The Minnesota Wild’s road to the playoffs won’t include a key player for their Thursday date with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Forward Mikael Granlund suffered an upper-body injury in the Wild’s 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday. He won’t practice today and head coach Mike Yeo said he won’t play Thursday against the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks, according to the Star Tribune.
Wild beat writer Michael Russo wrote that Granlund had a “rasberry-looking” mark under his left eye following the game against the Kings. He was injured in the second period after slamming his head into the shoulder of Kings forward Jarret Stoll on an attempted check.
Granlund missed 13 games earlier this season with a concussion. No word on whether his latest “upper-body injury” is concussion related, but more news on the seriousness of the injury could come later today.
Nino Niederreiter was also injured against the Kings but he is expected to practice today.
Also out with an injury is goalie Darcy Kuemper. The Wild recalled John Curry from their AHL affiliate in Iowa to serve as a backup to starting goaltender Illya Bryzgalov. Forward Jake Dowell was also recalled.
With six games remaining ,the Wild sits in seventh in the Western Conference standings, just four points ahead of Dallas and Phoenix, who are tied for eighth.
