From the Rink: Brodin set to return against Blues

ST. PAUL --After missing nine games following surgery on his left hand, Jonas Brodin will officially return to the Wild's lineup Tuesday night.
Perhaps it's somewhat fitting that, three weeks to the day after sustaining the injury against the Blues, Brodin's first game back in action is against the same opponent. Though the Wild went home with a definitive win over a division rival, it lost one of its top-four defensemen to what Brodin called an "unlucky" injury.

"I'm really excited for tonight and to start playing again," Brodin said. "Of course it was tough, but it was nice to see the team play well … hope we can keep going; we've got some really important games coming up."
The first of those comes Tuesday night, as Minnesota seeks to elongate its win streak to five games against the slumping Blues, who have lost six straight. Brodin's return certainly won't hurt the Wild's chances.

"Brods is a guy that goes a little bit unnoticed out there but that's a good thing, because he's not giving anything up," said Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk. "His skating ability is tops in the League and he's fun to have back there."
Though Brodin doesn't often make an appearance on the box score -- his five goals on the season are the second-most of his career -- the other aspects of his game make him an invaluable staple of the Wild's blue line, even as younger players have stepped up in his absence.
After the Wild
traded
Mike Reilly to the Montreal Canadiens at the NHL Trade Deadline on Monday, a window of opportunity on the back end opened ... for about half an hour. Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher
confirmed
to media after the deadline Brodin would indeed return to the lineup Tuesday evening.
"We wanted to keep this group intact as much as possible," Dubnyk said. "It shows that they believe in us] as well, and we've worked hard since Christmas to really show that we can win in here ... it's nice to get the chance to go prove that."
And while the Wild didn't make any blockbuster trade deadline acquisitions, getting Brodin back is just as good, if not better, said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau.
"We get back our highest plus-minus defenseman, a very good puck-moving defenseman, a very good skater that knows how to play his position," Boudreau said. "You get back one of your best defensemen so it really added to our team."
Brodin has been skating on his own for several weeks, and joined the team for morning skate on Sunday. Able to bike and skate and do just about everything but stick-handle for the majority of his rehab, the path to recovery traversed some frustrating road blocks.
But with that behind him, the only thing to do is to dive right back into game action. It can take a few shifts to shake the rust off, but Brodin remains confident that won't be a lengthy process.
"I'm still in good shape," Brodin said. "I feel good, I've been skating a lot, shooting a lot, stick-handling and shooting lately."
Here are tonight's projected lineups:
**WILD:**
Jason Zucker - Eric Staal - Mikael Granlund
Zach Parise - Mikko Koivu - Nino Niederreiter
Tyler Ennis - Joel Eriksson Ek - Charlie Coyle
Marcus Foligno - Matt Cullen - Daniel Winnik
Ryan Suter - Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin - Matt Dumba
Nick Seeler - Nate Prosser
Devan Dubnyk
Alex Stalock
BLUES:
Alexander Steen - Ivan Barbashev - Vladimir Tarasenko
Jaden Schwartz - Brayden Schenn - Nikita Soshnikov
Patrik Berglund - Vladimir Sobotka - Tage Thompson
Scottie Upshall - Kyle Brodziak - Dmitrij Jaskin
Jay Bouwmeester - Alex Pietrangelo
Vince Dunn - Colton Parayko
Carl Gunnarsson - Jordan Schmaltz
Jake Allen
Carter Hutton
Related:
- [Wild Warmup: Minnesota vs. St. Louis - Photo blog: Emotional game set between Blues and Wild - Watch: Wild Vision: Feb. 27 vs. St. Louis