Wild captain Mikko Koivu was a late scratch on Saturday because of what has been revealed to be a scratched cornea. Minnesota suffered a 3-2 shootout loss to Detroit in that contest, but Wild coach Mike Yeo thinks Koivu “should be absolutely fine by” Monday for their game against the Jets, per the Star Tribune’s Michael Russo.
Minnesota will try to avoid its first three-game losing streak since Devan Dubnyk took over the goaltending duties on Jan. 15. Thanks to the Wild’s midseason turnaround, they are very likely to make the playoffs at this point, but they’ll also want to keep their momentum going in the hopes that it will continue into the playoffs.
They’ll be facing a desperate Jets squad though as Winnipeg would be narrowly eliminated if the regular season ended today. Like Los Angeles, Winnipeg has 92 points in 78 contests, but the Kings control the tiebreaker (ROW) so the Jets need to finish at least one point ahead of them to advance to the postseason.
Prior to Koivu’s injury, he had three goals and five points in his last four games. It sounds like his injury probably didn’t occur during a game.