(20-29  -3.66 units)

Minnesota Wild moneyline -110  2*

The Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche will face off in what will be just Minnesota’s eighth game at home this season, and both teams have stories of their own coming into this one.

Colorado will be looking to complete their road trip with four wins out of a possible five, despite key absences in the lineup including 2/3 of the top line trio on Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog. While Nate MacKinnon, Andre Burakovsky, and Cale Makar have formed a bit of a scoring trio of their own in the past few games, it is simply going to be all they have to offer as threats unless other players have an extraordinarily good outing. It would not be surprising to see the Avalanche be a little tanked after ten days of road activity through three different time zones.

The general consensus is currently in slight favor of Colorado, and this is not surprising as Minnesota continue to be a team with an overall losing record, and the Avalanche have proven that they can beat respectable teams even with the injuries that they have.

The Wild have had a zig zag pattern of wins and losses over the past eight games, and will be looking to break that tonight at home. Keeping in mind that the Xcel Energy Center has been one of the most hostile environments for visitors since pretty much the establishment of the Wild franchise, Minny always has a good shot to win at home under almost any circumstances.

Today however, the Wild look a heck of a lot better than they did at the start of the season, as the veterans (Zach Parise, specifically) are starting to find ways to win. Minnesota has also shown significant improvement on defense with a 2.60 GAA in the past five games, and should look to improve on powerplay contributions as well.

All in all, I just feel as though Colorado may be a bit worn down to battle the energy of a determined Wild team at home. With movements towards the Wild here, it is fair to assume that many sharp bettors also like what they see with this Wild team and what they made of their opportunities in Buffalo. I expect a complete game played by Minnesota here, as Colorado’s luck may run out in catching teams in their slumps.