"After saying Wednesday that center Mikko Koivu might return from a shoulder injury in time for the Wild's game in Dallas on Saturday, coach Mike Yeo backed off that timetable Thursday, saying Koivu likely wouldn't return until Tuesday's game against Columbus at the earliest.

Koivu will be re-evaluated when the Wild return home for practices Monday and Tuesday. He hasn't played since Jan. 14, and though he had participated in a pair of team practices the past two days in St. Paul, he hadn't been cleared for contact yet.

"I don't expect him to play on this trip (in Colorado and Dallas)," Yeo said. "We can kind of end the questions now."

Once Koivu returns, the Wild will have to decide whether to put him back on a line with Devin Setoguchi and Dany Heatley or keep some semblance of the line configurations they've used with him out of the lineup. Heatley has clicked on a line with Kyle Brodziak and Nick Johnson, scoring four goals and registering three assists in his past three games.

But he also played well with Koivu earlier in the season, so the Wild will have to decide if they want to pair their best two offensive players together again or try to spread out some of their scoring across two lines. "