Time: 19 Dec 2009 at 7:00 PM ET
League: NHL – United States of America

Last 10 matches: Minnesota 8-2-0; Ottawa 4-6-0
Backstrom is on top of his game right now for Minnesota. He’s won four consecutive starts, giving up a single goal in the last three and shutting out Colorado prior to that. Koivu has a goal and two assists in the last two games and leads the team with 33 points.

Picard has goals in consecutive games for Ottawa. Forward Mike Fisher had his five-game points streak snapped in New Jersey. The good news is nobody got hurt, but the Wild are in the midst of dealing with a serious matter after a truck fire Friday damaged much of the team’s equipment. Team officials were working to gather replacement equipment which would then be loaded on a plane bound for Ottawa in the early hours of Saturday morning. What kind of distraction this might prove to be for the players remains to be seen.

“I’ve never heard of anything like this in my life,” forward Martin Havlat told the Ottawa Sun. “When I first heard about it, I thought it was some kind of a joke.”
Concussions have sidelined Wild defenseman Brent Burns and forwards Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Petr Sykora and Andrew Ebbett, though the latter could return on Saturday. Nolan is also out with a leg injury.

A torn right MCL will sideline Senators forward Jason Spezza for the next 6-8 weeks. Forward Nick Foligno will miss at least two weeks following arthroscopic knee surgery. Knee injuries have forwards Shean Donovan and Chris Neil out indefinitely and goalie Pascal Leclaire remains on injured reserve with a broken jaw.
The injury to Spezza means the Senators will need more out of players like Milan Michalek. After coming over from San Jose in the Dany Heatley trade, Michalek scored 15 goals in his first 25 games. Over his last nine games he’s recorded just a solitary assist and has a minus-8 rating. Live score and results will be available soon.. stay tuned.