It comes as little surprise that the Edmonton Oilers have the fewest wins in the NHL coming out of the All-Star break as the struggling franchise heads toward a ninth consecutive season without a postseason berth.

The Minnesota Wild, who were expected to take another step forward after reaching the Western Conference semifinals last year, have been one of the league's biggest disappointments.

Minnesota looks to avoid a third straight defeat by winning a fourth consecutive meeting in Edmonton tonight.

The Oilers (12-26-9) have the fewest points in the West and possess a minus-49 goal differential that ranks 28th in the league. Former coach Dallas Eakins was fired on Dec. 15 and replaced by Todd Nelson, who needed a training period with general manager Craig MacTavish on the bench for the beginning of Nelson's tenure.

Edmonton headed into the break on a high note, though, winning a pair of shootouts following a three-game skid. It beat Florida 3-2 on Jan. 17 and Washington 5-4 last Tuesday for its first back-to-back victories since Nov. 7 and 9.

"We can definitely take some positives out of this," Nelson said. "The guys stuck with it, but there are also things we still have to work on. Our power play has to be better. All in all, I think there's a lot of room for improvement, but we're happy with the way the guys stuck with it."

Taylor Hall was not on the ice for Tuesday's practice after getting hit in the leg by a shot in Monday's skate. He will not suit up for tonight's contest.

The Wild (20-20-6) don't have many positives to look back on through the first portion of the season. They lost eight of 10 heading into the break and sit in last place in the Central Division.

Minnesota spent plenty of money - Zach Parise and Ryan Suter each signed 13-year, $98 million contracts prior to the 2013 season and Thomas Vanek inked a three-year, $19.5 million deal in the offseason - to revitalize the club, but the results haven't come as expected.

The Wild barely qualified for the playoffs two years ago and were eliminated by top-seeded Chicago before the Blackhawks bounced them in the second round last season in six games.

The playoffs are becoming an afterthought this season, but coach Mike Yeo is trying to push forward.

"I was really pleased with our battle level," Yeo said after Minnesota rallied from a three-goal deficit in the third period before falling 5-4 in a shootout to Detroit last Tuesday. "We made a couple of mistakes. And every time it happened, it seemed to wind up in the net. I give everybody a lot of credit."

Minnesota outshot the Red Wings 38-24 and got two goals from Parise and another from Vanek.

"The mood was fine. No one was hanging their heads," Vanek said after the Detroit game. "We were happy with the way we were playing the first two periods. They just got a couple of bounces."

Things have gone Minnesota's way in Edmonton in recent years, as they've won eight of the last nine meetings there. The Oilers won the last matchup 4-3 in a shootout Feb. 11 on the road as Viktor Fasth made 28 saves.

Fasth has started the last two for Edmonton and could be in net again against the Wild, who will go with either Devan Dubnyk or Niklas Backstrom after sending Darcy Kuemper to AHL Iowa for a conditioning stint on Monday.

Dubnyk started the last four games before the break after coming over from Arizona but was pulled against the Red Wings after allowing four goals on 10 shots.

He was 3-0-0 with a 0.97 goals-against average against Edmonton this season as a member of the Coyotes.

Oilers Projected Lines

Pouliot - Nugent-Hopkins - Eberle
Purcell - Roy - Yakupov
Hendricks - Gordon - Klinkhammer
Fraser - Lander - Gazdic

Klefbom - Petry
Fayne - Nikitin
Ference - Schultz

Fasth starts
Scrivens

Game Notes:
MIN was 2-0-1 vs EDM last season
MIN has gone 6-1-1 past 8 vs EDM, 3-0-0 in EDM in that span

Edmonton:
won 2 straight, both in a shootout, 1/10 on PP, won 3 straight just once this season (4 in a row)
Eberle (1G, 1A) past 2 games

Minnesota:
0-1-1 past 2 games, 7GA, 2/4 on PK
Parise (5G, 1A) 4 game PT streak