Game #37: Minnesota Wild vs Edmonton Oilers, Wednesday December 23, 2009 at 6:00pm (CST), Xcel Energy Center [GAME PREVIEW]

Minnesota Wild (17-16-3)     37pts     4th in Northwest Division

2.50 Goals per Game (26th in NHL)
2.78 Goals Against per Game (14th in NHL)
17.1% Power Play (22nd in NHL)
83.6% Penalty Kill (9th in NHL)

Top 5 Scorers:
1.  #9 Mikko Koivu ~10G 23A = 33pts
2.  #15 Andrew Brunette ~ 10G 20A = 30pts
3.  #14 Martin Havlat ~ 6G 14A = 20pts
4.  #3 Marek Zidlicky ~ 3G 15A = 18pts
5.  #25 Eric Belanger ~ 6G 10A = 16pts

Top 3 Penalty Minutes:
1.  #34 Shane Hnidy ~ 47PIM’s
2.  #24 Derek Boogaard ~ 36PIM’s
3.  #36 John Scott ~ 33PIM’s

Goaltenders:
1.  #32 Niklas Backstrom ~ (15-12-3)   2.50 GAA   .910SV%
2.  #37 Josh Harding ~ (2-4-0)   3.45GAA   .867SV%

vs

Edmonton Oilers (15-17-4)     34pts     5th in Northwest Division
2.86 Goals per Game (11th in NHL)
3.22 Goals Against per Game (27th in NHL)
19.2% Power Play (13th in NHL)
76.6% Penalty Kill (27th in NHL)

Top 5 Scorers:
1.  #27 Dustin Penner ~ 19G 19A = 38pts
2.  #71 Lubomir Visnovsky ~ 8G 17A = 25pts
3.  #67 Gilbert Brule ~ 9G 13A = 22pts
4.  #83 Ales Hemsky ~ 7G 15A = 22pts
5.  #89 Sam Gagner ~ 8G 13A = 21pts

Top 3 Penalty Minutes:
1.  #46 Zack Stortini ~ 82PIM’s
2.  #22 Jean-Francois Jacques ~ 62PIM’s
3.  #44 Sheldon Souray ~ 45PIM’s

Goaltenders:
1.  #38 Jeff Deslauriers ~ (8-7-2)   2.93GAA   .906SV%
2.  #35 Nikolai Khabibulin ~ (7-9-2)   3.03GAA   .909SV%
3.  #40  Devan Dubnyk ~ (0-1-0)   5.36GAA   .800SV%

Oh the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we’ve no place to go
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Yes, the Christmas season is finally upon us.  However, before anyone can even start their celebrations, the Wild need to get through one final game.  Of course, that also means that those of us in the Upper Midwest have to weather (yes, pun intended) tonight’s impending winter storm.  For those of you outside of the winter storm/blizzard warning area, count yourselves lucky.  The rest of us are in our mad dash trying to get to where we need to go before the worst is upon us.  Hopefully for the visiting Edmonton Oilers the storm holds off long enough for their team plane to get off the ground at Minneapolis-St. Paul International after tonight’s game.  However, considering the sense of brotherhood that exists in hockey, I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear tomorrow that the Oilers will be spending Christmas Eve in the homes of various Wild players if they’re grounded.

For the Wild, a win tonight would be the perfect gift beneath the proverbial Christmas tree.   Monday’s loss against Colorado set the Wild back in more ways than one.  First, it took away some of the momentum that the Wild had going for them this month.  To make matter worse, between that loss at St. Louis’ two consecutive wins, the Blues are now ahead of the Wild in the standings.  If those two things weren’t bad enough,  the Wild are in a three-way points tie with Anaheim and St. Louis.  The Wild need tonight’s win in an attempt to take back the 11th place spot and at the very least to stay ahead of Anaheim.  Both the Blues and Ducks are in action tonight as well.  The Ducks could easily struggle against Phoenix and the result in the Blues’ game depends on which version of the Calgary Flames shows up.  In reality, the fate of the Wild rests solely on the shoulders of the Wild.

We’d like to take this time to wish every one of our readers a very Merry Christmas.  Please take the time to fully enjoy your time with friends and family, as really this is what this time of the year is really about.  It’s not about the presents we receive, but the joy and happiness we share with those around us.  For those of you traveling, be safe and take your time getting there.  Trust me, your families would rather have you be an hour late than have an accident.

Merry Christmas!