Jets-Wild Preview
The Minnesota Wild survived an eight-game stretch without star winger Zach Parise and are hoping it won't reach nine. Parise may return Friday when the Wild look to hand the Winnipeg Jets a seventh straight road loss. Minnesota (11-6-3) has gone 4-3-1 since losing Parise on Nov. 5 to a knee injury. Parise, who had seven goals at the time of the injury and led the club with 33 a season ago, has been skating since Nov. 16 even though he was originally supposed to miss at least four weeks. "I don't know yet, we'll see how it responds," Parise told the league's official website. "But I felt good and I felt comfortable doing everything." Coach Mike Yeo will approach this contest with two plans. "We have a plan if he plays and we have a plan if he doesn't play," he said. "We don't know which one we're going with yet." If Parise can't play, Jordan Schroeder will be in the lineup after a one-game absence due to illness. Yeo indicated that Justin Fontaine will miss his 11th straight game with a knee injury, though the forward could return Saturday against Dallas. "We think that when we're healthy, we have a pretty deep group up front with a number of guys who are capable of contributing offensively," Yeo said. The Wild won their first three games without Parise before a 1-3-1 stretch capped by Wednesday's 3-2 home defeat to Vancouver. Minnesota has the league's second-worst penalty kill at 74.0 percent after letting its last seven opponents go 7 for 22. Winnipeg (10-11-2), though, will be hard-pressed to take advantage with the fourth-worst power play at 15.3 percent, including 3 for 40 this month. The Jets may be more concerned with staying out of the penalty box, averaging a league-high 14:00 of penalty minutes while committing an NHL-high 129 infractions. Winnipeg opened a three-game trip with a 5-3 defeat to Washington Wednesday, falling to 0-5-1 in its last six road games with five straight regulation defeats. Its last longer road slide was an 0-6-2 stretch Dec. 16, 2009-Jan. 5, 2010. The Jets have conceded the first goal in every game of this road skid. "We're chasing games and for too many minutes of the game chasing that game, and when you're doing that, you're looking for offense that's hard to generate," coach Paul Maurice said. "We gotta get some guys scoring in a big chunk that aren't, right?" Bryan Little has a team-high nine goals but none in four straight games, though he has five points in this season's two meetings with the Wild as the clubs have split. Blake Wheeler has four points in those games, and the Minnesota native is tied for ninth in the league with 23 points. The Jets, conceding 3.2 goals per game for the league's second-worst mark, could give Connor Hellebuyck his NHL debut with this game beginning a back-to-back set. Hellebuyck was called up from the AHL this week following the news Ondrej Pavelec is out through December with a knee sprain. New No. 1 goalie Michael Hutchinson is 0-4-1 with a 4.72 goals-against average in five road starts this month. Devan Dubnyk is tied for third in the league with 18 starts for the Wild, who are also opening a back-to-back set. Minnesota is 5-2-2 against Central Division foes while Winnipeg is 2-6-0, including 0-4-0 on the road. |