Without Jared Spurgeon and Joel Eriksson Ek, Wild preps for Winter Classic

A lengthy layoff leading up to the Winter Classic might help the Wild improve its performance, but it won't heal up the team in time for puck drop on New Year's Day.

Captain Jared Spurgeon and center Joel Eriksson Ek are dealing with injuries that will sideline them for the showdown against the Blues on Saturday at Target Field.

How much action the two will miss overall is unclear.

"More than anything you feel bad for them," Wild defenseman Alex Goligoski said. "It's such a cool event. For them not to be a part of it and being such a big part of our team, that's tough for them."

Their absence also stings the Wild.

Keeping the puck out of the net has been a challenge lately, and the team won't have its top shutdown specialists on the ice to try to reverse that trend against St. Louis.

"We'll figure it out," winger Jordan Greenway said. "We got a pretty deep lineup, so I think it's a good time for guys to step up, to have an impact and to play a bigger role than maybe they're used to."

The seven racked up by Dallas the last time the Wild played on Dec. 20 trumped the six tallied by Vegas two games earlier as the most given up this season.

Much of the damage has been done 5-on-5, with the Wild getting exposed off the rush and following turnovers.

"Some of the uncharacteristic goals we were going east to west rather than going north," coach Dean Evason said. "When we're successful, we get out of our 'D' zone and get going offensively in a hurry and ask our 'D' to join. That's an area that we've been working on with our breakouts and getting out and not spending time in there trying to be too fancy.

"Let's get going north and use our skill set on the other end."

Without Spurgeon, who has a lower-body injury, the Jonas Brodin and Matt Dumba duo slides into the spotlight on defense.

As for the forwards, the Wild has assigned Greenway and Marcus Foligno (Eriksson Ek's usual partners) to different lines to try to scatter that unit's defensive edge throughout the lineup.

Greenway has worked alongside center Nico Sturm and winger Brandon Duhaime, while Foligno has skated with center Frederic Gaudreau and winger Kevin Fiala.

Ryan Hartman and Victor Rask have filled the other center spots in practice since Eriksson Ek suffered an upper-body injury in the team's most recent game vs. the Stars.