Minnesota Wild @ Edmonton Oilers – Game Preview and Lines

Minnesota Wild @ Edmonton Oilers

21 FEB 2013 – 7:30 MST

Television: Sportsnet West

F

Taylor Hall – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jordan Eberle

Nail Yakupov – Sam Gagner – Ales Hemsky

Ryan Smyth – Eric Belanger – Ben Eager

Teemu Hartikainen – Chris Vande Velde – Magnus Paajarvi

D

Nick Schultz – Justin Schultz

Ladislav Smid – Jeff Petry

Theo Peckham – Mark Fistric

G

Devan Dubnyk

Nikolai Khabibulin

Gone Puck Wild is the Minnesota Wild page on the Fansided Network

Zach Parise.  Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports

• LINE CHANGES – The top six is back to where it began.  Yakupov is back on the Gagner-Hemsky line, while the bottom six gets a bit of a re-work.  A third line will feature Smyth-Belanger-Eager, and a fourth line will showcase Hartikainen-Vande Velde-Paajarvi.
• Theo Peckham makes his season debut tonight paired with Mark Fistric.  Ryan Whitney is scratched.
• Former Oiler defenceman Tom Gilbert will play against Edmonton for the first time in his career
• Zach Parise currently leads the Wild with 12 points (7-5-12) in 15 games.
• Devan Dubnyk is back between the pipes for Edmonton, surely looking to improve off his last start versus Colorado.  Dubnyk is 5-4-3 with a .918 SV% and a 2.76 GAA.  Minnesota will counter with Niklas Backstrom, who is 5-4-2 with a .912 SV% and a 2.39 GAA.
• FUN FACT:  Backstrom is 22-3-1 lifetime against the Oilers.

This is the fourth game in a five game homestand.  Oilers need to start picking up points before their nine games away from Rexall.

Follow Oil On Whyte on the Twitters.

Jeff – @OilOnWhyte

Ian – @ibleedoil

Jonathan – @jonrmcleod

Troy – @heavyoilcountry

Dave – @rustyknuckler

Check out the Oilers Army!

Click Here to visit our NHL main page “Too Many Men” – Fansided’s Hockey Home on the Internets