Wild forward Jason Zucker banged up, Mike Reilly back up to play the Maple Leafs

Good moods were plentiful down at Xcel Energy Center today.

Lots of jokes and laughs between players and staff inside the locker room after an energetic practice in preparation for Thursday's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Leafs are building with a ton of young talent, not just Auston Matthews, whom I featured in Thursday's Star Tribune (please give a read once it's up on the site later today; it's a fun one with some great stuff after phone conversations with Lou Lamoriello and Marc Crawford).

There are also blossoming kids like William Nylander and Mitchell Marner, veteran forwards like Minnesota resident James van Riemsdyk and, of course, the pride of Minnetonka (now South Minneapolis) Jake Gardiner.

Speaking of Gardiner, his childhood friend and offseason training partner, Mike Reilly, is back on the Wild roster. As I wrote in today's paper, the assignment to Iowa was very temporary and he's back to play the Leafs.

Reilly needs accept that 1) being the defenseman who doesn't require waivers (unlike Christian Folin and Nate Prosser), he could be up and down I-35 based on lineup and roster decisions, and 2) being a young defenseman, he could be up and down based on his personal play.

"It's not a bad thing," coach Bruce Boudreau, one of the best AHL players and coaches in history, said. "The whole idea is to play. It's a great development league. If you're not playing here, that's the place to be. But everybody wants to be here, so the best way to do it is play really well. There's nobody that wants younger guys in the lineup more than me because that's how you build your future."

"You sit a guy out after one game, you've got to throw him back in," Boudreau said. "You've got to give him a chance to get back in there and say, 'You're not sending me down or not sitting me out anymore.' I'm a big believer in giving guys second chances."

So who comes out for Reilly?

Sure doesn't seem like it'll be Christian Folin, who is plus-3 in two victories and has six hits.

"He's a guy getting better with confidence," Boudreau said of the big Swede. "When you don't have a lot of big defensemen and a guy that's fairly physical, you need that in the lineup."

So by process of elimination, the scratch against the Leafs will be Matt Dumba. He was paired with Prosser today, and even though he scored a huge tying power-play goal against Winnipeg, he has played erratically with the puck in his three games.

Asked if it's Dumba, Boudreau said, laughing, "Don't start that. You can go and read and put all the guys down, but don't ask me."

One bit of injury news today: Jason Zucker didn't practice. Boudreau called it a maintenance day and hopes he can play against the Leafs. If not, the Wild will either need to recall a forward or dress seven defensemen, which could explain why he's not willing to say Dumba is the scratch.

For the second consecutive practice, Boudreau lauded third-line center Erik Haula, well, except for the fact Boudreau is limping around and claims it was Haula who shot the puck at him in practice.

"I'll get him," the chipper coach vowed.

I re-watched the game today and Haula was as good as I've ever seen him. He intercepted or foiled about a half-dozen rushes in the neutral zone, one that led to Jason Pominville's go-ahead goal with 12 seconds left in the first against the Kings.

"He was good, and he had to be good," Boudreau said of Haula. "That's the balance. We didn't have everybody else going. You need people to step up at the time maybe the Staal line or Koivu line wasn't at its best."

The Wild's penalty kill, which was 27th last season a year after being first in the league, is one of three PK's in the league that is a perfect 100 percent. The Wild has killed the most chances, going 11 for 11.

"Scotty's doing a great job, he's real detailed about it," Boudreau said of assistant coach Scott Stevens. "We'll continue to get better. We've used nine or 10 different penalty killers. We haven't settled on our top 8 yet."

The defensemen, depending on who's in the box, have been Suter-Spurgeon and Scandella-Folin. The forwards have been Parise-Staal, Koivu-Granlund, Haula-Pominville and Zucker mixed in there, too.

Reminder, the Russo-Souhan Show will be taped live today at Hell's Kitchen in downtown Minneapolis at 4 o'clock. Please join in for the fun. It'll be the last one there until November because I hit the road Friday for a four-game trip.