Pre-Game: Game #36 Oilers vs. Wild

Is it me or does it seem like the Oilers and Wild play every other game? At any rate, the Oilers head to Minnesota for to play game 2 of a 7 game road trip. Tough start to the trip as the Oilers spotted the Canucks a 3-0 lead, to eventually lose 5-3 on Monday night. The Oilers are officially stuck in no man's land these days. The Edmonton media is preaching patience, management is selling rainbows and sailing adrift another season is the good ship Oilers. I'm getting tired of the media preaching patience like the fans are a bunch of dimwitted folk. We all understand where the Oilers have been and where we want them to end up. The question is....what is the correct road to get there so there is no backtracking? Would you rather have a perennial "barely squeak into the playoffs" type team or suck for years on end to have one shot at something special and then gawd knows what? In hockey, nothing is linear and nothing is guaranteed. So, Edmonton media, if you wanna sell whatever it is you are trying to sell...hope, hype, whatever, I'm not buying. Let's just watch this team for what it is and we'll judge what it is at the end of the season....Like we have over the past many years. End of rant. Minnesota comes into this game stone cold. Losers of the past 8 with 3 overtime losses. On top of it all, its a 2nd half of a back to back for the Wild. This is a very winnable game for the Oilers.

Forwards Oilers
- Kid line, that is all. Jordan Eberle is on fire lately.
Defense Wild
- Tough loss having Whitney out of the lineup, even with a bad ankle.
Goaltending Wild
- Seems like no matter who is in net, the Wild GAA is tiny.
Special Teams Oilers
- The Oilers power play is tued for 2nd in the NHL.
Coaching Wild
- Tom Renney is starting to look like a man without answers. Not that I blame him because I don't think the team is built properly.
Intangibles Oilers
- 2nd half of a back to back for the Wild.

Oilers:
Hall-NugentHopkins-Eberle
Smyth-Horcoff-Gagner
Eager-Belanger-Jones
Hordichuk-Lander-Petrell

Smid-Gilbert
Potter-Petry
Peckham-Teubert

Khabibulin
Dubnyk

Wild:
Heatley-Koivu-Clutterbuck
Bouchard-Cullen-Palmer
Powe-Brodziak-Johnson
Gillies-Peters-Staubitz

Scandella-Spurgeon
Schultz-Zidlicky
Falk-Lundin

Backstrom
Harding

Game Time - 6 PM MT @ Minnesota on Sportsnet West.