The Northwest Division champions will open up their first round series against the Avalanche on Wednesday without one of their better defensemen, Nick Schultz (Box 10), who underwent an appendectomy this week. The team figures he will miss the entire first round, or what could be the playoffs, for the Wild. That will make two key defensemen out of the line-up for a team that will need a veteran presence to make good decisions against a very potent Colorado offense.If Schultz can return after the first round and the team is through, they should be in good shape to play through the rest of the playoffs. The team has seemingly had troubles with Petteri Nummelin (non-pool) this season, as he saw minimal action this season as a healthy scratch.
The Wild should be successful if they can plug up the neutral zone like everyone knows they can and then stymie the Avalanche in the defensive zone. Marian Gaborik (Box 1) has been picking his pace up over the past couple weeks, so he'll be a threat on offense, but doesn't quite have the popularity or the hope of a long playoff run to be taken in that key first box.
| Pavol Demitra | Pierre-Marc Bouchard | Marian Gaborik |
| Todd Fedoruk | Mikko Koivu | Brian Rolston |
| Stephane Veilleux | Eric Belanger | Mark Parrish |
| Chris Simon | Beniot Pouliot | Branko Radivojevic |
| Aaron Voros | James Sheppard | Matt Foy |
| Derek Boogaard |
| Brent Burns | Kim Johnsson |
| Martin Skoula | Sean Hill |
| Petteri Nummelin | Keith Carney |
| Nick Schultz | Kurtis Foster |
| Niklas Backstrom |
| Josh Harding |
All of the Playoff Pool players are listed in bold.
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