Wild returning with Kuemper tonight; Brodin return likely; Parise discusses his struggling line

The Wild will try to bounce back from Wednesday's 4-0 home loss to the Los Angeles Kings tonight in Dallas, where the Wild won, 2-1, Nov. 15, behind Darcy Kuemper's 27-save performance.

Prior to that Dallas game, Kuemper was pulled at home after giving up two goals on two shots in an eventual victory over Buffalo. Kuemper has now been chased in his past two home starts, so coach Mike Yeo will give him a chance to rebound a second time in Dallas.

So why return with Kuemper?

1) The above bouncebacks; 2) Kuemper has stopped 46 of 48 shots in two victories this season against the Stars; 3) Niklas Backstrom is 1-5-3 all-time at Dallas with a 3.75 goals-against average and .868 save percentage; 4) the Wild plays at home Saturday night against St. Louis, so Backstrom can start that game.

Kuemper getting rattled in the midst of tough games and letting it affect him is becoming part of his M.O. We saw it last year, we have seen it this year.

"Well, he's a young kid who is proving himself," Yeo said. "I said that from the start of the year, there's going to be ups and there's going to be downs. We'll keep working on him. We're trying to continue to develop a young player. Obviously, we've seen what he's capable of and it's up to us, it's up to him to try to bring the consistency out."

I didn't cover last game, but I watched on my cell phone and I told my brother right at the second goal that Yeo would be kicking himself for not pulling him then. After the third and fourth goals, I said Yeo's going to be really beating himself up because it was so clear early that Kuemper was in la-la land.

"Part of it is I don't want to just pull him every time that he lets in a bad goal," Yeo said. "He's got to fight through it, too. We'd pulled our goalies in the two previous home games, so after two goals just to pull a goalie again, in hindsight, sure probably would have done it, but that said it's important for him to battle through that stuff. That's part of your development as a player, is going through those hard times as well. We want to develop him. We know how important he is to us not only this year but the future and so that was part of it."

Good afternoon from Dallas, where the Wild plays tonight at 7:30. Hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving. Wild is 5-0 against the Central (but hasn't played Chicago or St. Louis yet) and the Stars are 0-5-2 against the Central (but hasn't played Colorado yet).

Not sure exactly the forward lines tonight because Mikko Koivu and Thomas Vanek didn't skate. I saw Vanek off the ice. I never did see Koivu.

Defenseman Jonas Brodin is expected to play for the first time in eight games tonight. He had been out since Nov. 11 with the mumps.

Brodin said he lost some weight (not sure from where since he's a rail). The virus hit him bad, saying that he woke up in New Jersey and his jaw hurt. He still played and started to feel sicker during the game. The next day, he woke up in Minnesota and was completely sick with a very noticeable swollen jaw.

Brodin said he has felt good on the ice since Monday. "It's fun to get back with the guys and fun to start playing again."

Yeo didn't divulge who would sit if Brodin returned. Obviously, Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon, Marco Scandella and Brodin will be the top-four, so it'll be either be Keith Ballard, Nate Prosser or Matt Dumba. If the Wild wants to keep Ballard in because he's the only left-shot, it'll be Prosser or Dumba.

A reporter this morning asked about Dumba's progress and Yeo kinda hesitated and grinned before answering, and Yeo's poker face sometimes is BAD (I'd be wealthy if I sat across the table from Yeo at a card table), so it could be Dumba.

On Dumba, Yeo said, "Again, with just another young kid, consistency's always the big thing. I just want to keep seeing improvement in his game. The improvement, if you want to compare it to a guy like Zuck, the improvement's not going to come from him shooting harder or skating faster or making a nicer play. The improvement's going to come from all the other little things and we're going to continue to work with that."

Brodin has skated on his own and in two morning skates and only one full practice (yesterday). Ideally, that's not enough practice time for a guy who hasn't played since Nov. 11, but Yeo said, "Back-to-back games here and if physically he's feeling fit, his skating ability and his execution [would be a welcome addition]. We wouldn't expect a perfect game from him, but a good game from him we kind of expect, and a good game from him, it would mean a lot to our team."

Turns out Yeo brought them in for video clips this morning because he spotted bad habits creeping into the game.

Pominville has really struggled. He has one goal in the past 14 games and is tied for fifth among NHL forwards with 34 missed shots, and that's only posts and missed nets, that's not all the swings and misses and fans we have seen this season.

"There's been some good and some bad," Parise said. "I think we're spending a little too much time in our D zone. We've been getting good chances. We haven't been scoring as much as we'd like, and I think that's causing us to start to cheat on offense. [Yeo] brought up how Pommer and I, right when we get the puck, we're trying to fly and even if we do get the puck, it's still a 1-on-2 or 2-on-2, and you can't really generate much like that. So it's more so coming up the ice together and timing a little better and in the offensive zone, we're so good at retrieving pucks off of shots, but right now we've kind of stopped shooting and we're trying to make that extra play and they're breaking it up and now we're backchecking rather than holding onto it a little longer and supporting and shooting. We haven't shot.

"It's just like second nature, when things aren't going well, all of sudden you start to fan out to the perimeter. No one's going through to the net, everybody wants something out here (motioning away from the net) and we've been guilty of that right now. It's not working for us. I'm glad he brought it up because you don't notice it when you're in the game."

Yeo on that line: "That line, when they're on their game I don't know that we have another group and maybe that's because that they've played with each other as much as they have, but that uses each other and plays with each other as well as they do. It hasn't been as much the last few games. … That confidence that doesn't just come back magically. You have to work for it to come back and I think it will."

According to STATS INC., 77.3 percent of NHL teams since 2005-06 that are in the top-8 at Thanksgiving make the playoffs. Entering tonight (after Thanksgiving), the Wild is in ninth place in the West – three points behind second wildcard team, Winnipeg.

Interesting, two exceptions to the "rule" the past five years were the Wild. In 2008-09 and 2011-12, the Wild was inside the top-8 at Thanksgiving and ended up missing the playoffs.

"It's funny, there's such an emphasis on points at the end of the season and those races, but they're so important early also," PARISE said. "You don't want to put yourself in that situation where you're trying to chase or hoping people lose. But it's still November. But we've got to get ourselves playing better hockey – bottom line."