Wild Warmup: Minnesota at St. Louis

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The Wild Warmup is presented by Bryant Heating and Cooling
ST. LOUIS -- Seeking a winning road trip and a bounceback from a tough loss last time out, the Wild and St. Louis Blues will collide Friday night at Enterprise Center.
Minnesota is wrapping up a four-game sojourn, and a victory would mean a winning record on the trip. Following victories in Carolina and Washington last weekend, the Wild lost 6-2 in Nashville on Tuesday night, the first of consecutive games against Central Division rivals.
But that won't come easy against a Blues team that has caused problems for the Wild in its recent history.
St. Louis won the only meeting between the clubs this season -- a 6-4 victory in the NHL Winter Classic at Target Field on Jan. 1 -- and has been victorious in seven of the past eight and in 10 of the past 12 dating back to the start of the 2019-20 campaign.
"I mean, yeah, you want to beat Nashville, you want to beat St. Louis, you want to beat Colorado, teams like that for sure. That's how you get jumps on those guys," said Wild forward Marcus Foligno. "You gotta win against the division. That's how you win to get far in the playoffs."

If the regular season ended today, the Wild and Blues would play in the First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, with the Wild holding a slim advantage in the race for home-ice advantage in that series.
With two games in this arena over the next eight days, those two matchups could go a long ways towards settling who is hosting Game 1 come early May and who is traveling.
Minnesota may have to go about that journey -- at least for the next stretch -- without defenseman Matt Dumba, who was injured early in the second period Tuesday night in Nashville and did not return to the game.
Wild coach Dean Evason was concerned about Dumba's status in the immediate aftermath of the game, saying that it doesn't look good, but seemed to have better news following practice in St. Louis on Thursday.
"Better than we anticipated," Evason said. "He's out tomorrow, but we'll see how he does."

The Wild does have good veteran depth at the position however, with Jordie Benn and his 585-game resume perhaps ready to assume a regular role should Dumba and Jon Merrill miss more time.
Merrill has not played in the past three games because of an upper-body injury, but has progressed to the point where he joined the team in the middle of this road trip and has been on the ice for practice.
Still, Dumba will be a tough cog to replace both physically and emotionally. One of the team's alternate captains, Dumba is a leader in the dressing room and on the ice as part of the club's second defensive pairing and it's No. 2 power-play unit.
"He's a huge part of our team and of course we need him," said Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin.
"It's frustrating to lose a guy like that," Foligno said. "He's such a big piece. You can't replace a guy like [that]. It's tough, but hey, we got guys that are waiting (and) excited to play."
St. Louis enters play Friday riding a six-game point streak, rolling up a 5-0-1 record during that stretch.
"Same type of team [as Nashville], they play hard, they play gritty," Evason said. "We're gonna have to be ready [on Friday]."