Thursday night, the Minnesota Wild defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 5-2 on the road.
The most impressive part of the win was that the Wild were able to push forward to victory with just eight forwards in the third period.
Three more forwards were injured for Minnesota in the win (Charlie Coyle, Nino Niederreiter, Marcus Foligno) and after the game, head coach Bruce Boudreau said Coyle and Niederreiter likely won't be playing in the Wild's home opener Saturday.
Furthermore, it doesn't look like Foligno will be either, as fans found out on Friday morning.
So, you're probably wondering where we're going with this and we'll get there right now. On Saturday, the Wild could potentially be ridiculously shorthanded when they take on the Blue Jackets.
Aside from the three injured forwards listed above, Zach Parise and Mikael Granlund have also been out with injuries, so Minnesota could play a full game with 8 forwards (or 9 depending on if the team wants to send down Mike Reilly or put Gustav Olofsson on waivers to be able to afford to call a forward up).
The Wild could also put players on long-term injured reserve in order to afford forwards to call up, but that would mean the players they put on LTIR would have to miss 10 games and 24 days, as per Michael Russo.
So, with all that in mind, it looks like the Wild will be extremely shorthanded when Columbus comes to town.
(H/T: Michael Russo, The Athletic)
