Wild:53-22-7, 113 points
Blues:49-22-11, 109 points
Season series: MIN 0-1-2; STL 3-0-0
Game 1:Monday (9:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN360, TVAS, BSN, BSMW)
There is precious little separating the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues in their best-of-7 Western Conference First Round series.
Though the Wild earned home ice and pulled four points ahead of the Blues on the final day of the regular season, the similarities between them are stunning.
They played three times in the regular season, two going past regulation. The other, a 6-4 Blues victory in the 2022 Discover NHL Winter Classic, was played outside in bitter temperatures at Target Field.
"It's exciting. Every battle we've had against them has been extremely intense and physical," St. Louis forward Ryan O'Reilly said. "It's going to be a great series. Starting on the road, I don't think it changes that. It is what it is. We've got to be ready to go."
The Blues have yet to play this season at Xcel Energy Center, where the Wild are 31-8-2. Minnesota believes that can be an advantage in a series that presents very few clear-cut margins.
"I mean, our record speaks for] itself here," Wild goalie Cam Talbot said. "We're a different team when we are in front of our fans and get our matchups and we've got a couple of good lines that can shut teams down and we've got two extremely good lines that can score goals.
"So when we get our matchups and stuff like that, we're a little bit more dangerous and playing in front of our fans and the momentum shifts and stuff like that, we can feed off of that in a series like that. That means a lot for our group."
[RELATED: [Complete Wild vs. Blues series coverage]
St. Louis and Minnesota combined to score 28 goals in the season series. The Blues have nine players who scored at least 20 goals, led by Vladimir Tarasenko' s 34 and a team-high 82 points. Pavel Buchnevich scored 30 goals. Robert Thomas has a team-best 57 assists.
"I think this team is the best I've seen at putting the puck in the net," said O'Reilly, who scored 58 points (21 goals, 37 assists). "We get momentum offensively it's quite dangerous and playoffs is obviously going to be a lot tighter, tougher checking, but I'm excited. I like our group and excited for this challenge against 'Minny,' who's playing unbelievable hockey. It's going to be a war."
For Minnesota, it is the top line that is the engine.
Kirill Kaprizov scored a Wild record 108 points (47 goals, 61 assists). Mats Zuccarello scored 79 points (24 goals, 55 assists) in 70 games and center Ryan Hartman had 65 (34 goals, 31 assists). That's 105 of the 305 goals Minnesota scored this season.
"I know in the playoffs, every game, every shift is kind of all out, so I think we're going to be ready," said Kaprizov, who had three points (two goals, one assist) in a seven-game loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2021 Stanley Cup First Round. "I know we're going to be ready as a team to go out there and to play really physical, really good hockey every single shift, every single game.
"To be honest, it's not about the fancy plays and all the really interesting things we do on the ice. It's all about the little plays, the battles in the corner, the small things we do. If we can continue to do those things right and continue to win our battles and win our shifts and ultimately help the team win, that's what we need to continue to focus on."
