Wild at Blue Jackets
The Minnesota Wild made their big move a few days before the trade deadline and their focus now is on getting healthy as the Western Conference leaders prepare to host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night. Center Martin Hanzal was acquired from Arizona on Sunday and produced two points in two games for Minnesota, which is short-handed with veteran forwards Jason Pominville and Zach Parise recovering from the mumps.
The Wild, who are 8-2-1 in their last 11 games after Tuesday’s 6-5 victory at Winnipeg, hope they can have All-Star defenseman Ryan Suter in the lineup after he left the last contest with an upper-body injury. Columbus is 4-1-1 in its last six games and made two deals adding depth Wednesday, acquiring veteran defenseman Kyle Quincey from New Jersey and forward Lauri Korpikoski from Dallas. The Blue Jackets are coming off a 1-0 overtime loss at Montreal on Tuesday and need their power play to perk up after going 2-for-28 over the last 15 contests. Cam Atkinson leads Columbus with 29 goals and needs one to become the seventh player in franchise history to score 30 in a season.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FSN Wisconsin, FSN North (Minnesota), FSN Ohio (Columbus)
ABOUT THE WILD (41-14-6): Mikael Granlund is having a breakout season, leading the team with 21 goals and 59 points – 28 of them coming in the last 22 contests and nine in the past five outings. Granlund boasts at least one goal in four straight games (five overall) while captain Mikko Koivu is second on the team with 48 points and has been red hot as well with a goal and seven assists in the past five contests. Power forward Charlie Coyle needs to pick it up after going six games without a point and is one assist shy of 100 for his career.
ABOUT THE BLUE JACKETS (39-16-6): Center Alexander Wennberg owns a pair of goals and six assists in the last six contests to pull within one point of Atkinson (53) for the team lead. Rookie Zach Werenski boasts six points in his last six games and fellow defenseman Seth Jones is having his best season with 10 goals, 24 assists and a plus-12 rating. Korpikoski gives the Blue Jackets another experienced forward with Lukas Sedlak out and William Karlsson (illness) questionable while the 31-year old Quincey logged 54 playoff games.
OVERTIME
1. The Blue Jackets can reach 40 wins for the fourth time in club history and should top the franchise record of 43 in 2013-14.
2. Suter led the NHL with a plus-35 entering Wednesday with fellow Wild players D Jared Spurgeon (plus-34) second and F Jason Zucker (plus-32) tied for third.
3. Columbus G Sergei Bobrovsky is 6-2-0 with a .937 save percentage in eight career games against the Wild, including the 4-2 win Dec. 31.