Banged-up Stars set to face surging Wild

SAINT PAUL, Minn. -- A lower body injury suffered Thursday in a 4-0 win at Buffalo may leave the Minnesota Wild without defenseman Marco Scandella, who was termed "day to day" by coach Bruce Boudreau after Friday's practice.

If Boudreau looking for sympathy, he's not going to get it from Dallas Stars coach Lindy Ruff. The Wild and Stars meet on Saturday night in Minnesota in what could be termed as a rematch of last season's playoffs, though much is different about both teams since the Stars dispatched the Wild in six games during the opening round last spring.

To start, with less than one-tenth of the season gone, Boudreau has the Wild doing what his Washington and Anaheim teams did routinely -- leading the division.

Minnesota comes home after getting five of a possible eight points on its first extended road trip of the season and sits atop the Central. Keying that run is goaltender Devan Dubnyk, who has not allowed a goal in the past two games, and balanced scoring, with every Wild skater recording at least a point so far.

Minnesota leads the Western Conference with 28 goals after eight games.

"It's a confidence-builder," Boudreau said after the Buffalo game. "Now when they go out, everybody thinks they're the guy that can get the job done."

The Stars are a different team than last year mostly due to the injury bug, which has taken up residence in north Texas for the time being. After a 4-1 loss in Winnipeg on Thursday, it was noted to Ruff that the team is currently missing six forwards from the lineup that won the Central last season.

"We're missing two power play units when you look at the personnel," Ruff said, pointing to youth as a sign of optimism. "I think our young kids hung in there tough. They generated some good opportunities. I thought they put Winnipeg's defense under duress."

Just in the past week, notable names like Ales Hemsky, Jason Spezza, Cody Eakin, Mattias Janmark, Patrick Sharp, Patrick Eaves and Jiri Hudler have all missed time or are out of the Stars lineup due to a variety of ailments.

The players still on the ice know that sympathy will not be forthcoming.

"We're going to have to move on from this one and get ready for Minnesota," Tyler Seguin said after the loss in Winnipeg. "It's early in the season, but we've got some work to do. A lot of guys out of the lineup right now, but we're going to re-group and be ready for Saturday."

Despite losing Scandella, Minnesota did get a bit of good news on the blue line Friday, as Jared Spurgeon was a full participant in the team's skate and looks to return to the lineup on Saturday after missing the Wild's previous four games with an upper body injury.

Saturday's game will be the 600th regular season contest at Xcel Energy Center since the building opened for the expansion Wild in 2000.