The Minnesota Wild are in Chicago to face the Blackhawks for the first time since before the pandemic. That’s a very long time.
Their last game — a 3-2 overtime win for the Wild on Feb. 4, 2020 — featured a Kevin Fiala two-goal performance and an overtime winner from Matt Dumba. Jason Zucker still played on the team, if you can believe that.
But this is a different Minnesota team that is full of more high-octane offense and is seeing some of their better players return to the lineup. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see Jared Spurgeon back on the blue line and Cam Talbot in between the pipes (potentially), but Joel Eriksson Ek is making his triumphant return after recovering from an injury late last month and then testing positive for COVID just as he was set to make his comeback.