Injury Updates: Parise, Kulikov, Kopitar, Lightning

News and notes from around the NHL this evening:

• Minnesota Wild forward Zach Parise practiced with the team this morning for the first time since suffering a foot injury on October 27th, reports Mike Russo of the Minneapolis-St. Paul StarTribune. Parise missed the Wild’s last six games, but could be in the lineup as early as Tuesday against Calgary. The Wild made room for Parise by reassigning Christoph Bertschy to the AHL.
• Buffalo Sabres defenseman Dmitry Kulikov will miss Tuesday’s game against St. Louis, reports the Olean Times Herald’s Bill Hoppe. Kulikov missed practice today, and the Sabres—practicing with only five defensemen—will most likely require more than one call-up to fill its lineup. Buffalo, however, will minimize both actual cost and league cap space use by calling up those players on game day as needed.
• Los Angeles Kings forward Anze Kopitar may miss Tuesday’s game against the Colorado Avalanche, reports LA Kings Insider Jon Rosen. Kings coach Darryl Sutter made some cryptic remarks regarding Kopitar’s playing status, but Rosen believes that those remarks indicate that the Slovenian forward may be out longer than expected. Kopitar suffered an upper body injury late in Friday’s game against the Ottawa Senators, and missed yesterday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets.
• The Tampa Bay Lightning are without both Anton Stralman and Jonathan Drouin tonight against the New York Islanders, reports Tampa Bay beat writer Bryan Burns. Both players are recovering from upper body injuries. Stralman left Saturday’s game against the San Jose Sharks after taking a Joe Thornton slap shot to his upper body.  Drouin’s injury, however, is more of a mystery. It is thought that Drouin suffered a concussion on November 1st against the Islanders after taking a hit to the head from Isles defenseman Calvin de Haan. The team has not confirmed that Drouin suffered a concussion, but only that he’s expected to rejoin the team during its upcoming five-game road trip.