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NHL on NBCSN: Bruins vs. Wild on Rivalry Night

Mikael Granlund, Patrice Bergeron

Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron (37) and Minnesota Wild center Mikael Granlund (64), of Finland, battle for the puck in the first period of an NHL hockey game in Boston, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

AP

NBCSN will continue its coverage of the 2014-15 campaign when the Minnesota Wild host the Boston Bruins at the Xcel Energy Center at 8:00 p.m. ET tonight. In addition to NBCSN, you can also watch the game and pre-show online.

Two American hockey hotbeds will be represented on Wednesday as the Minnesota Wild face the Boston Bruins in the latest edition of NBCSN’s “Rivalry Night.”

The last time these two teams met, the Wild nabbed a 4-3 road victory against the Bruins on Oct. 28, despite Seth Griffith’s three-point night.

Boston has been stumbling quite a bit lately, as the Bruins are losers of three straight while Zdeno Chara continues to shake off the rust from a lengthy injury absences.

Neither team should be expected to have a major rest advantage, as they both suffered shootout defeats last night. That said, the Wild are getting hit hard with the mumps (or, er, “illnesses) and could very well be forced to go far down their depth chart with both Darcy Kuemper and Niklas Backstrom showing signs of sickness.

Editor’s Note: Pro Hockey Talk’s partner FanDuel is hosting a one-day $18,000 Fantasy Hockey league for Wednesday’s NHL games. It’s just $2 to join and first prize is $2,000. Starts Wednesday at 7pm ET. Here’s the FanDuel link.

It’s a long NHL season, and one could say that both teams are limping into tonight’s proceedings to some degree. Injuries and/or sicknesses have made things hard for each squad. Both the Wild and Bruins are ranked 10th in their respective conferences despite coming into the 2014-15 season with high expectations.

In other words, there’s plenty of incentive for these teams to start sorting things out, even if things haven’t been trending upward. As many would point out, you can learn a lot from a team when its back is against the wall, though.

Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedins