The Wild sent forward Michael Keranen and defenseman Gustav Olofsson back to Iowa today.

It's an off day after a 4-2 loss in Boston. The Wild practices at noon to get ready for Saturday night's game at the X against Nashville. James Neal might have his head on a swivel in that one ... the Predators forward hit Zach Parise from behind on Nov. 5, causing the knee injury that has sidelined the Wild star since.

Chris Miller (@cmillstrib) in for Russo today ... for updates, still follow Russo on Twitter, not me. I quit covering hockey when they made the players wear helmets, so I can't tell the difference between Chara and Crosby.

Keranan played Tuesday in PIttsburgh and got a little over six minutes in ice time in his NHL debut. Olofsson's first NHL game was in Boston. He clanked a cannonading (sp?) shot off iron and got 10:41 of ice time subbing in for Jonas Brodin (flu-like symptoms).

Jason Zucker was injured (leg) in the final seconds of Thursday's game, so we'll get his status ... Justin Fontaine and Parise (sprained right MCLs for both) might be close to returning. We'll know more after practice. Will blog then ... off in search of coffee, I assume they deliver to Russo but the backups have to grind their own.

All our Wild stories from last night's game are here.