> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Leafs vs. Wild Preview: Playing Minnesota
- URL: https://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/leafs-vs-wild-preview-playing-minnesota-lines-channels-start-time/
- Published: 2018-12-01T17:00:03.000Z
- Updated: 2018-12-01T17:00:03.000Z
- Description: I don’t have any answers about Nylander, stop asking me.
- Author: Acting the Fulemin
- Tags: Game Coverage, #chorus, #Import 2023-04-05 11:27

### Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Minnesota Wild: Game #27

### Time: 7:00 PM

### Location: Xcel Energy Center

### Broadcast/Streaming: CBC/SN1

### Opponent SBNation Site: Hockey Wilderness

The Leafs journey to Minnesota tonight to take on the most forgettable team in hockey. I don’t know, at time of writing, whether William Nylander will sign with us or will spend the year in a hermitage practicing the blade, and so I have no further comment other than to note he won’t be playing tonight either way.

Let’s jam.

### Maple Leafs

#### Forward Lines

Patrick Marleau - Auston Matthews — Kasperi Kapanen  
Zach Hyman - John Tavares - Mitch Marner  
Andreas Johnsson - Nazem Kadri - Connor Brown  
Josh Leivo - Par Lindholm - Tyler Ennis

**Defence Pairings**

Morgan Rielly - Ron Hainsey  
Jake Gardiner - Nikita Zaitsev  
Travis Dermott - Igor Ozhiganov

#### Goaltenders

Frederik Andersen  
Garret Sparks

### Minnesota Wild

#### Forward Lines

Zach Parise - Mikko Koivu - Nino Niederreiter  
Jason Zucker - Eric Staal - Mikael Granlund  
Jordan Greenway - Joel Eriksson Ek - Charlie Coyle  
Marcus Foligno - Eric Fehr - J.T. Brown

#### Defence Pairings

Ryan Suter - Jared Spurgeon  
Jonas Brodin - Matt Dumba  
Nick Seeler - Greg Pateryn

#### Goaltenders

Devan Dubnyk

Alex Stalock

---

I honestly struggle to remember facts about the Minnesota Wild more than virtually any other team in the league, other than that I want to lift Nino Niederreiter and Jared Spurgeon off them. This is not to say they’re bad; they’re probably going to make the playoffs again, and they’re consistently the rare team that genuinely does beat Corsi by sustaining a shot quality advantage. Almost every other team you hear that about is full of it, but Minnesota actually pulls it off.

In particular, Minny is a dandy defensive team; they have the best expected goals against rate in the NHL, by really cutting down on chances against. This’ll be an interesting showdown with the Leafs, who are a team that gets a lot of chances and (especially Matthews) converts on them at a high rate. Minny also has a couple of game breakers on offence, including Zach Parise and Eric Staal, who are a very spry pair of 34-year-olds. There’s definitely talent here. Enough to win out of the Central Division? Hey, you never know.

The curse of Minny has always been good but not great, and once again, that’s how they look. The Leafs clearly want to be great. So pull your socks up.