Matt Moulson injured, and why do Wild teammates call Mikael Granlund, "Bruuuuuuce"

Well, my speculation was correct that Matt Moulson will be the guy out when Matt Cooke returns Friday night in Game 4 from a seven-game suspension.

But the reason, Wild coach Mike Yeo says, is because Moulson has been battling through a lower-body injury for some time. Moulson didn't practice Thursday and will be kept off the ice for a few days "at least," said Yeo, and the hope is the team can get him back later in this series.

No other lineup changes are expected from the Wild. Same lines as Tuesday, except for Cooke sliding into his old third-line spot next to Erik Haula and Justin Fontaine. Keith Ballard looks like he'll play a second game in a row and Nate Prosser will be scratched.

The Wild trails 1-2 in its series against Chicago. Last year against the Hawks, the Wild won Game 3, lost Game 4 at home and was promptly lost the series in five. The Wild knows the importance of Friday night's 8:30 game. The time for Game 5 will be determined after Friday's Rangers-Penguins game. If the Pens win, the Wild and Hawks are expected to play in the early evening Sunday. If the Rangers win, the Wild and Hawks may get another 8:30 p.m. start.

Wild defenseman Ryan Suter is fine. He said Marian Hossa landed on his arm weird and it just started burning. He was very worried (said it was scary), but he obviously returned to play almost 10 minutes in the third, sprung the 3-on-2 that led to the Zach Parise to Jason Pominville to Mikael Granlund tic-tac-boom goal and assisted on Parise's power-play goal when Parise lifted his stick to signal to Suter that he had net-front position.

"Everyone played better in the third," said Suter.

On the importance of tomorrow's game, coach Mike Yeo said, "We've given ourselves a chance to even the series up and to go back to Chicago and hopefully put a little bit of pressure on those guys. We know that they recognize the importance of the game as do we. With that, our mindset I think more than anything else is, we know that there is another level to our game that we can get to. We're still focused on that. Obviously happy that we won the last game, but we're determined to get better in the series and in this next game. We're going to come out with a real purpose in how we play. We have to stay strong defensively, but I know that there is another level that we can get to with the puck and how we execute, in particular from coming out of our D zone and through the neutral zone. And I really think that we can still do a better job of putting some more pressure on their goalie, not only shots and getting them through, but the amount of times we have guys around the net and traffic around the net."

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"We're looking for balance and maybe all lines, a little more threat to score on all the lines," Quenneville said.

On scratching players, Q said, "Sometimes it gets their attention. It's never personal. It's hey, let's go. We're trying to find ways to get the most of each and every individual. That's kind of where we're at in that situation."

Said Leddy, the Wild 2009 first-round pick who had played 296 straight games for Chicago before being scratched, "I think any competitor would get ticked at that. Like I said, I don't think I was playing the way that coaches wanted and it was a coaching decision. I've got to be better."

I'm doing a story for Friday on what to expect in Game 4. Despite the fact the hockey world always blames the Wild for games when the neutral zone is cobweb-like, it was very clear Game 3's tone was set by Chicago. The Blackhawks, after seeing Games 3 and 4 against Colorado, came up with a gameplan to sit back early and try to weather a furious storm and take the crowd out of it. Then it suddenly became a chess match until the first goal was scored thankfully early in the third.

"Of course we're going to be blamed for that. I mean, it's the high-flying Hawks. Of course, it's going to be us," Parise said, sarcastically. "Show me a team in the NHL that doesn't play a trap and I'll call you a liar because every single team does it. Whoever does it the best, then they get called a defensive team. I don't agree with that. Every single team plays a trap.

"Last game, the ice was bouncy. There wasn't a lot of flat plays through the neutral zone and I think both sides were somewhat getting frustrated because you couldn't get it through clean. So then all of sudden you just try to stretch pass and chip it in and skate. They did the same thing to us that we did to them. It wasn't like we were playing an 0-5 [defensive system] all game."

At the end of the video, when Granlund walked into the room, teammates started calling him, "Bruuuuuuce."

I got a hundred tweets yesterday asking why. Slowly but surely, I figured it out. Basically, pretty much every player has a "stupid, random" nickname, one player told me. This player suggested I may want to talk to Parise for the "Bruce" genesis with a little friendly head-up as to what I should probably ask.

As it turns out, well worth it.

Players call Parise, "Brinks," as in "Brinks" $$$ trucks. Mike Rupp brought it to the Wild from New Jersey, where Parise and Rupp were teammates.

"One day we're sitting at breakfast and I was walking away and Granny called me, 'Springs,'" Parise said, laughing. "I'm like, 'What did you call me?' He goes, 'Springs.' I go, 'What is that?' He goes, 'Isn't that what everyone calls you?' I go, 'No, no, they call me Brinks.' He goes, 'Oh, I thought it was Springs, like Bruce Springsteen' [because I played in New Jersey]," Parise said, hysterically laughing.