Preview: Minnesota Wild @ Nashville Predators

The Minnesota Wild (46-25-10) is set to play the Nashville Predators (41-31-8) on Thursday night at Bridgestone Arena.
The puck drops at 7 p.m. CT and the game will be broadcast on BSN, BSWIX, BSSO and KFAN 100.3 FM.

Snapshots

In many ways the outcome of this final game of the 2022-23 regular season for both these clubs is less about the outcome and more about what lies ahead.
Earlier in the week, this looked like it would have the makings of a critical matchup with Minnesota still challenging for first place and/or home ice advantage in the first round in the Central Division and Nashville clinging to hopes of a Western Conference wild card spot.
That all changed with Minnesota's 3-1 loss to Winnipeg at Xcel Energy Center Tuesday night.
The Wild's loss coupled with gains by Colorado and Dallas will see the Wild finish third in the Central Division and travel to either Dallas or Colorado to start the first round of the playoffs next week with Game 1 either Monday or Tuesday.
Winnipeg's win over the Wild also eliminated the Predators from playoff contention.
Now, Game 82 for the Wild is about resting weary bodies (and in the case of Ryan Hartman, suspended bodies as he was suspended for one game for a hit on Nikolaj Ehlers Tuesday) and hoping to get healthy in the coming four or five days before the start of the playoffs. The reality of the situation has seen the team call up a number of young players from Iowa to bolster the roster for this season finale.
The Predators, relying on a new wave of young players since the trade deadline, will once again be using this game as a proving ground for next season and beyond.
"This team that we're playing tonight has a lot of young players, too, that have played here and had success as of late. We expect our guys, they're up because they're ready to come up," head coach Dean Evason said of what will be a patchwork lineup to close out the regular season.
"Yeah we expect them, not only them, we expect everybody to have energy, work hard and obviously our goal here tonight is two points," Evason added.

The Wild

With the Wild's position in the standings set, Evason is taking a cautious approach to the Wild lineup against Nashville. Key personnel including Kirill Kaprizov, Mats Zuccarello, Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin all stayed back in Minnesota for the regular season finale. Marcus Johansson, injured in the Jets game but expected to be fine for Game 1 of the playoffs, also remained in Minnesota as did Sam Steel who is recovering from illness. Matt Boldy traveled to Nashville but will not play Thursday night. Evason said Johansson, the victim of a crosscheck late in the Winnipeg game, was "sore as hell. But fortunately nothing's broken." Many of the players who were held back were set to skate in St. Paul Thursday although Steel has lost so much weight he was being held off the ice for at least another day.

The Predators

Big changes are afoot in Nashville as legendary GM David Poile is stepping aside and long-time Nashville head coach Barry Trotz will be taking over as GM. Trotz, who won a Stanley Cup coaching in Washington in 2018, has had his finger on the pulse of this team for much of the season and played a role in the team's dispersal of veteran players at the deadline. He has to like what he's seen of a group of talented youngsters who kept the Preds' playoff hopes alive until the final days of the regular season in spite of the trades and injuries to veteran players. If you count the qualifying round of the COVID-19 truncated 2020 playoffs this marks the first time Nashville will not be involved in the playoffs since 2014.

Head To Head

The two teams have split the season series each winning a one-goal game. The Wild won the most recent meeting between the two teams on Feb. 19 by a 4-3 count. Nashville won the first meeting 2-1 back in November.

Players To Watch

Minnesota Wild

Two Minnesota Wild prospects will realize life-long dreams of playing in the NHL Thursday night. Nick Swaney, the 209th pick in the 2017 draft and a former University of Minnesota-Duluth standout, will make his NHL debut against the Predators as will Damien Giroux, 23.
Swaney, 25, has 28 points in 46 games for Iowa. Swaney's parents, Matt and Amy, will be on hand for the big moment traveling from their home in the Minneapolis area. "She was going crazy on the phone. It was awesome," Swaney said of his mom. Sister Kaitlyn and fiancé Emily will also be in attendance. "This is what I played for my whole life," Swaney said. "Just going to soak it all in and just treat it like another hockey game."
Giroux, the 155th pick in the 2018 draft, has 21 points in 65 games in the AHL. Giroux's parents, Claudette and Daniel, got the call that their son was going to play in Nashville after Iowa's game Wednesday night and when they couldn't get a flight from their home in Sudbury, Ontario in time for the game, hit the road for what will be a 16-hour trek to Nashville. "They're biting the bullet and they're driving down from Sudbury, Ontario," Giroux said. "Super thankful to have a family that (you) can lean on like that and that are so supportive." The Girouxs were also making a stop in Flint, Michigan to pick up Giroux's younger brother Zachary who plays in the Ontario Hockey League for Flint.
Evason called Giroux a "fantastic worker. Fantastic worker. And what a great opportunity to have him come up and play. He just competes his butt off down there. Does everything."
Sammy Walker was also called up from Iowa.
Gustav Nyquist will get back in action after sitting out Tuesday's loss to Winnipeg. The veteran winger has three points in the two games in which he has appeared since returning from injury that kept him out the Wild lineup after his acquisition from Columbus at the trade deadline.

Nashville Predators

St. Paul native Tommy Novak has been a revelation for the Predators after being recalled from the team's American Hockey League affiliate in Milwaukee. The 25-year-old University of Minnesota product has emerged as the team's top center and has 17 goals and 41 points in 47 games with the Predators. Among his tallies are three game-winning goals. He also scored the game-winner in a shootout against Calgary earlier this week to keep the Preds' playoff hopes alive.