YOUR GUIDE TO THE TWIN CITIES
This is Michael Russo's 17th year covering the National Hockey League. He's covered the Minnesota Wild for the Star Tribune since 2005 following 10 years of covering the Florida Panthers for the Sun-Sentinel. Michael uses “Russo’s Rants” to feed a wide-ranging hockey-centric discussion with readers, and can be heard weekly on KFAN (100.3 FM) radio.
Also find Russo on Facebook.
Email Michael to talk about hockey.
Koivu returns tonight vs. Vancouver; Stoner placed on IR; Lots of interest in Ruutu
Posted by: Michael Russo under Wild pregame skate Updated: February 9, 2012 - 12:53 PM
UPDATED
Morning from Xcel Energy Center, where the Wild and Canucks renew their rivalry tonight. Live from the Xcel Energy Center arena cam just so you can see my bald spot, I'll be on NHL Live on NHL Network at 5:30 p.m. CT
Captain Mikko Koivu will return tonight after missing eight games with a shoulder injury. He missed two days shy of four weeks since being injured Jan. 14 in St. Louis. He skated on his old line with Devin Setoguchi and Dany Heatley.
Coach Mike Yeo jokingly said he plans to manage Koivu's ice time by "getting him out there as much as possible."
He said it was a tough decision to break up the Heatley-Kyle Brodziak-Nick Johnson line, but he says it's important to surround Koivu with top players because he's so important and that he feels Heatley is playing so well right now, it'll help Koivu.
Erik Christensen will move to wing with Matt Cullen and Cal Clutterbuck. Yeo believes that gives the line a Pierre-Marc Bouchard makeup on the wing, and that trio was an effective line. Brodziak and Johnson looked like they would play with Carson McMillan, which means Brad Staubitz, Warren Peters and Darroll Powe will be a line.
Jed Ortmeyer cleared waivers and was reassigned to Houston.
Niklas Backstrom in goal. Matt Kassian and Mike Lundin are scratched.
Lundin's got to be patient. I don't see the Wild just trading him for a marginal asset right now because Clayton Stoner has been placed on injured reserve with some kind of leg injury around his hip. He got hurt very early in the Cody McLeod fight in Colorado last week. Yeo said he is week to week.
Marco Scandella did return to the Houston lineup last night after missing about a week with a leg injury.
Yeo expects a more energetic Wild group tonight than the one in Columbus, for one because the opponent is Vancouver.
"I think our group is going to be ready to respond after last game," Yeo said.
Again, no update on Guillaume Latendresse or Pierre-Marc Bouchard. Chuck Fletcher told me again this morning that unless there's a stroke of luck, he's not assuming either will play again this season.
I want to correct something with the Nate Prosser contract extension. He was to become a restricted free agent this summer, but because he's a three-year pro and over 25 and there was no way of him getting to 80 career games this year, his status was going to change after the season to a Group 6 unrestricted free agent. That is why the Wild wanted to sign him now. I originally reported he was going to become a restricted free agent.
Because of the above, there's no urgency to re-sign Johnson or Justin Falk. However, if for some reason Johnson can't get to 80 games including playoffs by the end of the year, he too would go from becoming a restricted free agent to unrestricted. He'll play his 60th career game tonight. Falk is in the same boat, but since he's 23, he will remain restricted even if he doesn't get to 80 career games this year.
So maybe the Wild re-sign Johnson now, although frankly, he's gotten such a great opportunity here, I can't imagine he'd bail as a free agent. The Wild wants him back. He should be back.
As for the Canucks, Henrik Sedin, who blocked a shot on his ankle in Nashville, skated this morning. He's a game-time decision, but it sounds like he's a go to play his 553rd consecutive game. No fracture.
Cory Schneider will start in goal for the Canucks -- his fourth straight start in Minnesota. Even though Roberto Luongo has shut out the Wild three consecutive times, he's been pulled in his last three in Minnesota and is 0-3 with a 7.00 goals against average and .768 save percentage. I'll tell ya what -- if it looks like the Wild could be Vancouver's first-round playoff opponent when they next arrive in March, Luongo should start here. His struggles in Minnesota would be a massive playoff topic if he doesn't get a game and play well here.
Was just chatting with Luongo. I can't believe he's almost 33. I covered him for a long time in Florida. I still remember in 2000 when the Panthers showed up here in Minnesota. 0-0 shutout to go winless in eight. Luongo still remembered his quote, saying he never thought he'd get his first shutout before his first win as a Panther. I also remember him sitting in that same stall after the 2004 All-Star Game here.
"I'm the second-oldest guy on my team. Time flies!" Luongo said.
It really does. I was chatting with Radek Dvorak here a few weeks ago. He plays for Dallas now. His rookie year in Florida in 1995 was my rookie year in Florida -- so to speak.
In other news, I just got off the phone with Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford. I believe the Wild has strong interest in Tuomo Ruutu, but the price according to Rutherford is "real high" based on the amount of teams interested in him. Rutherford will talk to Ruutu's agent to see what it'll take to re-sign the free-agent-to-be. He hopes to have a decision by the first of next week as to whether he'll trade or re-sign Ruutu.
Unless the price for Ruutu comes down, I can't see the Wild giving up any of its top prospects for a rental. But Ruutu is a great player and lots of teams, including the Wild, are lining up.
Koivu takes full part in Wild practice
Posted by: Michael Russo under Wild game coverage, Wild news, Wild player moves, Wild practice Updated: February 8, 2012 - 1:59 PMMikko Koivu practiced today with the Wild as it prepares for tomorrow night’s game against Vancouver, but it’s still not certain the Wild captain will play, three weeks after separating his left shoulder in a game at St. Louis on Jan. 14.
“It’s getting better each and every day it’s getting stronger. That’s a good sign,” Koivu said. “Being in practice and being involved physically and having contact, you get more comfortable each and every time it happens. It helps a lot conditioning-wise but more important timing-wise.”
Jed Ortmeyer was placed on waivers so he can return to Houston, however, so it seems likely Koivu will return.
Hey, it’s Chip Scoggins here with a special guest post because Russo is traveling home from Columbus and Youngblood is in Memphis covering the Timberwolves.
Coach Mike Yeo will make a decision tomorrow on Koivu, but said after practice, “He had a great practice today and was involved in every battle drill. But obviously we have to see how he is tomorrow. But encouraging today that’s for sure.”
It’s likely Koivu would center Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi upon his return.
“We have to make sure with Mikko coming back, he’s such an important part of our team, that we surround him the right way,” Yeo said. “Putting him with Seto and Heater gives us a chance to get that line going and contributing. ... We need more than one line scoring right now. This time of the year, you need lines to go out and be real solid defensively. Lines that can go out against top players. But you need different lines contributing.”
Yeo also said this about a possible trade: “The one thing our entire team needs right now is just to go out on the ice with the idea that we’re good enough because we are. Obviously, if we can do things to make our team better I know there’s not a GM in the league who’s working harder than Chuck [Fletcher] on this. But having said that, we’ve beaten all the good teams in the West. We’ve proven ourself. When we play our game, we’ve proven what we can do.”
Wild takes step back in Columbus, returns home
Posted by: Michael Russo under On the road, Wild game coverage Updated: February 7, 2012 - 10:17 PMWell, that was predictable.
Not kidding. As we say in the biz, that was a trap game.
Not that I ever feel good when the Wild comes to Columbus. They’re usually lousy here, but I never felt good about this one.
1) I don’t like when the Wild returns home in the middle of a road trip. It always seems to take the foot off the gas. It happened after Phoenix in December – its seventh win in a row overall and seventh in a row on the road. It returned home, then went up to Winnipeg and that began the 11-game road winless streak and one-month stumble. 2) The Wild played real well the other night in Dallas, maybe the best it’s played in weeks, yet didn’t get the satisfaction of victory. 3) It has a big game at home Thursday against a bitter rival in Vancouver. 4) Player after player know Mikko Koivu’s return is on the horizon. 5) It’s felt like the Wild’s been on the road for two months (20 out of 29 games starting Nov. 30). Players are all looking forward to finally returning home, getting on an actual homestand for the first time in a century, playing seven of its next 10 there and 18 of its final 29.
This had all the makings of a letdown.
Not that it’s a valid excuse. Want to make the playoffs? You can’t be losing to the worst team in hockey by a large margin.
But the Wild didn’t come close tonight. Just no, how do you say, oomph.
“It’s a game of one-on-one battles, and they got the better of us by a large margin in that department – one-on-one off the rush, one-on-one around the net, one-on-one pucks in the offensive zone,” said coach Mike Yeo.
And the power play? Momentum killer yet again.
The Wild gets back in the game at the end of the first on Nate Prosser’s first NHL goal. In the second, it finally starts to play in the Jackets’ zone, and boom, Devin Setoguchi decides to hustle and draw a penalty.
The power play comes out, lays an egg like many recently against the 30th-ranked penalty kill, and boom, next thing you know, Nick Schultz takes one of four minor penalties he took and seconds later, Antoine Vermette and the 25th-ranked power play makes it 2-1.
“It has to be better. It has to get us goals, has to be a difference in the game,” said Dany Heatley. “It was one of our problems. It wasn’t the only one though. We had trouble coming out. We tried to play run-and-gun against that team. They’re a very skilled team, a lot of quick forwards with a lot of skill.
“Our power play. We’re having trouble getting it in first of all. When we do, it’s one shot and out, and then we’re breaking out again.”
Yeo said with no Mikko Koivu, Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Guillaume Latendresse, “If we don’t understand where we’re at in our power play with what we have and go out with the idea that we absolutely have to outwork the other team, … We’ve got to be hard. We’ve got to go out there and completely outwork the other team and grind out power-play goals.”
He said the lack of willingness to outwork the Jackets on the power play was reflective of the game.
The third line of Darroll Powe-Erik Christiansen-Setoguchi was a minus-2. Powe is now minus-11, Setoguchi, a team-worst minus-12 and played a big part on the third goal. But the Wild’s play in front of its own net was weak all night and Jeff Carter scored on the rebound.
Yeo was not about to go after the third line, saying, “It’s tough to say we had a lot of guys that were going tonight.
“This is just another one of those ones where we say we have to move past it. This is a disappointing loss for us, but we can’t sit here and dwell on it.”
On Schultz’s four penalties, Yeo said, “He took four penalties, which is tough. It shows up on the scoresheet, but the plays leading up to that, I mean our forwards were so weak on the puck in the offensive zone tonight that we put our D in so much trouble.”
On Prosser’s first NHL goal, the defenseman, who signed his first one-way contract Monday and got into his first NHL fight tonight, said, “It doesn’t really mean much when you don’t get the two points. That’s what it’s all about right now. We need to make a better push than that.”
Just not a good effort.
Now the Wild returns home, as I mentioned for 18 of its final 29. But, as we all know, if the Wild just settles on that as the sole reason it’ll make the playoffs, I’ll be playing golf in Boca by April 15. It doesn’t work that way.
Home doesn’t just equal win. Don’t believe that, get a game tape of the third period of the Nashville game.
The Wild has to grind out wins, make the X a tough place to play and not put forth any more efforts like tonight. As Heatley said, the Wild needs points every night, whether it’s against Vancouver on Thursday or Columbus on Saturday.
It also better not just assume Koivu will be here to save the day. Don't believe that, get a game tape of all the games between March 14-26 last year. The season began to fall apart last year when Koivu broke his finger, and it officially died with an eight-game losing streak. What people forget? The last six of those eight losses came when Koivu returned and with the captain in the lineup.
Speaking of which, though, here are a couple good stats given to me pregame:
With Koivu, the Wild is 22-13-6 with a 2.37 goals for average, 2.37 goals against average, .152 power-play percentage, .839 penalty-kill percentage and .524 faceoff win percentage.
Without Koivu, the Wild is 3-7-2 with a (the following not updated) 1.73 goals for average, 2.73 goals against average, .120 power-play percentage, .767 penalty-kill percentage and .496 faceoff win percentage.
Also, Niklas Backstrom is one of the best active February goaltenders.
Not updated: His win percentage is .633, second-best to Martin Brodeur's .642, his goals against average is 2.19 (third-best) and his save percentage is .923, second-best to Roberto Luongo.
He was good again tonight. Kept this game from truly being embarrassing.
Chip Scoggins is kind enough to cover practice for me on Wednesday as I travel home. I can't wait.
Mikko Koivu won't return tonight
Posted by: Michael Russo under Wild pregame skate Updated: February 7, 2012 - 11:35 AMMorning from inside Nationwide Arena, where Mike Yeo's Wild visits Todd Richards' Columbus Blue Jackets tonight at 6 p.m. CT.
The game is on FSN PLUS, so go to foxsportsnorth.com to find out where you can find FSN PLUS.
Niklas Backstrom vs. Curtis Sanford tonight.
No Mikko Koivu tonight. Yeo said he came very close to playing, but this morning, it was decided "he's not quite ready yet but very, very close. He wants to play, but he needs a couple more days. We're fairly confident that Thursday [against Vancouver] could be a good target date for us, so we'll keep our fingers crossed."
The Wild made adjustments to the power play, with Yeo saying you can only pass it around the outside so much and sooner or later you've got to take a shot. Matt Cullen and Marek Zidlicky will be on the No. 1 unit point, and Jared Spurgeon and Nate Prosser will be on the point on the No. 2 unit.
Devin Setoguchi will be on the third line with Darroll Powe and Erik Christensen. He's pressing bigtime, Yeo says they need him. He's scored two goals in 11 games since getting back Jan. 4 -- two goals in his last 14 overall. He's scored 10 goals this season and is a minus-10.
Yeo said he wants Carson McMillan on the second line to give a different look with Cullen and Cal Clutterbuck, and he wants Setoguchi on the third line because Christensen can make plays. Also, when a player is struggling, a lot of times coaches want that player to move to a blue-collar line to get him working again.
"You need different guys to contribute," Yeo said.
On Setoguchi barely getting scoring chances, not going to the net and stopping there, Yeo said, "That happens when you're pressing. You end up circling, you start to anticipate a little bit too much, and next thing you know you find yourself behind the play a lot. You start moving out into the high slot hoping that somebody's going to find you open for that one-time opportunity instead of getting to the net where those goals are going to come from."
I'll have a lead note in tomorrow's paper on a conversation I had with goalie coach Bob Mason regarding Backstrom's struggles in the shootout. This has been a big topic since the Dallas loss and Mason was interesting on Backstrom's struggles.
Matt Kassian in for Brad Staubitz. Mike Lundin scratched. Clayton Stoner isn't on the trip.
Tonight will be the first time 2007 first-round pick Colton Gillies faces the Wild since he was claimed off waivers by Columbus last month.
Gillies will play right wing on a line with Vinny Prospal and Jeff Carter. It'll be his second game with that line, and remember, Gillies wasn't able to get off the fourth line this year in Minnesota.
Richards, who only coached Gillies a handful of games over two years in Minnesota, said he always got a sense of Gillies' work ethic and character in summer camps and training camps.
I may have a Gillies' note in tomorrow's paper, although I've got a ton of Wild notes.
Richards, classy as always and a pro to the bitter end in Minnesota in terms of refusing to throw anybody under the bus, is excited to coach against the Wild tonight. He did so earlier this year twice as an assistant, but now he's the interim head coach.
"I got a lot of repsect for a lot of people on the other side," Richards said. "They're playing well right now. They went through a tough stretch. But a lot of times when you go through those tough stretches, it makes you better as a team. I’m looking forward to it. I think it’ll be fun. I’m guessing at the start they’ll probably be a little more nerves than any other team that we’re playing."
"It’s a different team. different head coach. I think it’s a similar identity, but he’s dealing with issues over there that I had to at some point, but always different situations."
Speaking of which, I asked about the Marek Zidlicky situation and Zidlicky publicly complaining about being scratched and Yeo's treatment of him. Richards didn't want to go there.
"Just by reading it, Mike’s the head coach," Richards said. "He’s pulling a lot of strings over there by the way that the team’s playing. It’s a situation that is interesting to follow on the outside. ... As a coach, you’re always interested to see how the coach handled it and how it turned out."
He is surprised Zidlicky has no goals.
"Because I know Zid and I know the type of player he is, he’s got a great shot and great oiffensive instincts, and to have no goals is surprising," he said.
On playing Backstrom tonight: "We have to do a good job in front of him. We've got to create a lot of traffic, we’ve got to make it hard for him to see pucks, we’ve got to make it hard for him to move around, we’ve got to get guys there for second and third opportunities. Two games against them, 76 shots, four goals and he’s been No. 1 star both games. And the team is really committed to playing in front of him. They don’t make it easy in that area of the ice, so we have to be doubly committed to get that area to make it hard."
ADVERTISEMENT
recent posts
- Koivu back, Stoner injured
- Koivu takes full part in Wild practice
- Postgame: Wild takes step back in Columbus, returns home
- Mikko Koivu won't return tonight
- Wild, Prosser agree to two-year deal
- Postgame: Wild earns point in Dallas; Sources: Wild close to signing Nate Prosser
- Zidlicky unchained, will return to the lineup tonight at Dallas
- Wild acquires Christensen from Rangers for Casey Wellman
- Postgame: Wild rebounds after Tuesday's meltdown
- Colorado ready for Wild, snow
- Youngblood: Wild looks forward; Latendresse takes step back
- Postgame: Game under control, and then a collapse
- Yeo on Zidlicky: "One thing for sure, we’re going to talk"
- Unhappy Zidlicky: 'I can't be quiet'
- Koivu, Latendresse getting closer to returning
- Latendresse returns to practice; Koivu next Tuesday?
- Break over for Wild, sizzling Nashville is next
- Postgame: Wild enters All-Star break in West's top eight
Post By Category
- Coldest Day of February (drought lingers, brushfire risk increases)
- Brief Late Week Cold Snap (since Dec. 1: warmest winter since 1878)
- "A Useless Winter" (4th warmest January on record, but why?)
- Data center construction strong
- Denver Blizzard (Marchlike and virtually snow-free here into mid February)
- February 1 or Late March? (no storms...more 40s on the way)
- Coming soon to a street near you: 'HomeSpotter'
ADVERTISEMENT
inside the StarTribune
-
425 Portland Av. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55488
(612) 673-4000
- Company
- Subscriber Services
- Website
- Buy Ads
- Store
- Connect with Us
© 2012 StarTribune. All rights reserved.
StarTribune.com is powered by Limelight Networks
Newspaper Subscriptions
eEdition
RSS
Newsletters