Despite a nice shiner around his right eye, Wild forward Zach Parise took part in Friday’s practice and believes he’ll be able to play in Saturday’s big game against the Nashville Predators.
“I feel good,” Parise told Wild radio host Kevin Falness after Friday’s practice. “It’s gotten better every day and hopefully the rest of today and tomorrow it will keep progressing.”
“I feel like I can play, so I’m going to plan on playing tomorrow.”
Saturday’s 1 p.m. game in Nashville could be a playoff preview. Minnesota will almost certainly host a best-of-seven first-round series against the third-place finisher in the Central Division. Entering Friday’s games St. Louis is in third place, one point ahead of Nashville.
Parise’s eye wasn’t the only part of him hurt in Tuesday’s overtime loss to Washington. He also suffered a body injury when he collided with another player after he took the stick to the eye.
“Neither of them felt that good,” Parise told Falness. “It’s always scary when you get hit in the eye. It’s always scary opening your eye for the first time, just kind of praying that nothing happened and nothing too serious. I guess I got really lucky that it wasn’t anything worse.”
Parise missed Thursday’s win over Ottawa.
