Wild down two key players ahead of revenge match against the Flames.

The Minnesota Wild got some bad news on Saturday ahead of what is set to be one of their toughest match ups of the season.

The Wild are set to face off against the Pacific division leaders the Calgary Flames who are 7 - 2 - 1 over their last 10 games and are one of the hottest teams on the NHL overall at the moment. The Flames are not only a tough challenger on the best of night's though, there's also a special and lingering hatred between these two teams and the NHL seems to be fully aware of the fact that this one may get a little crazy.

Here's what Wild insider Mike Russo reported earlier today:

Coincidence or not (I'm guessing not), the NHL has assigned two veteran refs, Dan O'Rourke and Kyle Rehman, to make sure today's game doesn't get out of hand.

The hatred between these two teams is both new and still very fresh stemming from an incident that occurred at the end of a game between these two squads earlier this month. In the final minute of that game Minnesota Wild defenseman Matt Dumba crushed Flames veteran Mikael Backlund with a massive open ice hit that appeared to catch Backlund up high, even if the principle point of contact was the body, and the Flames were none too happy about that situation. Dumba was quickly challenged to a fight after that hit but he never answered the bell, choosing instead to turtle on not defend himself, and you can bet that Backlund and the Flames have had this date on their calendar circled ever since. 

That's why the fact that the Wild will now be missing both Mikko Koivu, who has now officially been ruled out of a potential return to action today, as well as veteran forward Jason Zucker who Russo has confirmed will also be sidelined on Saturday. In the case of Zucker it will be the first game he misses since a hernia suffered in 2016 forced him to miss action, although it does not appear to be very serious. According to Russo Zucker is simply out with an illness so hopefully this means he will only be out in the very short term.

The timing however could now be worse for the Wild.

[pub]