The regular season finale in Nashville has no meaning for either team after Tuesday's loss eliminated the Predators and locked the Wild into third place place in the Central Division.

That does not mean the game will be an afterthought for either team. Yes the Wild are going to rest top players, but Dean Evason wants his players engaged and playing the right way heading into the playoffs. Nashville has been playing g great hockey even after sending some of their veterans elsewhere at the trade deadline e including two former Wild forwards, Mikael Granlund (Penguins) and Nino Niederreiter (Jets). They also been playing without their top scorer, Filip Forsberg. Roman Josi and Ryan Johansson are also out, but Nashville stayed in thr playoff hunt intothe final week of the season says all one needs to know about the compete level and Jussi Saros in net.

Ryan Hartman was suspended for 1 game for his hit on Nikolaj Ehlers. The Wild injury list is long with Kaprizov, Zuccarello, Boldy, Spurgeon, Brodin, Steel, Johansson, joining Eriksson Ek and Sundqvist. That means a ton of ice time for Marco Rossi, Nic Petan and Sammy Walker who was recalled from Iowa.

Nick Swaney was also recalled and will make his NHL debut tonight. Swaney be ones the second of the Wild's 2017 draft class (7th round) to suit up for the Wild, joing Mason Shaw (4th round). You will recall that was the draft where former Wild GM, Chuck Fletcher, had dealt the first and second round picks and did not make their first pick until the end of round 3.

Swaney hails from Lakeville and played for UMD before turning pro with the Iowa Wild. Great to see Nick get a look with the big club for a guy who has paid his dues.

It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!

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