The Wild has sustained a significant loss in its lineup for at least the next fews weeks as defenseman Jared Spurgeon, who has played alongside Ryan Suter the past two games and was plus-3 in 27 minutes against Buffalo on Thursday, will be sidelined with a lower-body injury. He has been placed on injured reserve.
Spurgeon, who has been banged up lately as it is, blocked a shot last game. He didn't miss a shift, but it sounds like it stems from that.
Jonas Brodin will move back to the right side with Suter and Nate Prosser will move to the second pair with Marco Scandella.
"Pross, I liked his game [the past few]," coach Mike Yeo said. "He's shown in the past that he can provide the kind of stability and defensive game that we need to go up against top lines. It's a great opportunity for him."
Clayton Stoner will skate tonight with Keith Ballard, who was a healthy scratch last game.
"Bally's a very capable veteran guy," Yeo said.
He has struggled bigtime though. He's a minus-12 the past 17 games, and hasn't had a plus game during those 17. I talked to him today about his game and that will be a big part of my game notebook in Sunday's paper.
The Wild is down to six defensemen now with Jon Blum next on the depth chart. We'll see if the Wild now brings Matt Dumba back to Minnesota to add depth after world juniors (my gut has always been that he was going to be assigned to Portland of the WHL, which traded for his junior rights, after world juniors; now I'm not too sure, at least initially). The team may have to in order to step some sort of depth tide unless GM Chuck Fletcher can find a way to add a defenseman. I can't imagine the Wild's too comfortable with its depth on the blue line right now, especially until Ballard shows he can bring some stability to the lineup.
