Game Preview: Minnesota Wild vs. Edmonton Oilers 12/9/2016 @ 7:00PM CST at Xcel Energy Center

Minnesota Wild (13-8-4)  30pts  3rd in the Central

2.76 Goals For Per Game (9th in the NHL)

2.04 Goals Against Per Game (1st in the NHL)

16.9% Power Play (16th in the NHL)

83.8% Penalty Kill (11th in the NHL)

Top 5 Scorers:

1. #3 Charlie Coyle ~ 9G 9A = 18pts

2. #12 Eric Staal ~ 6G 12A = 18pts

3. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 4G 12A = 16pts

4. #22 Nino Niederreiter ~ 7G 8A = 15pts

5. #64 Mikael Granlund ~ 5G 10A = 15pts

Top 3 PIM’s:

1. #7 Chris Stewart ~ 33 PIM’s

2. #24 Mathew Dumba ~ 18 PIM’s

3. #3 Charlie Coyle ~ 18 PIM’s

Top Goaltenders:

1. #40 Devan Dubnyk (11-6-3)  1.65GAA  .946%SP  4SO

2. #35 Darcy Kuemper (2-2-1)  3.36GAA  .897%SP

Vs.

Edmonton Oilers (14-11-4)  32pts  1st in the Pacific

3.00 Goals For Per Game (5th in the NHL)

2.72 Goals Against Per Game (17th in the NHL)

21.7% Power Play (7th in the NHL)

83.7% Penalty Kill (12th in the NHL)

Top 5 Scorers:

1. #97 Connor McDavid ~ 12G 26A = 38pts

2. #29 Leon Draisaitl ~ 12G 13A = 25pts

3. #14 Jordan Eberle ~ 8G 14A = 22pts

4. #27 Milan Lucic ~ 8G 13A = 21pts

5. #19 Patrick Maroon ~ 8G 5A = 13pts

Top 3 PIM’s:

1. #44 Zack Kassian ~ 36 PIM’s

2. #19 Patrick Maroon ~ 28 PIM’s

3. #6 Adam Larsson ~ 24 PIM’s

Top Goaltenders:

1. #33 Cam Talbot (13-9-3)  2.60GAA  .914%SP  3SO

2. #50 Jonas Gustavsson (1-2-1)  2.90GAA  .893%SP

Lines:

Edmonton

Lucic~McDavid~Caggiula

Maroon~Nugent-Hopkins~Eberle

Pouliot~Draisaitl~Puljujarvi

Hendricks~Letestu~Kassian

Russell~Larsson

Sekera~Benning

Klefbom~Simpson

Talbot

Gustavsson

Minnesota

Niederreiter~Staal~Coyle

Zucker~Koivu~Granlund

Parise~Haula~Pominville

Stewart~Graovac~Gabriel

Suter~Spurgeon

Brodin~Dumba

Scandella~Prosser

Dubnyk

Kuemper

So you’ve been on a long business trip that was mostly successful and now you’re back at home.  What is the first thing you do?  Say hello to your spouse, greet your dog and take them out for a good walk, or do you crash onto the couch and start getting caught up on your missed shows you recorded on your DVR.  What happened on Below Deck this week, no problem and no, your wife doesn’t have to know you have been secretly watching this show for months.  On a serious note I don’t watch the show, but I know some of my readers do, so that’s a bit of a shoutout to you folks.  You know who you are!

Anyways…

So let’s put this in terms of the Wild.  After their 11-day, 4-game Canadian road trip what do you think the players did when they finally got home?  Did they greet their spouse / significant other?  Did they play with their dog / pet or did they crash on the couch and probably fall asleep rather than continue binge watching Below Deck recordings.  According to Wild Head Coach Bruce Boudreau, the team is very tired and hardly said anything at all after their 3-2 win over Toronto on Wednesday night.

Really?  The team had 2 full days off before playing the Maple Leafs but they’re just exhausted.  4 games in 11 days mean the team had effectively 7 days off, with more than a few of those days with optional practices only.  Anyone wish their work schedule included optional dates where they only show up if they want to?  But excuse us, you’re tired right?

The team returns to the friendly confines of Xcel Energy Center to play the same Edmonton Oilers squad they managed to beat in overtime on Sunday.  So taking Boudreau at his word that the team is a bit tired, how should Wild fans expect this team to play after the road trip?  My guess is they’ll be a little sluggish.  I mean it is December afterall and the team at times loves to take a few shortcuts at home.  The alarm goes off, just hit snooze right?  Everything will be ok.

Or will it?

This is the Edmonton Oilers, with budding superstar Connor McDavid, they are sitting atop the Pacific Division.  The young stars are no longer the disappointing enigmatic bunch that made them a laughable also ran until you heard they were being given the 1st Overall selection in the draft again!  This group, under the mentorship of former Houston Aeros bench boss Todd McLellan has turned this club into a high-octane skilled club that also has more than its share of big bodies to grind up the competition.  With Leon Draisaitl, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Milan Lucic, Zack Kassian, Patrick Maroon that is at least the story up front.

Yet on the blueline and between the pipes its a bit hazy.  Andrej Sekera, Adam Larsson, Oscar Klefbom, Mark Fayne, Kris Russell and Matthew Benning (who?) they don’t exactly make teams get a headache wondering how they’re going create scoring chances.  It is still a work in progress, and this team knows it can score so its not like they cannot afford to give up more than 2 goals otherwise they don’t have a chance unlike some unnamed NHL squad Minnesota fans wouldn’t have the slightest idea who I’m talking about.

Cam Talbot is who I think will get the start, but Jonas Gustavsson aka ‘the Monster‘ wasn’t too bad in the Wild’s OT win on Sunday so it wouldn’t completely surprise me if he got the nod because his career numbers against Minnesota are pretty good.  Gustavsson got the start against Philadelphia so I’d say I’m 99% sure it will be Talbot starting against the Wild.

The Oilers are going to be playing the Wild on the 2nd night of a back to back which should bode in Minnesota’s favor as it did on Sunday.  Edmonton lost a 6-5 heartbreaker to the Flyers, where they blew a 5-3 lead in the 3rd period to give up 3-unanswered to lose just under 2 minutes left.  So the Oilers are probably going to be ornery, but they’re also tired from a pretty intense game.  Connor McDavid was pretty vocal in his criticism of Philadelphia’s Brandon Manning who said he admitted to tripping and attempting to hurt him last season.  You can read more about that here.

Minnesota isn’t a club that will scare many teams with its offense, but its depth has been a factor in its success.  Eric Staal, Jason Zucker and Chris Stewart all ended long scoring droughts on Wednesday night.  So does that mean we can expect Zach Parise to end his drought anytime soon?  Nah.  I think Parise’s frustrations are going to keep going for a while.  Mikael Granlund is playing more assertively with each game and he’s a player who’s due for another goal too.  Nino Niederreiter and Charlie Coyle have been the closest thing the Wild have to go-to scorers and a smallish Oilers’ defense should bode well for them.

The Wild defense must be careful with the puck, especially in its own zone as the Oilers have plenty of finishers.  I am not as worried about Ryan Suter or Jared Spurgeon, but Jonas Brodin and Mathew Dumba must have a big game in order to shut down Edmonton’s attack.  Nate Prosser earned some kudos after Wednesday’s game but those memories will be short-lived if he serves up a bunch of needless turnovers.

Lucky for the Wild, Minnesota still is being carried (almost singlehandedly) by the Vezina-worthy play of Devan Dubnyk.  (knock on wood) He continues to be the Wild’s backbone and if he was on a team that could be counted on to score 3 goals per game he’d probably be among the league leaders in wins.

With Edmonton having played last night, the Wild can really help their cause by working the pucks deep and really tire out the Oilers’ defenseman.  Even by the end of their game last night, Edmonton was starting to hook and hold the Flyers forwards so the Wild might be able to get the Oilers into penalty trouble early.  I will conclude this game preview with a song from Wild parody queen Kari Wahlen.  Because let’s face it, without ‘Dubes’ we’d probably be a bottom feeder right now.