Tonight the Wild face Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the rest of the high flying Edmonton Oilers. This will be a monumental test for the Wild facing off against arguably the fastest team in the league and trying to slow the speediest player in McDavid.

Mats Zuccarello returns to the Wild lineup while Joel Eriksson Ek was placed on IR with a lower body injury. Eriksson Ek suffered the injury as a result of his courageous effort in Montreal that saw him block three Shea Weber bombs on one shift.

It will take everything the Wild have in them to come out of tonight with points. That said rather play the top teams to learn more about what needs to change in order to get this team moving forward.

The boys have something to build off of with the come from behind win over the Canadiens on Sunday so let's see how they follow that up tonight.

It is obvious that the Wild cannot compete with the speed of the majority of the league so making the necessary adjustments in how they move the puck combined with the way they play team defense with support will determine just how competitive they can be with a team like the Oilers.

The lazy penalties cannot become a factor and the attention to detail with the puck is of great importance. Boudreau needs to have his team focused and the line combinations are critical to matching the Oilers fire power while providing a counter attack that can produce some quality offensive chances.

Time to step up and be counted Wild veterans. Zuccarello, Eric Staal, Zach Parise, and Mikko Koivu will be counted on heavily by Boudreau, however, the play of Luke Kunin, Jordan Greenway, Ryan Donato, Ryan Hartman, and Kevin Fiala will most likely go much farther in determining the outcome of the game for the Wild.

Boudreau needs to establish more confidence in these guys and vice versa the Wild kids must elevate their games to earn the head coach's trust. This is the area that Bill Guerin must focus his attention as he decides the fate of the Wild bench boss.

Change is upon us and that begins with the head coach. If Boudreau can make the necessary adjustments to his approach and take what he has and mold the team to become more competitive from within then I see him competing the final year of his contract. If the team continues down the same path of trying to compete with the Captain serving as Boudreau's most trusted forward then all bets are off...

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