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Zach Parise out 'week-to-week' with right MCL sprain

Josh Cooper

Minnesota Wild forward Zach Parise is out “week-to-week” with a sprained right MCL. Parise suffered the injury Thursday when he took a hit from Nashville Predators forward James Neal.

Here is the play where Parise was hurt:

"All things considered, in terms of knee injuries, it's best-case scenario," said Minnesota GM Chuck Fletcher.

Parise was off to an excellent start with seven goals in his first 11 games played before the injury. The hit occurred just 1:15 into the Nashville game. On Saturday, Minnesota recalled forward Christoph Bertschy from the team’s American Hockey League affiliate in Iowa to help replace Parise.

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Said coach Mike Yeo via the Minneapolis Star-Tribune on Friday:

“We have to get back to being a real tough team against, and that’s going to be real important. I mean, we’re going to be tested here. Playing against some high skilled teams, we’re missing some skill in the lineup, so certainly we’re going to have to dig in real deep here.”

The Star-Tribune noted how Yeo has initially adjusted his lines in Parise's absence:

In practice today, Yeo didn’t touch the productive Jason Zucker-Mikko Koivu-Nino Niederreiter line. He moved Charlie Coyle from third-line center to second-line right wing with Jason Pominville, who moved to left wing, and Mikael Granlund.

Parise led the Wild last season with 33 goals. He’s scored 31-or-more goals six times in his career.

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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