The Minnesota Wild face the Montreal Canadiens with both teams looking to improve from rocky starts to the season. The Wild have a 1-3-1 record and are one of the surprising teams near the bottom of the Central Division while the Canadiens have a 3-3 record but are coming off a rough 5-2 loss. Both teams are looking to improve in their divisions in the first few games of the season and the upcoming game should be a good one as a result.
The Wild are off to a difficult start to the season despite their offense stepping up and scoring 3.80 goals per game. Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello have scored four goals and 10 assists to lead the top line but the rest of the offense has also looked great. Matt Boldy, Marcus Foligno, and Joel Eriksson Ek have combined for six goals and six assists while defensemen Calen Addison, Jacob Middleton, and Jared Spurgeon have added two goals and 10 assists from the point to open up the offense.
The offense has stepped up but the defense has been awful, allowing 5.40 goals per game. Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin have led the top pairing but the rest of the unit has struggled immensely, allowing opponents to generate shots on the net at will. Moreover, goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has been awful in the net with a .847 save percentage and a 5.25 goals-against average on 118 shots.