Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek returned to the Minnesota Wild lineup last night — just in time for a fight to hold onto the team's playoff spot in the regular season's final week.

Why it matters: The Wild have endured more injuries to high-impact players than almost any other NHL franchise this season, sinking a team that once vied for the Western Conference lead into a wild card spot.

• The return of the franchise's most prolific scorer ever (Kaprizov) and its veteran center (Eriksson Ek) are exactly the medicine this team needs.

State of play: Eriksson Ek had four goals and Kaprizov scored the overtime winner in the Wild's messy 8-7 victory last night over San Jose.

Catch up quick: The first injury omen came in November, when a teammate's errant shot hurt winger Mats Zuccarello. He missed the next month — and for the team, a grim revolving door of injuries started spinning.

• Since Thanksgiving, the Wild have been without some combination of Kaprizov, Eriksson Ek, captain Jared Spurgeon, the smooth-skating Jonas Brodin and sturdy defender Jake Middleton.
• During that stretch, all of those players missed at least nine games; Eriksson Ek missed more than 30 and Kaprizov missed 40.

What they're saying: "You get frustrated. You want to be out there. You want to help the team," Eriksson Ek told reporters of his recovery last night.

• "I'm just happy now to come back with the team and start playing again," Kaprizov said.

What's next: Tomorrow night, the Wild hit the road to face the team trying to knock them out of the postseason picture: the Calgary Flames.

• The Flames lost last night and now sit five points behind Minnesota.

Only three other teams have paid more salary to injured players than the Wild this season, according to data from NHL Injury Viz.

The intrigue: The Wild entered the season without major health concerns, but climbed in this ranking as injuries piled up.

• By contrast, San Jose, St. Louis and Colorado's totals are all arguably inflated by players with severe injuries who were expected to play little, if at all, this season.

Reality check: Injuries haven't kept the Dallas Stars from competing for a division title.

• Their injury totals measured by player pay ranked No. 6, just behind the Wild.

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The breakfast burrito food truck that won a Bloomington startup contest last year is just weeks away from opening a brick-and-mortar location, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reported.

Catch up quick: Scramblin' Egg beat out more than 100 other small businesses last August in a "Shark Tank"-style competition for a $100,000 prize — half of which came from city funds.

• Founders Grant Veitenheimer and Nick Peterson told Axios last year that the prize would allow them to ditch a food truck that they'd already begun to outgrow.

State of play: They plan to open in mid-May at 7828 Portland Avenue South, the Business Journal wrote.

What's next: The startup competition, called "Hatch Bloomington," is taking applications for its next prize.

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🌊 U.S. Sen. Tina Smith introduced legislation that would ban new mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. The Democrat's bill faces long odds in the Republican-controlled Congress. (MPR News)

• GOP U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber denounced the legislation in a statement, saying new mining would "create good-paying union jobs and revitalize our economy."

🏥 Fairview Health Services, the state's fourth-largest employer, reported its first annual operating profit since 2018. (Star Tribune)

💵 Minneapolis Federal Reserve president Neel Kashkari cast doubt on the notion that interest rates will change any time soon, writing that tariffs weakened the case for either cuts or increases. (Yahoo Finance)

• Kashkari published his comments before President Trump paused most of the tariffs he announced last week.

🥭 The Minneapolis City Council is considering a new ordinance that would allow more sidewalk food carts to operate in more neighborhoods. (Sahan Journal)

🐈 Pugsley, a Maine Coon from Mound, has clinched the Guinness World Record for the longest tail on a living domestic cat. (WCCO)

• It's 18.5 inches long!

Minnesota's rate of traffic deaths has been in a long decline, though it's increased in recent years, according to the latest available National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data.

Why it matters: In 2022, 444 people died on highways in Minnesota.

• Preliminary state data show that highway deaths fell to 404 in 2023, but then jumped to 478 in 2024.

The big picture: U.S. traffic deaths per 100,000 people peaked in the 1930s and total deaths peaked in 1972, then gradually declined thanks to vehicle improvements, better infrastructure and public safety campaigns.

• But the rate of crash deaths started rising again about a decade ago, spiking during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The biggest threats on the road

"The Great Gatsby" was first published 100 years ago today.

The big picture: "Gatsby" is the best-known work of St. Paul native author F. Scott Fitzgerald — and a frequent nominee for the title of greatest American novel.

The intrigue: A commercial failure at first, the book surged in popularity during World War II, when the U.S. government distributed it and other titles to soldiers.

• "The Great Gatsby" arrived after Germany and Japan surrendered, so "troops were more bored than ever," as Mental Floss recounted.

Between the lines: "Gatsby" takes place in New York, but the work is still deeply Minnesotan.

• The fictional Gatsby even briefly attended St. Olaf College.