Wild Warmup: Minnesota vs. Vancouver

The essentials

The Wild Warmup is presented by Bryant Heating and Cooling
ST. PAUL -- The Wild will try and keep its latest winning streak alive when an old friend comes to Xcel Energy Center on Thursday night, as the Bruce Boudreau-led Vancouver Canucks come to town.
Minnesota has won three-straight games and is 3-1-0 on its current nine-game homestand, a stretch of games that will reach its halfway point Thursday.
Monday night's win over the Vegas Golden Knights was perhaps the most impressive of the stretch, as the Wild won 3-0 and was as stout defensively as any point over the past several weeks.
Backstopped by goaltender Cam Talbot's 28 saves, who earned his second start of the season, forward Nicolas Deslauriers scored the game-winning goal in his Wild debut, two days after arriving in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks.
On Thursday, Minnesota will see another debut, as defenseman Jake Middleton, acquired on Monday from the San Jose Sharks, is expected to dress. Middleton practiced with the Wild on Wednesday and was paired with captain Jared Spurgeon on the team's top pairing.

"It's a nice pat on the back [to be on the top pairing]," Middleton said. "But I still have a whole new staff that I have to impress. Management and scouts were probably the only ones got to see me in my time with San Jose. They don't know me yet and I still need to make a good first impression on those guys."
Middleton has just three goals and nine points on the season, despite playing in the Sharks' top four for much of the year. But much of what Middleton brings to the table doesn't revolve around stats found in the boxscore.
"A physical presence ... someone that makes it difficult to get to the net," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "I'm not just talking hitting or fighting, but I'm talking about making it difficult for teams to get to the front of the net.
"All coaches talk about is, 'get in front of the goalie, screen the goalie,' and we all talk about goalies are too good [to see pucks]. It's a race for our group, and I'm sure a lot of groups, to get to the front of the net and screen and tip and create disruptions there. It's gonna be difficult with a big, strong man that's going to be physically engaged to get there.
"Hopefully it deters some people that want to get to the front of our net."

Middleton is a plus-3, is an accomplished penalty killer and has dropped the mitts nine times this season, according to the website hockeyfights.com, which is among the league leaders.
"You'll see a lot more of that than you will scoring goals," Middleton said. "That's what I bring, a kind of physical element, blocking shots, boxing guys out. I'm a pretty simple guy, it's what got my pro career started and it's what has kept me around. So if I can do those things night in and night out, take a load off some of the other more skilled guys, that's what I hope to bring to the table."
Minnesota also acquired goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury from the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday, but his debut may have to wait another game; Evason indicated that it would be Talbot that would earn his fourth consecutive start between the posts.
He's allowed just three goals total over his past three starts and has won his past six starts overall, which ties his season-long streak. Talbot's 25 wins rank in the upper half of the league.

The Canucks snapped a three-game losing streak in impressive fashion on Wednesday night in Colorado, winning 3-1 over the Avalanche at Ball Arena.
Vancouver had lost five of its previous six entering the game, the toughest stretch the team has gone through since replacing Travis Green with Boudreau on Dec. 5.
Boudreau has a 23-11-6 mark since taking over behind the bench with Vancouver, moving the Canucks back into playoff contention after the team started 8-15-2 and was in 15th place in the 16-team Western Conference.
The Canucks will begin the day Thursday in fifth place in the Pacific, five points behind third-place Edmonton for the third and final playoff spot in that division, and eight points behind the Nashville Predators for the second wild card position in the West.
The victory over the Avs snapped Colorado's four-game winning streak, dealing them just their fourth regulation loss in Denver this season.
Perhaps most impressively, they did it with their backup goaltender between the posts, as Jaroslav Halak made 32 saves.
Burnsville native Brock Boeser broke a scoreless tie 83 seconds into the third period, and J.T. Miller made it 2-0 less than two minutes later. Nazem Kadri cut the lead in half at the 6:15 mark and the game would remain at 2-1 until the dying moments of regulation, when Bo Horvat scored into an empty net with 18 seconds remaining to provide the final margin.
With Halak earning the win, it is expected that Thatcher Demko will get the start against Minnesota. Demko has played in 52 games, including 50 starts, posting a 27-19-4 record to go with a 2.68 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage.
Offensively, the Canucks are led by Miller's 26 goals and 51 assists for 77 points. Defenseman Quinn Hughes is among the top young blueliners in the game with 46 assists accounting for 51 points.
Horvat has 24 goals and Boeser is one goal away from reaching 20 for the fourth time in his career.