Marc-Andre Fleury injury update; Wild lineup changes
Two days after Minnesota Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury suffered an upper-body injury in a 2-1 loss to the Nashville Predators, head coach Dean Evason still doesn't have a timetable for his return.
"Obviously he's not in our lineup tonight. It's hard to say too much. It's just an upper-body injury that we hope will be shorter than longer," said Evason ahead of Thursday's game in St. Paul against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
"You just don't know. We'll continue to evaluate," he added. "He's in here today getting treatment, getting it looked after. Hopefully we'll have him sooner than later."
Evason didn't say when or how Fleury was injured in the game, nor did he get into specifics about what kind of injury his No. 1 goalie is dealing with.
"There's a lot of contact in that game. Both goalies got bumped a lot. I'm not going to get into details. We're not 100% the exact time it happened," said Evason.
Filip Gustavsson will start in goal Thursday night. His backup is Zane McIntyre, the former Thief River Falls High School star who later played at the University of North Dakota. McIntyre was called up from the Iowa Wild on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the lines are again changing for the Wild as they hope to spark an offense that has scored just eight goals in the past six games. The biggest change is putting Mason Shaw and Connor Dewar on the second line with Matt Boldy, while teaming Joel Eriksson Ek with Brandon Duhaime and Marcus Foligno on what the physical third line.
Marco Rossi is back down on the fourth line with Tyson Jost and Sam Steel.
- L1: Kirill Kaprizov — Frederick Gaudreau — Mats Zuccarello
- L2: Mason Shaw — Connor Dewar — Matt Boldy
- L3: Brandon Duhaime — Joel Eriksson Ek — Marcus Foligno
- L4: Tyson Jost — Marco Rossi — Sam Steel
"Our home record sucked. It has to get better," Evason said, noting that Minnesota is 2-4-1 at home this season after losing just 10 times in regulation at home last season.
"We've gotta play more of a road game here, not worry about getting too cute or fancy and trying to impress anybody. We've gotta impress people by playing the right way and winning hockey game."
Note: Jordan Greenway has been skating and starting to take contact in practice. Evason expects his big winger back in the lineup sometime during their seven-game homestand, which starts with the Penguins Thursday night. Greenway has played in just two games this season as he fights his way back from a shoulder injury.
