After comeback falls short, Wild, Devan Dubnyk say they're not worried about his knee injury

Update: While Dustin Byfuglien may very well get away with his needless check on Jason Pominville in a dangerous and vulnerable position last night, I do think Alex Burmistrov gets dinged for his elbow on Jared Spurgeon. Was blatant, similar to Jason Demers (two-game suspension the other day) and Burmistrov was warned earlier this year for an elbow.

UPDATE: He avoided suspension but was fined $4,166.67 -- the max allowable under the CBA.

Also, Kurtis Gabriel has been reassigned.

So much to get to after tonight's 5-4 loss to the Winnipeg Jets.

Where to start? Where to start?

-- You know that pregame blog where I indicated coach Mike Yeo laughed off my question about Devan Dubnyk's "pop" in his knee during the second period of Saturday's eventual shutout of Anaheim and said "there's nothing?"

You needed to be blind to not see that Dubnyk, who replaced Darcy Kuemper 51 seconds into the second period tonight, was playing through some sort of knee pain. Dubnyk had trouble getting off the ice a few times, spent the entirety of one TV timeout conferring with athletic therapist Don Fuller at the bench and spent many stoppages stretching. He amazingly made three pretty awesome saves in the middle of the obvious pain too.

As it turns out, Dubnyk said after tonight's game he does have a knee issue and some soreness and discomfort, but it's nothing structural and since he apparently can't hurt it any worse, he decided he wanted to continue playing after getting it worked on during the second intermission.

"It's hard to play when you're thinking about whether or not you're capable of making certain movements," he said. He said it was "a tough 18 minutes there in the second," but "I fully believe that it's going to be fine going forward. I'm sure I'll be fine for" Tuesday's game against Edmonton.

I'm still surprised the Wild didn't use this opportunity to leave Dubnyk at home and use Niklas Backstrom as a backup tonight. Although, I'm not entirely sure Backstrom came on the trip. I never saw him, didn't think to ask Yeo after the game and a Wild spokesperson declined to answer.

After the game, when Yeo was asked again about Dubnyk's knee, Yeo said, "I'm told that I'm not supposed to be worried about it. I talked with him earlier, and he said he's feeling it a little bit but it shouldn't be a problem, and I've been assured it shouldn't be a problem. Obviously he won't touch the ice [Monday]. We'll make sure that he gets the treatment that he needs."

After three games in four nights, Yeo said rest for everybody is needed for Tuesday's game and practice has been canceled.

There are a lot of games left this season. Obviously, Dubnyk is considered the Wild's go-to goalie by virtue of a tremendous second half and new six-year deal.

Yeo said, "Certainly we'll look at the big picture. If there's any risk of him damaging this further, then he won't be in the net. But if he can play and go out and play well, he'll be in."

If he can't play against Edmonton, it'd be interesting if the Wild opted to go with Backstrom, the Oilers killer, especially at home. Although, I'd still think that's much less likely than Kuemper, especially since the Wild hasn't even been willing to dress Backstrom as a backup yet.

-- Despite Kuemper lasting 20:51 in his second start of the season and giving up four goals on 18 shots, Dubnyk got charged for the loss because the Wild rallied from 5-1 down to make it 5-4. That fifth goal was given up by Dubnyk – the first shot he faced by Drew Stafford 3:43 after Stafford ended Kuemper's night.

Yeo said he could have pulled Kuemper after the third goal 12:12 into the first, but he didn't feel the goals or deficit was Kuemper's fault.

Hard to argue: the first goal was a rebound that caromed in off Bryan Little's head. The second goal was a backdoor tap-in by Andrew Ladd after Blake Wheeler's shot went way wide (maybe purposely) and hit Ladd's skate, then the back of Little, then right back to Ladd wide-open. The third goal came off a 2-on-1 laser by Nikolaj Ehlers.

The fourth goal obviously was a very tough goal. Yeo probably spent the intermission reminding his team that it was only down by two goals and if it would just manage the puck better and halt the Jets' speed (Zach Parise said it felt like they were coming 100 mph through the neutral zone in the first), it could get back into this game. Then Kuemper gets handcuffed on a shot from atop the right circle that he didn't track until late.

"We're not going to pin the loss on him in any way," Yeo said, adding that Kuemper had a good game in L.A. and this was "below average."

Kuemper said bottom line is he needs to be better and that he'll practice hard and look to bounce back next time.

-- After the second goal by Ladd, which came by the way after goalless-on-the-season Jason Pominville swung and missed at a Parise rebound, Yeo challenged that Wheeler was offside. The way it works, when you're challenging an offside and not a goal, it's the linesmen that review the video in the penalty box in concert with the Toronto war room.

Linesmen Brian Mach and Devin Berg ruled Wheeler onside. Wheeler did precede the puck into the zone, but when you're the puck carrier, you're allowed to do that as long as you have possession and don't lose control of the puck.

After the game, Yeo said even watching it again you can debate it and that it's pretty subjective because when Wheeler crossed the line, the puck's not on his stick. Still, pretty tough call. It's hard to look at that video and say Wheeler lost possession or control. Obviously when you're carrying the puck, the puck's not always going to be glued to your stick.

Yeo said nevertheless, he thought it was worth a shot (it absolutely was) because after giving up two quick goals, it was a chance to stop the game and give his team a chance to regroup.

By the way, that was the first two shifts for the Parise-Granlund-Pominville line and they were minus-2 at that point. Same with Ryan Suter and Jared Spurgeon. Suter, who had five shots and blocked seven, was minus-3. Spurgeon, who had four assists in his previous two games, was minus-5 on the night. Not your typical Spurgeon night.

-- As you can see, so much happened in this game that I somehow saved this all the way to here. This game that came apart in the first with three goals so quickly occurred after Jason Zucker, who has had so many scoring chances this season, scored the fastest goal in franchise history.

Just 10 seconds in, besting Justin Fontaine's 2013 team record by two seconds and Mikko Koivu's 2011 road record by 14 seconds.

It was a highlight-reel goal as he stick-handled through and dipsy-doodled around Jacob Trouba, who had another tough game against the Wild.

But 72 seconds later, the game was tied. Three minutes after, the Wild was trailing 2-1.

To me, the Zucker-Koivu-Nino Niederreiter has been the Wild's best line this season and may have been yet again tonight. Zucker, I have felt, has been great. Tons of chances. Just no goals.

"You think about it, of course," Zucker said. "Just keep playing the same way, things will happen. I was getting chances, they just were not going in for me. I'll start getting mad when I'm not getting chances. I was getting chances before, I just wasn't burying them. So it was good to get that one tonight."

-- Parise had a tough game and even Yeo said he was showing his frustration. Being a minus-3 in the first period was the reason. But in the third, after Koivu (6-game point streak now) and Fontaine scored 38 seconds apart in the second to give Minnesota a prayer, Parise scored another Parise-type goal.

When you think Parise in Minnesota, you think of that one in Detroit last year where it was like he stole the inbounds pass, jumped over the defender and sparked a third-period comeback for an eventual point. You think of the hat trick in Colorado opening night, but especially the goal in the third when he brushed off Gabriel Landeskog's check and went to the net to spark that third-period rally. And you think about tonight's when he brushed off a punch from Mark Stuart, a high-stick from Stuart and stripped Trouba of the puck behind the net and quickly wrapped it around off Stuart's skate and in for his seventh goal in eight games, which is tied for second in the NHL.

"That's what you want in players," Yeo said. "You can give into the frustration or you can keep battling and keep fighting, and that was a great example."

The Wild had so many chances after the Parise goal to tie it, but tonight, it just wouldn't come. Close, but no cigar.

"We put ourselves in a pretty tough position," Parise said. "Those goals in the second gave us some life and then we started to play. Just came up a little short."

Added Dubnyk, "It's too bad. We're just a group that does that. We stay in every single game. We're not willing to throw games away or give up on two points. We've been rewarded a lot of times for that effort, and unfortunately we didn't tonight."

That was the 11th one-goal game between the Wild and Jets in 13 meetings, by the way.

Crazy game. Fun game to watch, which they often are between these two teams. But the Wild's poor play in the neutral zone in the first period ultimately cost em against the big, speedy Jets.

Kurtis Gabriel's NHL debut never came to fruition. Yeo liked the fourth line of Chris Porter, Erik Haula and Ryan Carter against the Ducks and came back with them tonight. Porter finished with 11 hits, a career-high and one from Cal Clutterbuck's team record, and Haula drew a penalty to continue a trend from this line. Carter was tied for third in the NHL before tonight with four drawn penalties and Porter has two.

As long as the Wild's forwards are healthy, I'd think Gabriel would be reassigned Monday.

That's it from me. I'm exhausted from the early wakeup, flight and second game in as many nights. I don't have the stamina to proofread this (ha), so if you see any typos or moronic mistakes, tweet me and I'll fix (thanks).

I'm sure on my cab ride back to the hotel I'll think of something I forgot, but I'm out of here for now. With no practice Monday, no blog barring news. With no practice Monday, that also means an update on Dubnyk's health will likely be determined at the morning skate Tuesday.

First VOX in the box Tuesday, by the way. I'll be on around 10:15-10:45 a.m. I'll also be co-hosting my podcast with Jim Souhan on Tuesday at 4 p.m. at Tom Reid's – his pub, not his house. Come on down and join in.

Nighty night.