Game Day Quick Hits: Edmonton Oilers at Minnesota Wild

In today’s quick hits, we look ahead at today’s matchup between the Minnesota Wild and the Edmonton Oilers.

1. Much like the Oilers of the past couple weeks, the Minnesota Wild will be rolling with their backup goalie as Devan Dubnyk sits on the Injured Reserve with a lower-body injury. Dubnyk injured himself in Tuesday’s win over the Calgary Flames and will be out for a few weeks. Alex Stalock, Minnesota’s backup goalie, had a great showing in his first game since taking over the net. The 30-year-old veteran shut out the Toronto Maple Leafs at home with a 28-save performance. He owns a .916 save percentage on the season and .913 save percentage over his 74-game NHL career. Edmonton has had a weirdly difficult time with backup goalies recently. They chased both Carey Price and Sergei Bobrovsky, former Vezina Trophy winners, but then got shut out by Curtis McElhinney and Juuse Saros. Let’s hope the trend doesn’t continue with Stalock.

2. Oh man, not another matinee game! The Oilers have played in a frustratingly high amount of weekend afternoon games this season. They’re 0-3 in them, losing to Detroit, New York, and Philadelphia. I’m not sure if I count the 3:00 pm MT but 5:00 pm local time win against the Bruins in November as a matinee game, but if you do, Edmonton is actually 1-3 in such games. The only afternoon game the Wild have played was a 3:00 pm local start against the Colorado Avalanche that they won in overtime.

3. The Wild are one of the teams the Oilers are chasing to grab a wild card spot. As of late, Minnesota has played well. They’ve won six of seven games since getting thrashed 7-2 by the Winnipeg Jets and now sit in the top wild card spot. They’re part of that clump of teams with Chicago, San Jose, Dallas, Calgary, and Anaheim all within a few points of each other vying for a couple of playoff spots. Edmonton sits nine points out of a playoff spot and they basically have to jump over the entire Western Conference. Beating teams like Minnesota who are competing for one of those wild card spots is massive. Games like these are worth four points.

4. Remember when it looked like Eric Staal’s career was over? He had a miserable season in the final year of his deal with the Carolina Hurricanes, and was dealt to the New York Rangers at the trade deadline where he posted just six points in 20 games. In free agency, he inked a cheap deal with the Wild — three years at $3.5 million annually — and he’s been excellent since. Last season, Staal finished second on the team with 65 points in 82 games, and this season, the 33-year-old leads the team with 27 points in 31 games.

5. Though they’re called the Wild, Minnesota isn’t a very wild team at all. They’re actually really boring. Colton Orr agrees with me. The Wild play kind of a sit-back-and-capitalize system where they clog the neutral zone and make it extremely difficult for the other team to find open ice. They’re big, fast, and disciplined, and while it isn’t exactly a good time to watch, it’s effective. The underlying numbers back this up, as the Wild sit 26th in terms of Expected Goals For per 60 minutes based on their shot volume. The Wild also have the second-most wins in the NHL when outshot by their opponents. They don’t get many chances, but when they do, the team knows how to capitalize.

6. Like the Oilers, the Wild don’t get many power play opportunities. Minnesota has had 88 power play opportunities, which ranks 30th, and Edmonton has had 87, which ranks 31st. The Wild have the fifth best power play percentage at 21.59 per cent, but they only have three more power play goals than the Oilers, who boast a middling 18.39 power play percentage. The Wild have a good penalty kill, coming in ninth at 82.91 per cent, while the Oilers are still dead last at 72.12 per cent.

7. The Oilers are now 5-14-1 when the other team scores the first goal. When Edmonton scores first, they’re 8-3-1. Unfortunately, they just don’t score first enough. I mentioned this last weekend, but it seems when the other team scores first, the team goes into a dejected lull and the other team capitalizes. It was noticeable against Nashville on Thursday. The Preds scored in the second after the Oilers bombarded them in the first, then Nashville took over for the next 10 minutes and ran away with the game. Minnesota is 13-3-2 when they score first and are 8-0-1 with a lead at the end of the first period, using a smothering trap when they get the lead.

8. It’s probably a good thing the Oilers are playing this key game on the road rather than at home. The team has had a hell of a time playing at Rogers Place as of late. Over their last five home games dating back to mid-November, the Oilers are 1-4 at home, with the only win coming in overtime against the hapless Arizona Coyotes. In their last five road games, the team is 4-1, with commanding wins over Columbus, Montreal, and Calgary.

9. Minnesota is known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes and its official state motto is Star of the North. No team from Minnesota has ever won a Stanley Cup and West Edmonton Mall is bigger than The Mall of America, located in Bloomington, Minnesota. I think the team’s jerseys look like cans of Mountain Dew.

10. TSN put out an excellent feature on Friday about former Minnesota Wild captain Matt Johnson, who’s disappeared over a decade after retiring from the NHL. It’s a sad story, but a very worthwhile watch.