Center Erik Haula, who has a team-high 21 points in 27 games since John Torchetti took over as Wild coach, is expected to return to the lineup Saturday in Game 2 against the Dallas Stars.
Haula missed Thursday's 4-0 loss to the Dallas Stars with a lower-body injury. That was the Wild's sixth straight loss with six total goals scored in that span.
While it was clear watching Friday's practice that Haula isn't 100 percent, the Wild's hoping Haula's speed and offensive ability between Nino Niederreiter and Jason Pominville creates a threat that was missing Thursday.
"It's frustrating to watch up top," Haula said. "You want to be out there and helping your teammates and you can't. I'm ready to go. I'm excited."
What did Haula learn from watching?
"I feel like we lost opportunities to hold onto pucks and create in the neutral zone," he said. "If we can just get in their zone and have the puck, be in there more than five seconds and create shots off that, that's a key thing. They're going to get their chances, they're going to get offense, but we've just got to stick with it for 60 minutes and play the same way and make it really hard on them to get pucks into open ice."
Haula indicated that the Wild planned to get together as a team later Friday.
"It's a challenge. We came here for a split and I think everyone should just be positive and create a positive environment just overall everywhere of being able to accomplish the goal," he said.
