Afternoon from the Mariucci press box, where I'm watching Brian Stensaas work hard on his fantasy lineup.
Actually here to watch the Schwan Cup and root on my Minnetonka Skippers in a noon game against St. Thomas Academy. Ran into Lou Nanne in the parking lot and he already had me climbing snow banks to get into this arena.
I'll be doing a live chat on startribune.com at 2 p.m., so be sure to come back. I'll also be on 1500 ESPN at 12:30 p.m.
Wild will go with the same lineup tonight against San Jose as the Columbus game, except for Niklas Backstrom in goal. That means Patrick O'Sullivan and Clayton Stoner will be scratches.
The big message from Todd Richards to the team: "I'm sick and tired of being booed at home."
In other words, show up tonight against a very good San Jose Sharks team.
I ran into Guillaume Latendresse this morning and he's rehabbing quite well. He is convinced he'll return this season and help this team down the stretch.
Lastly, here is video of Jason Zucker being elbowed last night by Slovakia's Martin Marincin, an Edmonton Oilers' 2010 second-round pick. As you can see, extremely dirty and Zucker looks to have a concussion. As I wrote in today's paper, he was crumpled on the ice for a very long time and was dazed when he finally got off.
