Zach Parise taken off injured reserve, expected to return for the Wild today

Zach Parise, who missed the past eight games with a sprained knee ligament, was taken off injured reserve this morning. That should pave the way for his return this afternoon (3 p.m.) against the Winnipeg Jets.

Parise, the team's leading goal scorer with seven when injured Nov. 5, took part in morning skates Saturday and Wednesday but practiced for the first time yesterday.

He said afterward he was hopeful to return today as long as the docs agreed he'd be safe and his knee responded well. The Wild is 4-3-1 without Parise, but it's 1-3-1 in the past five and is suddenly sitting in the second wildcard position and two points ahead of ninth-place Arizona.

Here is the story from today's Star Tribune on Parise's anticipated return.

In practice yesterday, he skated on a line with Mikael Granlund and Charlie Coyle and all the lines have been reported in the article and yesterday's blog.