Yahoo Sports Oilers Offence Faces Big Test Against League-Best Minnesota Wild
Raise your hand if you expected the Wild to be the best team in the NHL this year.
I'm willing to bet most of your hands are still down. If you did raise your hand, congratulations. You're some kind of clairvoyant, and you should probably use that skill for more important things than predicting hockey standings.
The last time the Oilers met the Wild on November 21st, they were still muddling along at 10-8-2, while the Wild were riding high as one of the very best teams in the league. The Wild took that game 5-3, plunging the Oilers even further down the spiral that was the first quarter of their season.
But then a funny thing happened: the Oilers turned things around. Since that loss to Minnesota, they've won six of their last seven games by a combined score of 22-13, vaulting themselves back into the playoff picture and their expected spot among the league's elite.
They're in the middle of one of the toughest stretches of their schedule, facing Tampa Bay, Minnesota, Vegas, and Florida in the span of a week. They passed their first test with a mature and hard-fought 2-1 victory over Tampa on Tuesday, but it'll only get harder from here on out because the Wild haven't slowed down one bit since their last meeting.
If anything, they've improved, boasting a 6-3 record since beating Edmonton, including a five-game win streak. They're still the same team the Oilers saw in November: one of the best defensive teams in the league, backstopped by a Vezina candidate in Filip Gustavsson, and led on offence by Hart Trophy favourite Kirill Kaprizov.
The Oilers do get a slight reprieve, as the Wild are still without three of their most important players: Mats Zuccarello, Jonas Brodin, and Joel Eriksson Ek are all out due to injury. That's especially good news for the Oilers' offence, as Brodin and Eriksson Ek are two of the league's very best defensive players at their positions.
Edmonton has found its A-game over the past few weeks; scorers are scoring, their defence is among the best in the league, and the goaltending has rebounded in a big way. They've already shown against Tampa that they can shut down an elite offence. Now comes the next big test: breaking through against an elite defence.
Tonight's action starts at 6:30 MT, at Xcel Energy Arena in Minnesota.
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