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Tuesday, 18 October 2011 10:00

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

A preview of the Wild.

When and where: 7:30 p.m., EDT; Xcel Energy Center.

TV: Root Sports, Versus (Outside Pittsburgh), TSN2.

Record: 2-1-2, 6 points. The Wild is in fifth place in the Western Conference and second place in the Northwest Division.

Leading Scorer: Guillaume Latendresse (right), 4 points (4 assists).

Last Game: 3-2 overtime home loss to the Red Wings, Saturday. Josh Harding made 38 saves for the Wild.

Last Game against the Penguins: 4-0 road win, Jan. 8. Marc-Andre Fleury made 33 saves.

Wild Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: Dany Heatley. He has 31 points in 27 career games against the Penguins.

Ex-Penguins on the Wild: Cliff Fletcher, general manager; Nick Johnson, RW; Darryl Sydor, assistant coach; Mike Yeo, head coach.

Ex-Wild on the Penguins: Pascal Dupuis, RW; Zbynek Michalek, D; Richard Park, RW.

Useless Wild Trivia Vaguely Related to the Penguins: Park is one of two one-time Penguins who has worn No. 18 for the Wild. The other was Adam Hall.

Best Wild Video We Could Find: Park's overtime goal against the Avalanche in Game 6 of the 2003 Western Conference semifinals:

Probable goaltenders: Brent Johnson (0-0-2, 1.88 GAA, .926 SV%) for the Penguins and Niklas Backstrom (2-1-1, 1.93 GAA, .928 SV%) for the Wild.

Injuries: For the Penguins, center Tyler Kennedy (concussion) is doubtful. Center Evgeni Malkin (lower-body) and defenseman Brook Orpik (abdominal) are out. Defenseman Roberto Bortuzzo (knee), Boris Valabik (knee), center Sidney Crosby (concussion), left winger Dustin Jeffrey (knee) and right winger Nick Petersen (concussion) are on injured reserve. For the Wild, center Cody Almond (back) and defenseman Mike Lundin (back) is on injured reserve.

Potential lines and defensive pairings: The Penguins' primary lines and defensive pairings against the Jets last night were:

Steve Sullivan - Richard Park - James Neal
Chris Kunitz - Jordan Staal - Pascal Dupuis
Matt Cooke - Mark Letestu - Arron Asham
Steve MacIntyre - Joe Vitale - Craig Adams

Paul Martin - Zbynek Michalek
Kris Letang - Deryk Engelland
Matt Niskanen - Ben Lovejoy

The Wild's primary lines and defensive pairings against the Red Wings Saturday were:

Devin Setoguchi - Mikko Koivu - Dany Heatley
Pierre-Marc Bouchard - Matt Cullen - Guillaume Latendresse
Darroll Powe - Kyle Brodziak - Cal Clutterbuck
Brett Bulmer - Colton Gillies - Brad Staubitz

Greg Zanon - Marek Zidlicky
Nick Schultz - Marco Scandella
Clayton Stoner - Jared Spurgeon

Notes:

-Kris Letang has a disciplinary hearing.

-"Pittsburgh definitely has a winning culture there, and that's what we want to build here. We don't want to build Pittsburgh's winning culture here, we want to build the Minnesota Wild's winning culture here. And we have our own way of doing it. We have our own players. And we have great players. So it's up to us to find our own way of doing it.'' - Yeo.

-Niskanen gets to play in his home state tonight.

-Staal has 97 career goals.

-Park has 96 career goals.

-Cooke has 95 career points with the Penguins.

-The Wild has a 9-2-1 record against the Penguins all-time.

-Our live blog, direct from our couch, begins at approximately 7:30 p.m. Please tune in.

(Photo: Dale MacMillan/Getty Images)

Comments (1)

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written by kpa42, October 18, 2011 - 10:57 AM

*t is seriously pathetic that Letang is having a hearing for that hit. That wasn't even a good boarding call, let alone a hit worthy of supplemental discipline review. From what I saw, the guy turned and ducked into the hit and then proceeded to sell it.

Really ridiculous.

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