Playing on the second night of a back-to-back and for the third time in four nights the Minnesota Wild would’ve been better off not showing up as they got smoked in Edmonton by the Oilers 7-2 Friday night.
This one was over almost as soon as the puck dropped, and Edmonton’s big guns did the damage early.
Leon Draisaitl scored at 4:14, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored and 7:44 and Connor McDavid found the back of the net at 8:42 to go up 3-0 in the first period. That prompted Wild coach Bruce Boudreau to pull goalie Devan Dubnyk and replace him with Alex Stalock, who wasn’t much better.
Minnesota is slumping hard right now. They’ve lost five of their last six and are creeping closer to the .500 mark (15-12-2) after being seven games over .500 (12-5-2) on Nov. 15.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Northwest Division is still very strong with Nashville, Colorado, Winnipeg and Dallas all ahead of the Wild in the standings.
Minnesota gets a much-needed break Saturday through Monday before returning to action Tuesday against Montreal for the start of a three-game homestand.
Mikko Koivu injury
No update on the status of Wild forward Mikko Koivu, who was injured in Thursday’s loss to the Calgary Flames.
General manager Paul Fenton confirmed Friday that Koivu flew back to the Twin Cities early to be evaluated. All anyone knows at this point is that Koivu is dealing with a lower-body injury.
