Minnesota Wild vs Vancouver Canucks 8/2/20 - NHL Picks & Predictions

The Minnesota Wild will open their best-of-five qualifying series on Sunday against the Vancouver Canucks. The Wild are characterized by their defense that capitalizes on mistakes made by their opponent. Minnesota was 8-4-0 over its last 12 games before the season was suspended. The leading scorer for Minnesota this season has been Kevin Fiala with 54 points while Ryan Sutter has scored 48.

Minnesota has not yet announced who will be their starting goaltender. Devan Dubnyk was 12-15-2 in net for the wild with a goals-against average of 3.35, while Alex Stalock was 20-11-4 with a goals-against average of 2.84. During the season, Minnesota scored an average of 3.19 goals per game and allowed exactly the same 3.19 goals-per-game.

Vancouver was not playing well prior to the season being suspended and was 6-9-2 over there last 17 games before the break. Vancouver was in eighth place in the Western Conference on 78 points and fourth in the Pacific Division when the season was suspended. During the regular season, the Canucks scored an average of 3.30 goals per game and allowed an average of 3.14 goals per game.

JT Miller was the leading scorer for the Canucks through 69 games with 72 points, while Elias Patterson added 60 points and Quinn Hughes and Bo Horvat 53 each. In net for Vancouver, Jacob Markstrom was 23-16-4 with a goals-against average of 2.75 in 43 starts. Although Markstrom was injured late in the season, the break from covid-19 has given the netminder time to recover.