Jordan Schroeder takes injured Zach Parise's lineup spot; Koivu-Schultz banter

It's easy to play when things are going well. We'll now see how the Wild handles its first taste of adversity under John Torchetti.

Starting tonight here in Philly, the Wild plays back-to-back games following its first loss in five games under Torchetti and without first-line left wing Zach Parise and second-line right wing Jason Zucker.

Jordan Schroeder has been called up and will be slotted right into Parise's spot with Mikko Koivu and Charlie Coyle. Porter, who scored the Wild's lone goal in Tuesday's loss to the Islanders, will remain on a line with Thomas Vanek and Mikael Granlund.

"I like the depth of the other two lines," Torchetti said of the Nino Niederreiter-Erik Haula-Jason Pominville and Ryan Carter-Jarret Stoll-Justin Fontaine lines.

Normally when Schroeder gets called up, he's slotted into a fourth-line spot, which isn't probably where he could best be utilized.

So Torchetti said, "It's a chance. He's actually a top-3 for us down in the American League, so you try to slot him in those spots. We want to use that speed for sure. We need some more speed because now with Zach and Zuck out, it's a lot of speed missing in your lineup. So we want to instill it. It's a good opportunity for [Schroeder]. Let's see what he does with it and we'll go from there."

Schroeder said, "It's going to be a great experience, a new opportunity for me playing with two heck of players out there. I'm going to try to take advantage of it every way I can."

On Parise's upper-body injury, I don't know what happened, but he did take a big hit from Matt Martin that I do remember the other night. Not sure if that's what caused this.

"We'll see how he does with the treatments. We'll see how it feels when we get back," Torchetti said.

The Wild is 4-1 under Torchetti and has only gotten one point closer to the playoffs now (four points back) because Colorado and Nashville keep getting points. It just shows you how hard it is to come from behind and how damaging one loss is this time of year in a league full of three-point games. It also makes you appreciate the second-half comebacks of the Wild the past two seasons.

It ain't easy.

Asked how concerned he is now that the Wild faces such a task without Parise and Zucker in the immediate future, Torchetti said, "It's hockey. You're missing a good player and you just move on. That's it. You've got to work with what you've got and don't worry about what you don't have.

Devan Dubnyk vs. Michal Neuvirth tonight.

By the way, tonight is Koivu's 742nd game and he goes up against his longtime friend Nick Schultz. Tomorrow in Washington, Koivu is expected to tie Schultz's Wild record by playing his 743rd game. Sunday at home against Florida, Koivu should break Schultz's record.

Schultz joked today that he'll either take Koivu out tonight or hope Chuck Fletcher trades him before Sunday (remember the trade deadline is Monday).

"He mentioned that to me last night when I was paying his dinner ... again," Koivu said.

For the record, Schultz says this was the first time Koivu has ever paid for dinner and he only did so to look good in front of Stoll.

In all seriousness, and I'll have more on the record breaking in tomorrow's paper, but Schultz said, "I didn't think my record was going to stand forever. It's neat that it's Mikko. Very well-deserving. I'm glad it's him jumping in front of me. It should be."