Evening, or early morning to you. This blog will be super tiny because I wrote a long game story just for the web since the story didn't get into a lot of papers. So check that out at startribune.com/wild

Wild worked its butt off tonight, but didn't have much puck luck and showed how big the losses to Mikko Koivu and Kyle Brodziak are. The Kings won 13 of 17 faceoffs in the third period, and the Wild really missed the right-side triggerman of Brodziak. Not having Koivu and Brodziak especially hurts in the d-zone against a big, aggressive team like LA.

Wild played the Kings well for large chunks of this game though, impressive for a team this shorthanded. The Kings improved to 10-1-3 in their past 14 and were coming off a 6-1-3 trip.

Brodziak, coach Todd Richards confirmed, will not make the trip to Anaheim for the game Friday night.

Richards said a couple guys were banged up after this one, but he didn't give any indication if any guys who played tonight would miss the Ducks game.

Wild having a very optional morning skate Friday morning, so I'd suspect barring news I'll update the blog around 7 p.m. CT tomorrow after we get Richards and some players pregame.

Wild fell to sixth, tied with four other teams with 70 points. Jose Theodore vs. Dan Ellis Friday night.