EDMONTON – The Wild won't face Oilers captain Connor McDavid Friday, as the center isn't ready to return from a quad injury that's sidelined him the past five games.
But the final matchup on this two-game road trip will still be quite a test.
"They're [without] McDavid, but that means everyone else has to step up a little bit and I think teams are good at that," defenseman Carson Soucy said. "Teams with depth and better teams are good at stepping up when their top guys are out."
That's certainly been the case for the Oilers, who are 3-1-1 while McDavid's been out. Edmonton is coming off a 2-1 overtime loss to the Bruins on Wednesday.
As for the Wild, it pocketed a 4-3 shootout win that same night in Vancouver. But interim coach Dean Evason still noticed areas where the Wild could improve.
"We didn't get as many pucks to the net as we would have liked as far as shooting the puck," Evason said. "We got in on our forecheck. We created some turnovers but once we got the puck, we didn't shoot it. We tried to be a little too cute.
"Defensively, we've got to do a better job getting out of our zone."
Despite winning in its last game, the Wild will make a few lineup changes ahead of taking on the Oilers.
