Oilers at Wild
THE STORY: The Edmonton Oilers and Minnesota Wild are gearing up for their sixth and final meeting of the regular season - and they haven't even reached the midway point of the campaign. The Wild will hope to use that familiarity to end a dreadful losing streak as they entertain the division-rival Oilers on Thursday night. Minnesota comes into this one having lost eight straight games, plummeting the team from the top of the NHL standings to the middle of the Western Conference. The Wild made things interesting on Wednesday, forcing overtime with a late third-period goal before ultimately losing 2-1 in a shootout. Offense remains a major problem, with the Wild having scored just 10 times during the skid. Thursday marks the second of a seven-game road trip for the Oilers, who opened the marathon trek with a 5-3 loss in Vancouver. Edmonton has dropped seven of nine and is in danger of letting a fast start to the season go entirely to waste.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, Rogers Sportsnet West, Fox Sports North
ABOUT THE OILERS (15-17-3): Gaining ground in the West isn't easy, but every Edmonton loss only makes the climb that much tougher. "We need points a lot," Oilers forward Taylor Hall said. "We're losing ground as every game passes. It's unfortunate how we've slid in these last 15 or so games. We have to make it up and it has to start pretty soon." Edmonton faces visits to Long Island, Chicago, Buffalo, St. Louis and Dallas before finally returning home Jan. 11.
ABOUT THE WILD (20-12-6): Minnesota coach Mike Yeo praised his team following the loss to Nashville, suggesting the process was more important than the result. "It was a reminder that if we stay with things, if we play our game for 60 minutes, then we are going to have a great chance to win the game," he said. "We didn’t win the game (Wednesday), but I believe we deserved to win it." The Wild outshot the Predators 35-25 and had the only four shots in overtime.
OVERTIME:
1. The Wild have won three of the five meetings this season, with all of those victories coming via the shootout.
2. Oilers rookie forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has gone seven straight games without a goal, the longest drought of his brief career.
3. Following Wednesday's shootout loss, Minnesota is now tied with New Jersey and Chicago for the most extra-time games played this season with 11. The Wild are 5-6 in those games.