NBCSN’s coverage of the 2019-20 NHL season continues with Sunday’s matchup between the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild. Coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN. You can watch the game online and on the NBC Sports app by clicking here.
The Blues enter Sunday’s matchup off a dominant 5-1 win over the division rival Stars Friday night. With the top spot in the conference on the line, St. Louis opened their lead to 4-0 early in the second, chasing Ben Bishop on their way to a third straight win – during their current win streak, St. Louis has outscored opponents 9-1.
The Blues have appeared to find their form following a season-worst 5-game losing streak that capped a 2-7-3 run from mid-January to mid-February. Friday’s win also opened a small gap between the Blues and their Central Division rivals (Dallas and Colorado). With the win over the Stars, St. Louis ensured they’ll be on top of the Western Conference at least heading into Sunday night’s matchup.
From Jan. 15 to Feb. 16, the Blues were 2-7-3 (seven points), arguably their worst stretch under Craig Berube. During that same period, St. Louis allowed 3.92 goals/game, the worst mark in the NHL.
The Wild are just over a week removed from firing head coach Bruce Boudreau and promoting his assistant Dean Evason to the interim head coach position, his first head coaching stint of any kind in the NHL. After losing their first game under Evason, Minnesota has now won two straight and are 2-1-0 under their interim coach.
Evason is in his second season on the Wild bench after spending the previous six seasons (2012-18) as head coach of the Milwaukee Admirals, the Predators’ AHL affiliate. Prior to that, he had spent seven seasons (2005-12) as a Capitals assistant. He played 13 seasons in the NHL from 1983-1996. A hard-nosed player who racked up 1,002 penalty minutes in his career, Evason has not overhauled the system, but has brought an accountability to Minnesota as the team looks to make a Blues-like run up the standings and avoid missing the playoffs for a 2nd straight season.
Minnesota will also come into Sunday night’s game off a big win, defeating the Oilers 5-3 in Edmonton on Friday night. That win finished off a two-game Western Canada swing, during which the Wild beat Vancouver and Edmonton.
[COVERAGE BEGINS AT 6:30 P.M. ET ON NBCSN]
WHAT: St. Louis Blues at Minnesota Wild WHERE: Xcel Energy Center WHEN: Sunday, Feb. 23, 6:30 p.m. ET TV: NBCSN LIVE STREAM: You can watch the Blues-Wild stream on NBC Sports’ live stream page and the NBC Sports app.
PROJECTED LINEUPS
BLUES Jaden Schwartz - Ryan O’Reilly - Brayden Schenn Zach Sanford - Robert Thomas - David Perron Alex Steen - Oskar Sundqvist - Jordan Kyrou Sammy Blais - Ivan Barbashev - Mackenzie MacEachern
Carl Gunnarsson - Justin Faulk Marco Scandella - Colton Parayko Vince Dunn - Robert Bortuzzo
Starting goalie: Jordan Binnington
WILD Zach Parise - Eric Staal - Kevin Fiala Alex Galchenyuk - Luke Kunin - Mats Zuccarello Marcus Foligno - Joel Eriksson Ek - Jordan Greenway Victor Rask - Mikko Koivu - Ryan Hartman
Ryan Suter - Jared Spurgeon Jonas Brodin - Mathew Dumba Carson Soucy - Greg Pateryn
Starting goalie: Devan Dubnyk
Chris Cuthbert will call the action from Xcel Energy Center alongside analyst Pierre McGuire. Sunday’s studio coverage on NBCSN will be hosted by Liam McHugh with analysts Keith Jones and Mike Milbury.
