Nothing like opening the home season without a handful of your best forwards.
The Wild went into Thursday's game at Chicago with only 11 healthy forwards, and emerged with its first victory of the season and only eight healthy forwards.
And none of the team's five injured players is expected to make a return for the team's home opener Saturday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Xcel Energy Center.
"We started talking about which one of the defensemen was going to have to come up here to play forward," winger Chris Stewart said postgame Thursday, "just to even the lines out."
Charlie Coyle, playing in his franchise-record 316th consecutive game, suffered a broken right fibula when hit with a shot and had surgery Friday in the Twin Cities. He is expected to miss six to eight weeks.
Nino Niederreiter, checked awkwardly into the boards, came away with a high left ankle sprain and is out at least three weeks.
Marcus Foligno took a haymaker on the left cheekbone from John Hayden after ripping Hayden's helmet off in a fight, and has a facial fracture that will sideline him at least a week.
Wingers Zach Parise and Mikael Granlund were already sitting out. Granlund, the team's scoring leader last season, has a groin issue and is out at least another week. Parise, believed to be having complications from a back injury, was supposed to miss Saturday's game but was vague Friday.