

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.
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In the wee hours of this morning, the United States, coached by Minnesotans Phil Housley, Grant Potulny and Mark Osiecki, crushed Canada, 5-1, in the semifinals of the world junior championships in Ufa, Russia.
Here's the story, with video highlights.
The Americans will face defending champion Sweden, who upended Russia in a shootout, in Saturday's gold-medal game at 7 a.m. CT.
Boston College's Johnny Gaudreau continued his offensive assault with two more goals (seven in the past three), Wisconsin's Jake McCabe, the U.S. captain, had two goals and an assist and John Gibson made 36 saves.
Gophers defenseman Mike Reilly tweeted at @mreilly93: "What a game to be a part of. Moving on to the finals. #goforgold"
Saturday morning's game will be on NHL Network and streamed on NHL.com. I will be on KFAN at 10:35 a.m. to talk about the game and NHL/NHLPA bargaining updates.
As you can see on the previous blog, the two sides met late into the night last night and expect to meet again today with a federal mediator. Gary Bettman said the sides agreed to meet at 10 a.m. ET. The two sides haven't begun meeting yet as the NHLPA is reportedly meeting internally and updating its membership of yesterday's events.
I get asked a lot if there's any chance after a handshake agreement that the NHL starts playing while the collective bargaining agreement is drafted, lawyered up and ratified. Doubtful.
In 1994-95, there were tons of wildfires that had to be put out the ensuing months when they tried that, stuff like, "You agreed to this, ... Uh, no we didn't." This morning is a case of the NHL thought they agreed to meet at 10 a.m. moments after this alleged agreement, and the NHLPA didn't understand it that way.
So the two sides can't agree on that, think they'll play with a handshake?
Details are starting to emerge:
-- I have confirmed ESPN Pierre LeBrun's report that the league has agreed to the two compliance buyouts the players want for 2013-14 (wouldn't count against the salary cap). But the owners feel that since they're willing to hand players a lump sum of money to walk away, that should come out of the player share of the 50/50 split of revenues, not the owners. Players don't want it that way; they want it to come from outside the system. This transition rule is a big bridge that must be gapped.
There seems to be a lot of confusion among fans. The purpose of the compliance buyouts are so teams can get compliant with the 2013-14 salary cap that will decline (the league wants it to be $60 million, the union $65 million) as the split in revenues go from 57-43 in favor of the players to 50-50.
Because this affects 2013-14, this really has little affect on the Wild.
The salary cap this year (if they get a deal done to salvage the season) will still be prorated at $70.2 million, so the Wild, with the second-highest payroll in the NHL, are compliant. Even if the cap falls to $60 million in 2013-14, the Wild would be at $50.5 million assuming Niklas Backstrom, Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Matt Cullen aren't re-signed. This doesn't include the promotions of Houston prospects other than Mikael Granlund, free-agent signings and the re-signings of potential restricted free agents like Cal Clutterbuck.
But the Wild conceivably wouldn't have to buy out anybody.
By the way, check out the previous blog for Wild injury news and also how an abbreviated training camp may determine which kids from Houston get a look right away. It's interesting because the kids in Houston succeeding are in midseason form, so that could be quite the advantage for the Wild. However, there's very few open spots due to one-way contracts, so there's just no chance more than a handful could start with the Wild.
-- Also, reportedly (I have not confirmed yet), the NHL is willing to move the variance of salaries inside contracts year to year to 20 percent.
-- Pensions, the fact the NHL wants six-year max deals (seven to re-sign your own players) and a $60 million ceiling in 2013-14 continue to be the big "open issues."
I'll be back later with a report on the Gophers after availability, but as I mentioned, Erik Haula is expected to miss at least the next three games with a finger injury. Don Lucia indicated yesterday that Nate Condon may move to second-line center from first-line right wing to replace him.
UPDATED
A five-hour meeting between the NHL and NHLPA just broke up at 1 a.m. ET and NHLPA Executive Director Don Fehr said the sides moved closer together on a few issues but remain apart on others. Still work to be done.
There was a mediator involved in today's meetings. Commissioner Gary Bettman said the sides will meet Thursday morning at the mediator's request.
The good news is Fehr did not hand Commissioner Gary Bettman a letter informing him the union will disclaim interest -- i.e. dissolve, i.e. walk away from representing the players and becoming a "trade association."
That's good news because if the union dissolves, lawsuits could be filed, things become a whole lot more complicated and basically it's completely unknown what could happen next. The season could very well be in peril if that were to happen.
Last month, the players voted to authorize the union to disclaim interest by midnight Jan. 2 if no deal was near.
Since no disclaimer was filed, union reps are still acting on the players' behalf. If that's the case, one would believe there's enough traction to keep on trucking as an actual union.
The big issue today according to multiple reports has been pensions. Under the previous collective bargaining agreement, teams were responsible for 3/4 of the pensions.
As the New York Daily News' Pat Leonard wrote here, "Thursday’s proposal said that the pension plan would be funded from the players’ share of annual revenue, and it also specified that “$50 million of the ‘Make-Whole’ payment amount of $300 million will be allocated and set aside to fund potential underfunding liabilities of the Plan at end of CBA,” according to a document obtained by ESPN.
The NHL and NHLPA therefore are debating which side would be liable to make up the difference in payments if league revenues in any given year do not provide adequate funds to match the players’ projected pension number."
Bettman said tonight the pension issue is complicated and the league hopes to satisfy the players.
Again, Bettman has said a deal must be struck by Jan. 11 with the goal to start training camp Jan. 12 and a 48-game season Jan. 19.
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In Wild injury news if training camp were to start Jan. 12, defenseman Marco Scandella is currently out of Houston's lineup with a groin injury, but he should be ready by the 12th. Jared Spurgeon left Switzerland with a groin injury, but he is back skating.
The length of training camp would determine how many players from Houston come up to Minnesota for a look. Obviously, Scandella and Mikael Granlund will be up to camp, but the Wild will have to gauge if any of its NHL guys have injury issues.
For instance, Pierre-Marc Bouchard is feeling good. But he has been out for more than a year. He hasn't been cleared to play yet and hasn't passed the final big hurdle -- real contact. So would he be able to play right away if there's only a seven-day camp with no exhibition games?
Maybe that opens the door for a Jason Zucker or a Charlie Coyle or a Johan Larsson. All three have been great in Houston. Others playing real well down there up front include Justin Fontaine, who has an upper-body injury, Nick Palmieri and David McIntyre.
If the lockout ends, the Wild will likely sign Palmieri, who is on an AHL deal, to an NHL deal. He has been that good. Nine goals, playing a big man's game, driving the net, using his size, says GM Chuck Fletcher. He's liked McIntyre, too, saying, he's been consistent, a pest, a great penalty killer. He is plus-15.
Today was the eight-week checkup for defenseman Jonas Brodin, who underwent surgery for a broken collarbone. If all went well, the hope was he good intensify his upper-body strength training. He has been skating. But obviously, he would start in Houston some time down the road and isn't a candidate to start with the Wild if there's a season.
More and more players are starting to roll into town in case the season starts. Tom Gilbert, who lives in Madison is back. Devin Setoguchi tweeted he is in town.
Mikko Koivu is back in Finland and only returning if a deal is struck.
In Gophers news, I'll be at availability Thursday, but I had Don Lucia on KFAN today and he said Erik Haula will likely miss at least the next 3 games. The hope is he is back by the North Dakota series Jan. 18-19.
Remember, the world junior championships continue in the wee hours of Thursday morning with a 3 a.m. semifinal showdown between Canada and the U.S. It's on NHL Network and NHL.com live.
Be there or be square.
After working past midnight on New Year's Eve and all day New Year's Day, the NHL extended a "comprehensive response" to the NHLPA's comprehensive response to the NHL's latest proposal late Tuesday night.
Got it?
Basically, the NHL and NHLPA are in a negotiating game of ping-pong, which is very much a good thing.
Good morning. I'll be filling in from 12-3 on KFAN (100.3 FM) today, so please tune in. You can also tweet me questions at @russostrib or leave them on my Facebook page.
Guests today include Gophers coach Don Lucia (12:35 p.m.), St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock (1:20 p.m.), Ottawa Sun's Bruce Garrioch (1:35 p.m.), Vikings.com's Mike Wobschall (12:15 p.m.) and WCCO's Mark Rosen from 2-3.
The NHLPA took the NHL's latest response last night in order to digest it and likely respond to it today. There's a very good chance the two sides meet again.
"In our response, there were certain things that the Players' association asked for that we agreed to, there were some things that we moved in their direction and there were other things that we said no," Commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters in New York. "But that's part of the process."
Three proposals have been exchanged in the past five days. A deal must be struck by Jan. 11, or the season likely will be canceled. The plan is for training camp to start by Jan. 12 and a 48-game season to begin Jan. 19 if a collective bargaining agreement can be reached.
Realisticallty, a deal must be reached before Jan. 11 in order to get it fully down on paper, lawyered up and ratified.
The NHLPA has until midnight tonight if it wants to file a disclaimer of interest and dissolve the union, but with both sides creeping closer, that's unlikely. The NHLPA could always vote as a membership again to file a disclaimer of interest at a later date if things go haywire.
But I don't see that happening. I truly believe a deal will be struck in the coming days. There's several part of the pact that has already been agreed upon, and as RDS reported last night, the NHLPA is willing to do a 10-year CBA now under certain conditions and the sides are close to an agreement on revenue sharing.
The main things being tackled now are pensions and what the upper limit of the salary cap will be starting in 2013-14. The NHL's proposal of $60 million was unacceptable to the NHLPA.
"The fact that we're involved in a continuous process is something that I'm glad to see, but we're clearly not done yet," said Bettman.
But players I talk to are confident and more and more players are starting to trickle back from Europe in anticipation of camps starting.
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I'm up early because I couldn't fall back to sleep after my 3 a.m. wakeup call to watch the U.S. Czechs. No contest as the Americans won big, 7-0, in the quarterfinals to advance to a 3 a.m. CT Thursday rematch against Canada. The U.S. lost 2-1 to Canada a few days ago. The game can be seen on NHL Network and NHL.com.
Johnny Gaudreau had a hat trick today and has five goals in two games, showing why Don Lucia said after the Gophers' 8-1 win over Boston College on Sunday that the win should have an "asterisk" on it because the Eagles were without Gaudreau and two injured veteran defensemen.
Riley Barker had two goals, JT Miller had a goal and two assists, Jacob Trouba and Seth Jones had four assists apiece and John Gibson had the shutout with 31 saves. Trying to decipher the boxscore, but I think the Americans went 5 for 12 on the power play and there were 18 or 19 power plays in the tightly-called game.
OK, that's it. Give me a listen please on the radio if you want to hear some Vikings, puck talk and a little bit of everything with Rosie. And of course I'll be up at 3 a.m. for the semifinal, although I've been keeping the tweets to a minimum because I don't want to wake up anybody who happens to get my tweets texted to their phones.
Get ready folks. NHL season on the horizon. 
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