After a three-day break in the schedule, the Wild are finally back in action Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center when their seven-game homestand continues.
But will their rest help them slow down an Oilers squad led by Connor McDavid that played the previous night?
"Do you think McDavid's speed changes because he played 20-something minutes or whatever it was last night? No," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "They're elite, elite athletes. We don't put a lot of stock into that. We expect them to have their best game as they always do."
Since the Wild's last game Sunday, a 4-3 win over Arizona, Edmonton has played twice, nabbing both games to extend its win streak to three.
On Wednesday, the Oilers prevailed 5-4 at Chicago with McDavid picking up a goal and assist and Leon Draisaitl scoring twice and adding a helper.
"We're not a team that flips people off the ice, but we'll have our thought process of who will play against [McDavid]," Evason said.
Marc-Andre Fleury will get the start in net for the Wild, but the team will be without defenseman Jonas Brodin (lower-body injury).
Brodin will go on the team's next road trip, Evason said, and so will Andrej Sustr, whom the team recalled from the minors on Thursday morning.
