - Francois Beauchemin
Calvin Pickard
Jeremy Smith

The opponent

Coming off one of its best wins of what has been a tough season in Denver, the Colorado Avalanche will try to capture the season series against the Wild on Sunday. The Avalanche has won two of the three meetings so far this season, but the Central Division rivals haven't met since Dec. 20. The game on Sunday will mark the first of two meetings over the final week of the regular season. Nathan MacKinnon is the only Avs player with at least 50 points this season; his 16 goals are third-most on the club. Matt Duchene and Mikko Rantanen are tied for the team lead with 17 goals each.

Connections

• Wild forward Chris Stewart was a first-round pick of the Avalanche in the 2006 NHL Draft and played in 166 games with the franchise from 2008-11.
• Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson is from Bloomington, skated at the Academy of Holy Angels and played one season at the University of Minnesota.
• Wild assistant coach Darby Hendrickson played in 20 games for the Avalanche during the 2003-04 season.
• Wild assistant coach Andrew Brunette scored 70 goals and had 205 points in 246 games over three seasons in Colorado from 2005-08.

Colorado bulldogs

Minnesota is 9-3-1, including six shutout wins, in its last 13 games against the Avalanche since the beginning of 2014-15. In that span, the Wild has outscored Colorado by a margin of 37-17 and outshot the Avs, 444-331. The Wild's 103 points against Colorado all-time is its second-most against any franchise.