The Minnesota Wild have a long list of walking wounded players. And they are key players. Four of their top-five players in time on ice (TOI) per game are injured.

Kirill Kaprizov, their best player, will miss his 10th-consecutive game.

Brock Faber leads them in TOI/game at 24:58 and he will sit out his fourth game in a row.

Jonas Brodin, second on the team at 23:13/game, will also miss his fourth straight game.

Captain Jared Spurgeon will miss his seventh consecutive game. He’s fifth on the team in TOI/game at 20:43.

Jake Middleton missed 11 games with a broken finger, and he returned to the lineup the same game (January 7th v. STL) Faber and Brodin was injured. Faber only played 4:34 before leaving the game after taking an elbow to the head. Brodin played over 32 minutes that night but hasn’t played since. He has a lower-body injury from blocking a shot late in the game. Middleton is the only healthy player in their top five for TOI and he’s now their #1 defenseman. He logged 24:28 and 25:01 in the past two games.

The Wild are 6-3 without Kaprizov. They were 5-1 in the first six games, but injuries to Spurgeon, Faber and Brodin have them 1-2 in their last three games with a 4-1 loss to Vegas, a 6-1 loss to Colorado and a 3-1 victory over San Jose. Good teams can absorb one key injury, and the Wild did without Kaprizov, but when you lose three of your top-four defenders, that really compounds the issue.

In the three games without them, they’ve had to ask all their D-men to play more minutes. Here’s a quick look at their TOI through the first 41 games compared to the last three.

Bogosian and Dermott are averaging seven more minutes a game, Merrill is up six minutes, Chisholm is up four and Middleton is up 2.5. Jiricek was acquired from Columbus on November 30th and sent to the AHL to get some playing time. He’s a highly touted prospect, but he’s young and tonight will be his 57th NHL game. He’s thrilled for the opportunity, and this is his chance to show the Wild he deserves to stay in the lineup when the walking wounded return. But that will be difficult with Middleton, Chisholm and Bogosian ahead of him.

The Oilers can’t take the Wild lightly, but no doubt tonight is a much more winnable game due to the Wild’s injuries. Feisty forward Jakob Lauko is also out.

Minnesota has struggled to generate much offence the past three games. They have five goals, all coming at 5×5, but they’ve been outscored 11-5 overall. At 5×5 they’ve been outshot 79-50. Meanwhile, the Oilers have outshot teams 89-66 at 5×5 over their last three outings.  No NHL game is easy but tonight presents a wonderful opportunity for the Oilers to pull within two points of division-leading Vegas, who lost 5-3 in Nashville last night.

— The Oilers snapped a five-year losing streak in Minnesota last month when they clobbered the Wild 7-1 on December 12th. And all five injured players who are out tonight were in the lineup. Edmonton had lost six in a row prior to that victory, and they haven’t won consecutive games in Minnesota in the same season in the salary cap era. The last time they won two games in Minnesota in the same season was in 2003-2004 when they won 2-0 on November 13th, 2003, and 2-1 on January 2nd, 2004.

— A regulation win tonight will push the Oilers one point ahead of Minnesota and two back of Vegas for first in the Pacific. They will also be four back of Winnipeg (with a game in hand) for first in the Western Conference. Finishing first in the West would give them the second Wildcard team, which looks to be Vancouver, Calgary or St. Louis. I think you’d rather face one of those teams than Colorado, Dallas or Minnesota in the opening round.

— Edmonton ranks eighth in GF/GP (3.26), seventh in GA/GP (2.72) and eighth in PP% (24.3%). The Oilers are 24th on the PK (77.1%), but that is solely due to the awful October they had on the PK. In their first 11 games, the Oilers allowed 12 goals on 32 kills for a league-worst 62.5%. Since November 1st (32 games), they are fifth at 84.4%. They’ve allowed only 10 goals on 64 kills. The Oilers’ PK is much better, but they are also the least-penalized team in the NHL in that span, averaging only 2.00 times shorthanded per game.

— Since the start of November, Oilers games have the second-fewest total power play opportunities at 4.41. Only Vegas, 4.27, sees fewer penalties called on either team. Edmonton ranks 26th in PP opportunities over that span with 2.41/GP and 27th on the season at 2.49. Their PP has been really good since November 1st at 28.6% (fourth in the NHL) and they have the best PP since December 1st at 33.3%. The PP doesn’t seem as dominant as previous seasons, simply because they aren’t getting as many PP chances.

— In 2022 Edmonton had 15 games with 2+ PP goals. In 2023 they had 25 games with 2+ goals including three goals four times. Last season they had 16 games with 2+ goals. This year they’ve had games with two PP goals only four times. The PP has been great for the last 19 games, with 15 goals, yet because of the low PP opportunities, some feel it hasn’t been clicking. It has, and it is still a major weapon for the Oilers.

— I’ve long been perplexed by suggestions Leon Draisaitl isn’t a good skater. He is, he just doesn’t attack at high speed all the time. He has the unique ability to slow the game down and still create space. But this play shows he can move when he wants. And he started that burst 1:18 into his shift. Wild.

— Mattias Ekholm will be a game-time decision. I’d lean more towards him not playing than playing.