Minnesota has its own version of that problem, and it's worse on paper. Filip Gustavsson (hip) will miss at least another month, according to John Hynes, so Jesper Wallstedt has been carrying the crease, and he is the probable again tonight. He has started all 8 of his games, gone 6-1-1 and posted a .922 save percentage. The Wild are 6-2-1 on top of that, which is a real start for a team that has been patching holes since training camp, and the goalie is the biggest reason why.
The injury list is where this matchup gets uncomfortable for Minnesota. Brock Faber is out with no timetable after surgery to repair a fractured skull. Jared Spurgeon is on IR and Olli Maatta is out. That's 3 regular defensemen gone, and the projected pairs behind Quinn Hughes and Jonas Brodin run to Hunt-Bogosian and Kiersted-Spacek. That's the group that has to slow down McDavid, Hyman and Leon Draisaitl in their own rink. Up front, Marcus Foligno, Nick Foligno and Nico Sturm are all on IR too, which takes a lot of the grit out of the bottom 6.
Our recap of Sunday's 2-1 win over Columbus gave the Wild some credit: the thinned defense protected a 1-goal lead for the entire 3rd period, which it couldn't do in the 5-4 win over St. Louis. Columbus was also on the 2nd night of a back-to-back and scored 1 regulation goal across both games. Minnesota has won 2 straight and gone 4-1 in the last 5, but the opponent that night was about as soft as a test gets.
Edmonton has gone 4-1 in its last 5 and outscored those opponents 20-10. On paper this is a good early-season matchup between 2 clubs that have combined for 3 regulation losses. Whether it stays competitive depends on whether Wallstedt can keep stealing games behind a Minnesota blue line built out of call-ups and spare parts, because keeping McDavid off the scoresheet is something nobody has managed yet this season.