Ryan Carter brings grittiness to Wild

Ryan Carter is no dummy.

Stu Bickel never had taken a faceoff in his career, so when the defenseman skated to the center faceoff dot just before the opening draw of a game between the Devils and Rangers late in 2012, Carter "understood what that meant."

It was another chapter in the Hudson River Rivalry. The teams had a rough-and-tumble meeting that season where the Devils felt the Rangers took too many liberties, so when they played on March 19, Devils coach Pete DeBoer started his fourth line with Carter at center.

Once Rangers coach John Tortorella saw the lineup, he tossed Mike Rupp and Brandon Prust on the ice with Bickel. The puck dropped, and three fights erupted simultaneously with Bickel going right after Carter.

Both now play for the Wild.

"I fought [Brandon] Dubinsky the game before at home, and I broke his orbital bone," Carter said. "This was Dubinsky's first game back and I thought he would take the faceoff. Suddenly Stu takes it."

"It was the coach's call," Bickel said of him taking the faceoff. "I gave a wink to Rupper and Prusty, a head nod, and it was pretty obvious what's going to happen."

Bickel skated at Carter, grabbed him and punched away, opening an old scar above Carter's left eye. Blood poured on the ice.

"It's by no means fun, but that's part of the job," Carter said.

Bickel and Carter know each other well. They're both Minnesotans and skate together in the summertime, so they had no problem sharing a Wild locker room. It's ironic considering their prior clash, but Bickel lost his gig with the Wild for the time being Tuesday because Carter's hard-nosed role with the team since signing Oct. 6 made Bickel expendable. Bickel cleared waivers and was assigned to AHL Iowa.

Last week, trying to stir the pot, defenseman Keith Ballard jokingly tried to get Bickel and Carter to sit next to each other on the team plane to Denver to try to "hash out who won the fight."

"The thing people outside of hockey have a hard time understanding, I have no hard feelings for the guy," Carter said. "He's doing his job, trying to make his livelihood. Same with me. So once you're off the ice, no hard feelings whatsoever."

The only thing Carter is upset about is the "homer statistician in New York gave him the win for the faceoff. I won it."

Bickel, laughing, said, "He didn't even go for the puck. If he won it or not, I'm going by NHL.com faceoff stats and I'm 100 percent right now and I'm planning on keeping it that way."

Carter, 31, a White Bear Lake native, looks as if he might knock Kyle Brodziak from the lineup as fourth-line center with Jason Zucker and Matt Cooke on Friday in Anaheim. Winger Justin Fontaine, recovering from an injury, is likely to join the lineup for the first time this season.

Carter, an undrafted free agent from Minnesota State Mankato, won a Stanley Cup with Anaheim as a first-year pro in 2007. He spent all season with AHL Portland and was called up as a member of the "Black Aces."

Most minor league extras in the playoffs don't expect to play, but Carter played three games in the Western Conference Finals and one in the Stanley Cup Final. That game resulted in his name being engraved on the Cup.

"I feel like my name's on the Cup with a technicality," Carter said. "We made it to the Finals in Jersey in [2012]. I wanted that one to justify the first one. It would have been nice. It's cool to be able to say my name's on the Cup, but in terms of my career, I want to win another one to justify it.

"I don't want to be an add-on. I want to be a part of it."

He believes the Wild has that makeup.

"This team is very comparable to that Anaheim team," Carter said. "You have your marquee guys in important positions. [Ryan] Suter on the back end, your go-to, No. 1 D-man. Up front, Zach [Parise] and Mikko [Koivu], your hardworking, set-the-tone, do-it-the-right-way guys that everybody follows. And if [Darcy Kuemper] keeps going, you've got your goaltender.

"And the key to it all? The young kid line of [Nino Niederreiter, Erik Haula and Charlie Coyle]. They remind me of the [Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Dustin Penner] line. Young kids with swagger trying to prove themselves."

Notes

• The Wild hired Richard Park, who played 217 games for the Wild from 2001 to '04, as a player development coach. He mostly will work in Iowa.

• Coach Mike Yeo is considering starting Niklas Backstrom in goal Sunday at Los Angeles. Defensemen Ballard and Nate Prosser also are expected to make their season debuts this weekend.