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Canucks Game Day: Minnesota native Boeser good to go against the Wild
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Photo credit: © Danny Wild-Imagn Images
Jeff Paterson
Nov 1, 2025, 14:04 EDTUpdated: Nov 1, 2025, 14:09 EDT
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The Vancouver Canucks (6-6) make their way to Minnesota to face the struggling Wild (3-6-3) in a 4pm PT face-off at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul.
The Canucks are coming off a 4-3 shootout victory in St. Louis on Thursday, while the Wild dropped its fifth straight game, falling 4-1 to Pittsburgh.

What we know

Ahead of the second game of their three-game road trip, the Canucks opted not to hold a morning skate, so it will be closer to game time before Adam Foote confirms his lineup. Despite some chatter earlier in the week, it does not seem likely the team will be getting captain Quinn Hughes back from injury tonight.
It will be worth watching to see what Kiefer Sherwood will do as an encore after scoring his second-career hattrick on Thursday. Sherwood has a share of the NHL lead with nine goals on the season. He scored once in each period on Thursday netting a power play goal in the first and a pair of even-strength markers later in the game. It took him until the 30th game of the season last year to score nine goals. This time around, he has needed just a dozen games. Sherwood now has a hattrick and a pair of two-goal games already this season. He has accounted for nine of the 31 goals the team has scored (29%). 
Jake DeBrusk played a career-high 22:59 on Thursday and scored the lone goal in the shootout. Brock Boeser was felled by an Elias Pettersson slap shot in the first minute of play, left the game and didn’t return. However, the Burnsville, MN native practiced with the team yesterday and is expected to be back in the lineup in his home state tonight.
Thatcher Demko watched from the bench against the Blues, but will get back in action tonight. He gave up just one goal in a 2-0 loss to the New York Rangers in his last start on Tuesday. Among current NHL opponents, Minnesota (0-3-2) and Utah (0-1) are the only teams Demko has yet to post a victory against. 
The Canucks surrendered a pair of power play goals to St. Louis and have now allowed 12 power play goals in 12 games. They enter the night with the 25th ranked penalty kill in the NHL sitting at 71.4%.
Canucks assistant coach Brett McLean has strong ties to the Wild organization. He was an assistant for Minnesota’s AHL farm team in Iowa for three seasons (2017-20), spent three seasons as an assistant coach with Minnesota (2020-23) and two seasons as the Iowa Wild head coach (2023-25).

The Opponent

Things are miserable in Minnesota these days. The Wild has dropped five in a row and eight of nine (1-4-4). The team has just one home ice win in six outings this season. The Wild’s 47 goals against is just one ahead of last place San Jose. On top of all that, Minnesota’s penalty kill is 60% on the season and just 45.5% on home ice.
Kirill Kaprizov scored the Wild’s only goal on Thursday and leads the team with seven goals and 16 points. Matt Boldy has five goals and 12 points while Marco Rossi, linked to the Canucks for much of the off-season, has two goals and 11 points. 
Team captain and veteran defenceman Jared Spurgeon is one of three players dead last in the NHL at -12. Marcus Foligno is -10 and without a point in 11 games this season.
Minnesota has allowed a league-high 23 third period goals this season. The Wild is tied with Calgary for the most power play opportunities in the NHL (48) and has scored the most power play goals (14) in the league). Minnesota is also tied with Seattle for fewest times shorthanded (25).
Joel Eriksson Ek leads the NHL in faceoffs taken (263) and is tied with Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon for faceoffs won (135).

News and notes

Tonight’s game features the NHL’s top two hits leaders. Minnesota’s Yakov Trenin leads the league with 60 hits while Kiefer Sherwood sits second at 54.
The Canucks and Wild will see each other in Vancouver on December 6th. The teams will also face off against each other in Minnesota on April 2nd. The Wild took two of the three meetings between the teams last season.
The on-ice officials for today’s game are Brandon Blandina and Pierre Lambert.
Don’t forget to join Rink Wide Vancouver for full postgame coverage after this game – and every game. The livestream starts moments after the final buzzer. Rink Wide is the place for full postgame analysis and discussion. Join the live YouTube chat with your thoughts on the hockey game.
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