Rumor: Wild star may be pulled out of a critical game.

The Minnesota Wild may be headed for some very bad news ahead of a hugely important game for their franchise. 

According to a breaking news report from Minnesota Wild insider Mike Russo of The Athletic, it appears that there is at least a good chance that Minnesota Wild star forward Zach Parise could be pulled out of the line up ahead of Saturday night's game against the Carolina Hurricanes. This would obvioulsy be a tremendous blow for a Minnesota Wild team that is just barely clinging on to the very last Wild Card spot in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs with several games left to go on the schedule.

The reason that we have labeled this as a rumor at this time however is that there is still no concrete evidence to suggest that Parise has been ruled out at this time, although there are clearly signs that his absence is being considered a possibility by the team. According to Russo's report Wild forward Pontus Aberg was not out on the ice this morning, a move that Russo suspects is likely related to the fact that Aberg will be a game time decision based on whether or not Parise is ready to go this evening against the Hurricanes. 

What is interesting here is it sounds like this is a decision that will be completely taken out of Parise's hands this evening and instead placed squarely in the hands of the Wild's medical staff. Russo believes that doctors will have to give the green light for Parise to step out on the ice tonight or otherwise he will not be playing at all. Parise was injured when he was clipped by Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson during their contest on Friday night, a bit of contact that looked a lot like a knee on knee hit on the part of Wilson. In spite of taking the hit however Parise would remain in the game and even helped his team offensively, picking up a hugely important victory as far as the standings are concerned over the defending Stanley Cup Champions.

We do not expect the Wild will make Parise's status official until moments before game time.

[pub]