Wild Warmup: Minnesota at Detroit

The essentials

At the rink

Because of the early start time, neither the Minnesota Wild nor the Detroit Red Wings will have a morning skate on Sunday.
Here are the projected lineups:
WILD
Charlie Coyle - Eric Staal - Zach Parise
Jason Zucker - Mikko Koivu - Mikael Granlund
Nino Niederreiter - Martin Hanzal - Jason Pominville
Chris Stewart - Erik Haula - Ryan White
Ryan Suter - Matt Dumba
Marco Scandella - Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin - Christian Folin
Devan Dubnyk
Darcy Kuemper
RED WINGS
Gustav Nyquist - Henrik Zetterberg - Tomas Tatar
Riley Sheahan - Frans Nielsen - Anthony Mantha
Andreas Athanasiou - Dylan Larkin - Justin Abdelkader
Luke Glendening - Tomas Nosek - Drew Miller
Niklas Kronwall - Mike Green
Dan DeKeyser - Nick Jensen
Xavier Ouellet - Robbie Russo
Jimmy Howard
Petr Mrazek

The opponent

Entrenched in an almost unheard-of stretch of games, the Detroit Red Wings will play five contests in seven days, including matchups on three straight days beginning with Sunday's matinee affair. After the game, Detroit will fly to Raleigh, North Carolina for back-to-back games against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday and Tuesday -- the first of which was rescheduled from Dec. 19. The Red Wings have at least one point in four of their past five games, but are in last place in the Eastern Conference and will miss the postseason for the first time in 26 years. Despite the down campaign, Henrik Zetterberg is having a quality season, having scored 16 goals and 61 points in 73 contests.

Connections

• Detroit assistant coach John Torchetti served as Minnesota's head coach for the final 27 games of last season, leading the Wild to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
• Red Wings defenseman Nick Jensen is from St. Paul and played three seasons at St. Cloud State University.
• Wild radio play-by-play announcer and Detroit native Bob Kurtz made his NHL broadcasting debut with the Red Wings in March 1977, subbing for Hall of Famer Sid Abel at the Detroit Olympia. Kurtz joined another Hall of Famer, Bruce Martyn, in the broadcast booth for a game that month and finished the season with Detroit. Kurtz has been the radio voice of the Minnesota Wild since the beginning of the franchise in 2000.

Farewell to 'The Joe'

The Wild heads to Joe Louis Arena for the 28th and final time in franchise history. Minnesota earned a 5-3 win in its first-ever game at The Joe on Dec. 27, 2000 and has posted an 8-17-2 all-time record (including one tie). Defenseman Jonas Brodin is the only Wild player to make his NHL debut in Detroit, posting an assist in a 5-3 loss Jan. 25, 2013. Wild assistant coach Scott Stevens played in 15 regular-season games at Joe Louis Arena during his Hall of Fame career, from Nov. 29, 1989 to Nov. 27, 2002, and added five total playoff games in 1991 and 1995. He and the Devils played Games 1 and 2 of the 1995 Stanley Cup Final in Detroit before sweeping the series in four games to win New Jersey's first Stanley Cup and the first of his career.
The Joe is set to be demolished after this season, and the Red Wings will move into its replacement, Little Caesars Arena, next season.