Zach Parise admits to aggravating knee injury, still hopes to play Saturday

Zach Parise acknowledged after practicing Friday in Tampa that he has indeed aggravated the right knee injury that caused him to miss eight games in November.

"It felt great for a long time," said Parise, who has scored 11 goals and 22 points in 27 games. "A 10-game stretch after I came back, it felt normal like nothing happened and then it kind of went the other way."

Parise said there wasn't a single incident that set him back.

"A couple things happened," he said. "It just felt like every game something happened and it just got worse and worse. Things happened, and it started to not feel good anything. So I'm just trying to play it a little safe."

Parise said he's trying to avoid this from lingering all season.

"That's the biggest thing," Parise said. "I don't want to be dealing with it going into February and March and April. That's the hard part right now is trying to manage it, I guess."

But Parise's stubborn. He missed Thursday's game in St. Louis. The smart thing could be to sit out a few more and rest. Yet there he was practicing Friday and saying afterward that there's a chance he plays Saturday night against the Lightning provided his knee responded well the rest of Friday and feels good after Saturday's morning skate.

Friday's practice wasn't an incredibly intense practice, but Parise took part in a 3-on-3 competition at the end and felt good. He also assumed his usual spot on the No. 1 power-play unit and skated line rushes, but that could have just been because center Erik Haula missed Friday's practice with upper-body soreness.

Haula got tossed around during a late scrum with Blues bruiser Ryan Reaves Thursday, but coach Mike Yeo joked Haula's pain could have stemmed from his exuberant "celebration" on his third-period winning goal.

Yeo thinks Haula will be able to play Saturday.

If Parise plays, Yeo said there's a "very good chance" he'll have to shuffle up the Nino Niederreiter-Haula-Justin Fontaine line that was so good against St. Louis.

"We bounced a bunch of different scenarios around today and until we know if [Parise's] going to play or not, it's best we put it off [the line decisions] until [Saturday]," Yeo said.

The Wild won a big game Thursday in St. Louis. It has a chance to make this a quality four-game road trip if it keeps its foot on the gas.

"We have make sure prepared for [the Lightning]," Yeo said. "They didn't stumble their way to the Stanley Cup Final last year by accident. This will be a good challenge. That's still a very, very dangerous team over there and we have to make sure that we're ready for their best."

In other news, with back-to-back road games and no extra defensemen on the roster, the Wild recalled Tyson Strachan as insurance.