Golden Knights at Wild
Born in Southern California, Jason Zucker was raised in Las Vegas and is the only Nevada-produced player in NHL history. Zucker will get a firsthand look at the expansion franchise on Thursday as his Minnesota Wild welcome the Vegas Golden Knights to the Xcel Energy Center.
Zucker, who is a former IHL Las Vegas Thunder stick boy and roller hockey star, has 10 of his team-leading 13 goals during a 12-game stretch. The 25-year-old carries a four-game point streak into Thursday's tilt for Minnesota, which has dropped four of six and has been on the receiving end of back-to-back drubbings by Central Division rivals St. Louis and Winnipeg. Vegas saw its second five-game winning streak of the season come to a halt after suffering its first shutout in franchise history on Tuesday, with Radek Faksa's hat trick accounting for the damage in a 3-0 setback to Dallas. "I thought we played a pretty strong game but we just couldn't get any grade-A scoring chances," Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, AT&TSN-Rocky Mountain (Vegas), FSN North (Minnesota)
ABOUT THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS (15-7-1): Erik Haula made himself at home in Minnesota, as the Finnish-born forward was a prep school and college star in the state before spending the past four seasons with the Wild. "The whole deal is going to be super weird," the 26-year-old Haula told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "I'm going to try to have as much fun with it as possible. I definitely had this day marked on my calendar." Haula, who joins former Wild forward Alex Tuch and defenseman Clayton Stoner in returning to Minnesota, has answered a sluggish start to the season by recording 10 points (five goals, five assists) in his last 11 games.
ABOUT THE WILD (11-10-3): Coach Bruce Boudreau didn't mind doing the math when discussing the recent generous play on defense by Minnesota, which has yielded 13 goals in its last two games and 30 over its last seven on the heels of three consecutive shutouts. "That's 4 1/2 goals a game. If you’re going to do that, you can't win in the NHL," Boudreau said. "It's almost impossible for me to think you can get three shutouts in a row and seven games later you allow 30 goals." Devan Dubnyk will look to stop the bleeding after permitting 18 goals in his last four outings, albeit with a 2-1-1 mark.
OVERTIME
1. Minnesota C Eric Staal (team-leading 13 assists, 21 points) has scored four goals and set up nine others in his last 12 contests.
2. Vegas D Brayden McNabb signed a four-year, $10 million contract, the team announced Wednesday.
3. Wild F Zach Parise skated on Wednesday for the first time since microdiscectomy surgery on Oct. 24. There is no timeline for his return to practice or games, however.