Bruins vs. Wild Preview: Bounce back game

Just the facts

When: 7 PM

Where: TD Garden - Boston, MA

How to follow: NESN, 98.5 The Sports Hub

Rival SBN site: Hockey Wilderness

Team situations: Bruins: 3-2-0, 5th in Atlantic; Wild: 3-2-1, 2nd in Central

Team leaders

Bruins: Brad Marchand (3G-6A-9PTS), David Pastrnak (4G, 3A, 7PTS), David Backes (2G-2A-4PTS)

Wild: Ryan Suter (1G-4A-5PTS), Zach Parise (2G-3A-5PTS)

Game notes

• Both teams are coming off of multi-goal losses and will be looking for bounce-back efforts. The Bruins fell to Montreal in disappointing fashion, 4-2 on Saturday, while Minnesota got drubbed in Brooklyn, 6-3.
• Newcomer Eric Staal has gotten off to a good start in Minnesota. The longtime Hurricane, testing free agency for the first time, signed with the Wild over the summer and has 3 goals in 6 games.
• Charlie Coyle is tied for 3rd in team scoring with 2G-2A-4PTS totals. I mention this because Charlie Coyle is from Weymouth, and is playing the Bruins. You will hear about this on the broadcast. GET READY.
• Who’s going to be between the pipes for the Bruins? As of publish time, no one knows. It seems likely that Tuukka Rask misses another game, but will it be Malcolm Subban’s turn, or will Anton Khudobin be healthy enough to go?
• The goalie toss-up comes at a bad time, as the Bruins head out for four tough road games after tonight’s game: at the Rangers, at Detroit, at Florida and at Tampa. It’s pretty important that the Bruins win tonight, as there’s a real possibility that they go 1-3-0 on the road trip. 3-7-0 in early November would put Claude Julien on the hottest hot seat of his tenure.
• Look for some changes to be made to the Bruins’ third line. The Beleskey-DUDE-Hayes combination isn’t working; the duo struggled with Czarnik in the middle and haven’t done any better with Riley Nash. The bet here is that either Spooner slots in with that trio and someone else fills in on Krejci’s line, or that Hayes sits and Spooner and Nash flip-flop in between.
• Adam McQuaid is ready to play. Chances are Claude gets him in the lineup, with Morrow heading to Level 9.

Never forget

There aren’t many great moments in Bruins-Wild history, believe it or not. But the Bruins got a big win over them earlier this year, with Loui Eriksson scoring a particularly pretty breakaway goal.