ST. LOUIS -- After earning the faith of his team with a successful return to the nets, Darcy Kuemper missed practice Wednesday because of illness and might not be able to serve as the team's No. 2 goalie in Game 1 Thursday.
In the big picture, the illness isn't significant if starting goalie Devan Dubnyk doesn't get hurt. If he does, though, the Wild might call on veteran Niklas Backstrom, who has struggled for most of the past two seasons.
The Wild are likely to buy out the remaining year on Backstrom's three-year, $10.25 million deal, and NHL teams aren't allowed to buy out injured players.