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This is one of those random East-West tilts, with two teams which have very little history of playing each other meeting for a Friday night game in Minneapolis. This said, the Minnesota faithful will sell the place out, as they've done every game since the team was reborn.

There will also be a few curious fans there to see this young star known as John Tavares, who has lived up to the hype of being the number one draft pick this past June. Unfortunately for the Wild fans, their team has given them little reason to watch as they enter this game with a paltry 7-12-2 record compared to the upstart Islanders who are at 8-6-7 on the year and putting up a good fight against each opponent (evidenced by their 7 ties).

Make no mistakes about it, these Islanders are much better than in years past and are a great team to ride on, as they'll be underdogs in just about every game, including this one. One of the reasons behind the Islanders' success has been the stellar play from their goalie. Dwayne Roloson is 6-1-5 on the year and might be playing the best hockey of his career, while on the other side, stalwart netminder Niklas Backstrom hasn't been himself, going into this game with a 7-9-2 record.

While Mikko Koivu is providing the Wild with some offense, with 20 points on the year, all eyes are still on Marty Havlat, their high profile free agent signing who has been downright awful with only 8 points. This is supposed to be a high flying Wild team, but instead they have started off the season on a whimper.

The Regular Time Match Odds favor the Wild at 2.2 (+120) compared to 2.7 (+170) for the Islanders and the Money Line has the Islanders at 2.08 (+108), all the more reason for me to back the Islanders in this game and for many games in the future. They won't get any respect for a while, so any time they play, check out who the opponent is and then take a chance on them. Just like Friday, when they visit the Wild.

One more quick tip for you as the odds are too good to resist. The Colorado Avalanche are in Vancouver to face the Canucks. The Canucks will certainly be well rested in this contest, having last played Saturday against the same Avs, whom they laid a beating on. The season series favors Vancouver, who have won 2 of 3 meetings. But being well-rested can also mean rusty.

The Avs played back to back games earlier this week against the Flames and the Oil and came out of it with the split. Daniel Sedin, who's been on the shelf for quite some time, was expected to play in this game, but won't until Sunday. The Avs will be looking for revenge and I am confident that backing them at 2.42 (+142) will pay off nicely.