Oilers at Wild preview

OILERS (23-25-5) at WILD (26-22-5)
8 p.m. ET; FS-WI, FS-N+, SNW, NHL.TV

A seven-game losing streak would be Edmonton's longest of the season. The Oilers, who also lost six straight Dec. 16-31, have been outscored 30-17 the past six games and have allowed at least four goals in each game.
The Wild, who have lost three consecutive games (0-1-2), will be without forward Mikko Koivu who will miss the remainder of the season with a torn ACL and meniscus in his knee suffered in a 5-4 shootout loss at the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday.

Players to watch

Oilers center Connor McDavid has eight points in a five-game point streak and 29 points (12 goals, 17 assists) in his past 18 games.
Mikael Granlund has five assists in a four-game point streak after zero points in his previous eight games.

They said it

"Where I think (Minnesota) is going to miss (Koivu) is his ability to negate top players. That's going to be hard. …There's a lot of players in this League that are thinking, 'finally we don't have to play against that weight and size he brings' because he's a very competitive guy. I've seen him wear down a lot of good centers, that's tough news for them." -- Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock
"I look at every team in the League, and they're all missing players. Arizona's missing nine regulars right now, and they still compete every night. So, yeah, we're really going to miss (Koivu) because he's one of the best players, he might be the best player this franchise has ever seen. But if you sit and pout and go 'woe is me,' you're going to be all done. It's a great opportunity for other people to step up and do things he was doing and take a lot of pride in that." -- Wild coach Bruce Boudreau

Oilers projected lineup

Tobias Rieder -- Connor McDavid -- Leon Draisaitl
Milan Lucic -- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- Alex Chiasson
Brad Malone -- Ty Rattie -- Zack Kassian
Colby Cave -- Jujhar Khaira - Jesse Puljujarvi
Oscar Klefbom -- Adam Larsson
Darnell Nurse -- Kris Russell
Brandon Manning -- Matt Benning
Cam Talbot
Mikko Koskinen
Scratched: Alexander Petrovic, Kyle Brodziak, Kevin Gravel
Injured: None

Wild projected lineup

Jason Zucker -- Eric Staal -- Mikael Granlund
Zach Parise -- Victor Rask- Charlie Coyle
Jordan Greenway -- Joel Eriksson Ek -- Luke Kunin
Kyle Rau -- Eric Fehr -- Marcus Foligno
Ryan Suter -- Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin -- Greg Pateryn
Nick Seeler -- Brad Hunt
Devan Dubnyk
Alex Stalock
Scratched: Anthony Bitetto, Matt Hendricks
Injured: Mathew Dumba (upper body), MIkko Koivu (knee), Pontus Aberg (lower body)

Status report

The Wild recalled Eriksson Ek from Iowa of the American Hockey League on Wednesday.

Stat pack

Draisaitl has nine points (seven goals, two assists) in his past five games. …Nugent-Hopkins has 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in his past nine games. …Suter has six points (one goal, five assists) in his past five games. …Coyle has six points (three goals, three assists) in his past six games. …Zucker is one point away from 200 in the NHL.