Players to target: Zach Parise, Eric Staal, Charlie Coyle and Ryan Suter
The Minnesota Wild are coming off a disappointing 4-2 home loss against the Nashville Predators, but they get a matchup against a struggling Dallas Stars team, which has lost four out of their last five games. Minnesota's depth should give them the advantage, and their 11th-ranked power play should be a problem for Dallas and their 29th-ranked penalty kill.
The Stars have put their lines in a blender, separating Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin. Cody Eakin will center Patrick Eaves and Benn on the top line -- a line that, while having a solid Corsi For Percentage, is giving up 56.8 Corsi Against per 60 minutes. In the Stars last game, they faced a the opposing top line more than 80% of the time.
The top line of Nino Niederreiter, Staal, and Coyle is putting up 64.1 Corsi For per 60 minutes. While Parise will not play alongside Staal and Coyle in even-strength situations, he and Ryan Suter will join them on the first power-play unit, making this stack a full Wild onslaught.
When these teams played 10 days ago, the Wild won a 5-4 game that included 69 shots on goal. If you need another reason to put the Wild in your lineups, here is an interesting stat: games refereed by Frederick L'Ecuyer and Brian Pochmara (tonight's officials) include the most and second-most goals at 6.2 and 5.9 tallies per game.