(St. Paul, MN) — This is not the start to the season that Wild winger Zach Parise was hoping for. After a 2016-17 season that saw injuries and health related problems limit Parise to 69 games, his hope was that a full off-season of conditioning would make him ready to hit the ground running into a new campaign. However, the injury bug reared it’s head into training camp last month causing him to miss the entire preseason and the first two games of the regular season. Monday, for the first time since the Wild dropped the puck, Parise skated with his teammates and, according to head coach Bruce Boudreau, looked great and made it through the duration of the work out including the skating drills at the end. Neither would put a time table on his return but both sounded hopeful that it could be either Thursday in Chicago or for Saturday’s home opener against Columbus.
Zach Parise
Parise isn’t the only Wild forward to miss time early. Mikael Granlund was held from Saturday’s shootout loss at Carolina due to a groin injury. Last season’s leading scorer also missed Monday’s practice in St. Paul to get looked at by a doctor. Boudreau said when he saw Granlund on Sunday he looked better and didn’t expect the injury to be long term but was waiting to hear back from the physicians.
Mikael Granlund
The Wild are still in search of their first win of the season after losing the opener last Thursday in Detroit and then getting clipped in Raleigh by the Hurricanes. Chris Stewart is your leading goal scorer through two games with a goal in each of the first two contests. Devan Dubnyk suffered the loss to the Wings; Alex Stalock took the loss to the Canes.
The Wild are next on the ice Thursday in Chicago when they face the always tough Blackhawks. Puck drops from the United Center at 7:30 P-M.