Happy Festivus everybody. If you're not a Seinfeld fan, google it. Wild fans are celebrating by pelting me on Twitter with their grievances.

I'll be on Fox Sports North++++++++++++++ during tonight's pregame show around 5:45 p.m. and the first intermission around 6:35 p.m. I'll also be live in studio on KFAN with Paul Allen at 9 a.m. Wednesday and I am filling in for Dan Barreiro from 3-6:30 p.m. on KFAN on Friday.

Lots of guests, including maybe Wild defenseman Ryan Suter, Fox Sports North's Anthony LaPanta and Fox 9's Dawn Mitchell to talk all things sports. In fact, I'm also doing Dawn's show, Fox 9 Sports Now, later that night at 10:15 p.m.

I also may be doing a Podcast with Jim Souhan on Friday, so I'll hit the multi-media foursome – newspaper, Podcast, radio and TV. #overexposed.

Wild vs. Claude Giroux, Jake Voracek, Nick Schultz (Wild's all-time games played leader who has resurrected his career this season as by all accounts Philly's most consistent defenseman) Philadelphia Flyers tonight as the Wild hopes to avoid sputtering (well, more than it has already) into the Christmas break. The Wild is 5-5-3 in its past 13 and 2-2-3 in its past seven at home. The Flyers have won the first two games (11 goals) in an eight-game road trip (like many Flyers trips, they return home a couple times during the roadie).

Niklas Backstrom vs. Ray Emery tonight. I thought coach Mike Yeo may come back with Darcy Kuemper only because Kuemper stole a win in Philly with 37 saves last month and because Backstrom is 1-4 all-time vs. the Flyers with a 3.58 goals-against average and .872 save percentage.

But Kuemper has been yanked in four of his past five home starts (I did a story on the poor play of the goalies today. Here is that link), so Yeo wants Kuemper to reset during the Christmas break "shut the brain off for a couple days, not think about hockey, get away from the rink and get recharged and excited to come back).

In fact, Yeo is also scratching center Erik Haula (3 goals, 1 assist this season, 1 goal in the past 15 games and minus-5), Justin Fontaine (1 goal in the past 13 games) and Nate Prosser (team-worst minus-9 averaging 13:26 a game; no plus games in the past 15) for basically the same reason.

"It's not like we're quitting on these guys," Yeo said. "It's not like we don't believe in them. It's just a means to try to get them in the right mind frame and come back and be really good.

"For the guys that aren't in, a lot of guys are trying to do the right thing, a lot of guys hearts are in the right place, but focus-wise and mindset-wise, this is where I think the break can come in great use as far as just hitting the reset button and allowing ourselves to take a bit of a deep breath here and remember those little things that make us successful."

Mikael Granlund, who missed last game with a stomach bug, looks like he'll return and slide back into that top line with Zach Parise and Thomas Vanek. Surprises me a little. Charlie Coyle has been better the past four games (especially last game between Parise and Vanek) and Granlund, who looked sluggish this morning, has a disappointing two multi-point games out of 31 as the Wild's No. 1 center this year. TWO, playing mostly with Parise. Not good enough.

Stu Bickel will also draw in, which surprises me, too, because the Flyers are hardly a hard-nosed team anymore (9.1 penalty minutes per game compared to the Wild's 9.7) and Zac Rinaldo isn't playing.

Asked why he's in, Yeo told me kiddingly, "Why not? Has anything else we've been doing worked lately?"

In seriousness, Yeo said, "I will say this: It's been pretty comfortable for other teams to come into our building and if you've played the game, then you understand that's part of the game. When there's a thought or presence of you might get hit or it might be a tough, physical game, it's a little bit more difficult to execute, you're not quite as quick to go back and retrieve a puck, you're not quite as willing to go to the hard areas.

"Quite often when you have a player like that in the lineup, it's not just about him. It's about what it does to the other group. We've seen that. We've won games when he's been in the lineup (the Wild's 4-0 with Bickel) and I think a big part of that is we have other guys who end up playing bigger because of that."

Yeo had a long talk with Haula on the ice today. Fans were freaking on Twitter about Bickel playing for Haula, which, hey, I get, but sometimes kids need to take a step back and see the game from upstairs and not be entitled to just keep playing when they're struggling. And Haula has been struggling. Tonight is Haula's first turn this season to sit out a game.

"Of course it's about offense, but it's about winning," Yeo said. "Offense comes by doing the right things and by taking care of the details. He contributed offensively for us last year, but he wasn't our leading scorer. I think that expectations-wise, we have to be realistic. He's not playing power play right now. He has the ability to create offense. We've seen his speed be a factor. We have to find a way to make it more of a factor again this year. But the way he earned his way into the lineup and how he was successful last year was the defensive part of his game. When you look at probably the best hockey he's played in the Colorado series, he had one singular focus and that was to shut a very important line for the opposition down (Nathan MacKinnon). That was when he played his best hockey. He brings something different to the table than a lot of the other guys that we have and he's a very valuable part to our group when he's on top of that part of his game. So again this is just a good opportunity for us to hit the reset button. He's a very big part of things going forward and a very big part of the second half of our season. Hopefully we'll help him get ready for that."

Haula said the Christmas break will allow him to "clear it all up here in the next couple days and just come back with a great attitude and put everything on the line and keep working hard and keep taking those little strides and not expect too much."

Haula said the first couple months of the season was a "little bit of a disappointment in some ways. I think individually, there's areas I can do better at. I definitely have more to offer the team. Also I think there are some areas I think I have done a pretty good job in (like penalty kill). I've got to let it go here and enjoy the couple days we have off and come back with a great attitude and let that first half go and finish strong.

"My game is to move my feet, play good defensively and win my battles and I want to focus on those areas a little more."

Haula said Yeo told him at the start of the year that the second year is always harder than the first, especially "if you do have some kind of success, you expect more and set high expectations. I've tried my best to not think about stuff like that. At the start of the year it was going really well where I maybe wasn't necessarily getting the results on the scoreboard, but I thought I was playing really well. The little things haven't been what I really wanted it to be. I don't think I'm a minus player. Defensively I think I can play against any one and that's one area where I have to clean up."

Fontaine needs to pick up his play, too. Just hasn't impressed in many games this year and certainly hasn't been anything close to the scoring threat he was last year.

I talked to Jared Spurgeon a little this morning. His game has taken a turn for the worse. He is minus-7 his past 11 games and he said, "I need to be better."