The Minnesota Wild (5-1-2) continue their road trip with one final game in Pittsburgh on Tuesday.
Jared Spurgeon has missed the last six games with a lower-body injury but did travel to Philadelphia on Saturday and practiced on Monday with the team.
Without him, the Wild broke up the Jonas Brodin and Brock Faber defense pair. They played Faber with Jake Middleton and Brodin with Zach Bogosian.
Based on Monday's line rushes, Spurgeon was with Brodin, Faber was with Middleton, and Bogosian was taking rushes with Declan Chisholm. This left Jon Merrill with Daemon Hunt.
For years the Wild always elected to split up Brodin and Spurgeon despite them being some of the best defensive defensemen in the entire NHL, as you can see from the photo above.
But it looks like the Wild will put them together now based on Faber's emergence. It is no guarantee that Spurgeon plays on Tuesday but if he does, he looks to be with Brodin as his defense partner.
