Charlie Coyle's return to the Wild lineup gives coach Mike Yeo more options.
That became apparent Wednesday when, for the first time since Zach Parise joined the Wild, his usual centerman, Mikko Koivu, was on a different line.
When the Wild plays Montreal on Friday, not only is Coyle expected to return after missing 11 games because of a sprained knee, the second-year forward is expected to center Parise.
Koivu centered a line with Nino Niederreiter and Kyle Brodziak on Wednesday.
"I can't say I was too surprised," said Parise, second on the Wild with six goals. "It kind of felt like it was coming, but we just didn't have Charlie to give us flexibility in the middle."
Parise leads the Wild in scoring with nine points in 13 games. Koivu is tied for second with eight points. But while they have spent a lot of time in the offensive zone, they haven't been productive at even-strength.
Parise and Koivu have each registered four 5-on-5 points, and the Wild is tied for 24th in the NHL with 16 5-on-5 goals.
"I thought we were getting a lot of great opportunities and spending a lot of time in the offensive zone," Parise said. "But at the end of the day, we weren't finishing. So I don't think it really had anything to do with [us] not having chemistry. We weren't putting the puck in the back of the net. That's the objective of the game and we weren't doing it."