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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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Cuma to make NHL debut tonight
Posted by: Michael Russo Updated: April 5, 2012 - 11:27 AM
UPDATED
Defenseman Tyler Cuma, four years after the Wild drafted him in the first round in 2008, will make his long-anticipated NHL debut tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks.
He'll be the 46th Wild player this season, 15th rookie and ninth to make his debut. He'll be the first No. 65 in Wild history. Cuma nearly made his debut at Phoenix last month, but he missed his flight due to very little time between landing from Vancouver and his flight to Phoenix. The problem was he had to leave the terminal to get his bag and re-checkin.
Yesterday, he got the call at 2:30 p.m. to catch a 5 o'clock flight. But he had to get his gear from the practice facility -- an hour from the airport. He got to the airport around 4 and "thankfully it wasn't busy and I walked right through."
"I was flying down the highway making sure I didn't miss this flight this time around," Cuma said. "With the last couple years the way things have gone for myself, fortunately so far this year I've had a full season down in the AHL. I've played a lot of games in a lot of situations to get me ready for this. I've been waiting for this call for a long time."
Here's that unedited notebook lead from the time:
By MICHAEL RUSSO
mrusso@startribune.com
GLENDALE, ARIZ. – Tyler Cuma’s long-awaited NHL debut … will have to wait.
The 2008 first-round pick went from nervous excitement to sheer disappointment Thursday when his chance to make his NHL debut at Phoenix was thwarted by missing a plane.
After playing with the Houston Aeros in Abbotsford, British Columbia, on Wednesday night, Cuma flew from Vancouver to Houston on Thursday morning. But in Arizona, defenseman Jared Spurgeon woke up in the wee hours of the morning with the flu.
So when Cuma landed in Houston shortly before 2 p.m., he got the call to get his gear from United baggage claim and rush to US Airways for a 3 p.m. flight to Phoenix.
“I never made it to check-in,” Cuma said. “It just wasn’t enough time to get from A to B. Tough luck, really.”
Cuma, 22, was drafted 23rd overall in 2008. He has watched 2008 second-round pick Marco Scandella skyrocket by him up the depth chart because of an exorbitant amount of injuries. Three of them were to his left knee – the last coming during the Aeros’ game against Peoria at Xcel Energy Center a year ago when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament.
“I know the last couple of years I’ve been pretty much written off with all the injuries that I’ve had, but I’ve been really pleased this year,” Cuma said. “I’ve gotten a lot of opportunity to play and my knee hasn’t hurt whatsoever. I’ve been happy the way I’ve been playing lately.
“To finally get called up, unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it, but it gives me confidence that my game is where it needs to be. Hopefully I’ll get a game or two up there soon.”
Clayton Stoner is out with an upper body injury and probably won't play the season finale.
As Cuma alluded to in the above story, he's considered a bust because we haven't seen him yet and Marco Scandella, the second-round pick in the same draft, has catapulted past him in terms of development. But Cuma has suffered myriad injuries in his career, including a torn ACL last year, so this will give him a big taste going into a big summer.
Here is Mike Yeo's quote on Cuma PRIOR to the Phoenix game:
“I thought that coming back into training camp that he didn’t have the same jump and the skating, it looked like he lost a bit of a step, which is completely normal,” said Wild coach Mike Yeo, who coached Cuma last year in Houston. “It takes time to get it back, and from what I understand, he’s been doing a good job of that and playing really well down there.
“Last year for us, he came in as a young kid and really had to change his game a little bit. He was able to get away with a lot of things in junior that he wasn’t able to in pro, and he had a great attitude for us and really started to become an effective, really strong two-way defenseman.”
The Wild had an optional skate this morning. Mikko Koivu, who didn't practice yesterday, did skate, so he will play.
Josh Harding, a free agent this summer, will start. Could this be his last start of his Wild career?
Kyle Brodziak will wear the Dany Heatley style visor tonight, the one that looks like a welding shield. His entire left side of his face has swelled up.
Thoughts on "tanking," the state of the Wild and the future
Posted by: Michael Russo Updated: April 3, 2012 - 11:16 AMMorning from Nashville, where the Wild will play its final road game of the season tonight. The morning skate is in a few hours. The only potential lineup change will be Warren Peters entering for Cody Almond.
Peters was supposed to fly in yesterday, so if he’s able to play, Almond would have to be reassigned because he’s an emergency recall.
My guess is, if healthy (he’s been walking gingerly), Niklas Backstrom will start vs. backup Anders Lindback.
There’s been lots of talk lately about the Wild finally winning games and thus, potentially, ruining its draft position after such a disappointing season.
Hey, I get it. If you’ve read me for years, I’ve always contended that one of the Wild’s biggest problems throughout its history is the fact it’s always just good enough to get the 10th pick or the 12th or whatever. If you’re going to miss the playoffs, you might as well get a real, legit, bona fide consolation prize for it.
I talked to coach Mike Yeo about that yesterday. Yeo finds himself in the awkward position of defending the Wild … winning games lately.
You can read that story here.
My random thoughts in reaction to a couple things that have been tweeted or emailed to me by readers:
1) What’s Yeo supposed to say? His job is to win games, not lose them.
2) One of the things I agree with Yeo on: It does just come down to quality drafting, not necessarily where you pick (see Benoit Pouliot at No. 4 in 2005).
First of all, other than the first couple in this upcoming draft, there are allegedly no sure things. And as I pointed out in the article, years from now, we may find out that Mikael Granlund (at 9th overall) and Jonas Brodin (at 10th) were better draft picks than some of the guys taken ahead of them.
One big reason the Wild’s where it’s at isn’t so much the fact that it didn’t get top-5 picks (although it would have helped) but that the previous regime absolutely swung and completely missed at arguably five consecutive first-round picks (Thelen, Pouliot, Sheppard, Gillies and, maybe too early to declare, Cuma) and the new regime traded its first first-round pick, Nick Leddy.
I mean, just think about that: The Wild absolutely blew SIX consecutive first-round picks. You don’t recover from things like that very easily. Throw it the fact the Wild got squat for Marian Gaborik, and … thit is why the Wild’s got such little skill, such little depth at top-6 forwards, why it’s so far behind so many teams in this league.
Look at the Wild’s opponent on any given night and count how many of their OWN first-round picks are in the lineup compared to the Wild.
The Wild has ONE – Mikko Koivu. That’s completely unforgivable, and the terrible Leddy trade aside, this is why the Wild’s new regime needed to stockpile prospects with quality drafting (Granlund, Larsson, Bulmer, Zucker, Brodin, Phillips, Lucia), quality college and junior free-agent signings (Spurgeon, Prosser) and quality trades the last few years (Coyle).
Now, in the next few years, Wild fans will hopefully start to see those dividends.
3) The idea of tanking is impossible. I’ve written this so many times, but again, I keep reading comments, “Fill the team with minor leaguers, … bring up Hackett, … force Koivu to sit.” This stuff cannot happen. Years ago, the league and players’ union implemented a rule where you can only have FOUR post-trade deadline callups. Otherwise, it’s an emergency recall. That means, if you have 12 healthy forwards, they stay. If one forward gets hurt, an emergency callup can come up. When the one forward returns, that forward must go back. Same with goalies. So when Josh Harding and Backstrom returned, Hackett HAD to go back. Why is this? Myriad reasons: 1) Keep teams from shutting down NHLers and filling them with minor-league scrubs (union’s fairly interested in making sure its players don’t have jobs and ice time taken away); 2) The concept that the team you pass the deadline with should in large measure be the team you enter the playoffs with; 3) Since there is no roster limit after the deadline, it prevents gross stockpiling at the NHL level.; 4) It also protects the competitive integrity of the AHL season -- AHL would have major issue if there wasn’t some limit on number of recalls; 5) Similarly, protects the competitive integrity of the NHL season. I think last year the Chicago Blackhawks would have had a pretty big issue if on the season finale, the Wild dressed a bunch of ECHLers against Dallas.
4) On the concept, “Is the Wild building a culture of winning or is the Wild winning games because the pressure’s off,” I think that’s a great debate. I do agree with many readers that it’s mostly the latter. Where was this when the season mattered? Where was this great play by certain individuals when the season could have been saved? You see this annually: An out-of-playoff team suddenly playing well when it’s allegedly playing for pride and trying to save jobs. I talked to Yeo about that, and he says it’s a different kind of pressure, but it’s still pressure. I’ll try to squeeze in those quotes tomorrow or in the next few days.
5) On the idea that Yeo wants to build a culture of winning, yet a lot of readers have noted many of these guys won’t be back. I was asked a few times by fans whom I think will definitely be back.
Barring trades, the following will be back: Koivu, Setoguchi, Heatley, Brodziak, Powe, Zucker (NHL or AHL), Clutterbuck, Gilbert, Backstrom, Prosser, Scandella … and injured Bouchard (can’t buy out an injured player), Spurgeon, Cullen, Kassian (AHL or NHL), Kampfer (AHL or NHL).
Guys I could see being back: Stoner (unrestricted) and Veilleux on a two-way contract. Wild has decisions to make on restricted free agents, Justin Falk and Nick Johnson. I’d think you’d tender them qualifying offers, but Johnson in particular has been so lost defensively in the second half, it’s becoming a major issue and hurting them often in games. Because he’s restricted though, he I’d think they bring him back.
Christensen, though, is an unrestricted free agent. I don’t think he’s brought back despite the big goals lately. First, when they needed him, he went 15 games without a point. That game in Chicago doesn’t get to overtime without Christensen and Johnson being so poor defensively, and that’s been a common theme with Christensen. If you start penciling in potential free agent signings and the Granlunds and maybe Coyles and Zuckers next year, where does Erik Christensen fit? On the fourth line? Uh, no. Erik Christensen cannot be an effective fourth-liner. He’s skilled, not gritty. Also, the Wild will have plenty of shootout options next year with the kids. Let’s put it this way: I don’t see Christensen being re-signed before July 1. If he’s brought back, my guess is it’s because they missed on some things post July 1. I could be wrong, but that’s my sense.
If guys like Jed Ortmeyer and Warren Peters are brought back, it’ll be on two-way deals.
I don’t see the injured Latendresse coming back unless they get him on a quality one-year deal at a great price. But this is two years in a row the Wild’s been hamstrung by him missing an entire season with injuries.
The Wild will have to make a decision on Josh Harding, and part of that decision will be Harding’s.
Kurtis Foster won’t be back. Mike Lundin won’t be back. And like I said, I have my doubts that Christensen will be back.
6) Frankly, the Wild’s improved play of late, I think, proves just how big of a loss Mikko Koivu was. That’s why it’s incumbent on GM Chuck Fletcher to fix this problem. It’s inexcusable that the Wild annually is a Mikko Koivu injury away from disaster. I think the Wild could have survived Latendresse and Bouchard alone, but when Koivu went down with those two, and then it lost Devin Setoguchi, the Wild went from being a team with interchangeable parts to a team that couldn’t survive the loss of so many top-6 forwards. Players changed their roles and never got rediscovered that early season “stick-to-it-ness identity. Koivu’s presence stabilizes everything. His presence allows others to get better matchups, it allows others to play their appropriate roles, it forces teams to respect his line, it allows him to take the big faceoffs and play the big special-team shifts. This one player missing fouls everything up because the Wild, at least the past two years, didn’t have the depth. Hopefully, now that the Wild’s actually drafted well the past two years, the depth is on its way. That depth still will need to develop though. The Wild’s not going to be able to snap its fingers and just be good – barring the signing of a potential star forward and defenseman, of course.
OK, I'm out of breath. That was a lot of writing. Digest, and I'll be back after the skate to update this blog with the highly-anticipated, "Will Warren Peters play? and Who's in goal?" news.
Backstrom is in the nets tonight
Posted by: Kent Youngblood Updated: March 31, 2012 - 11:59 AMNiklas Backstrom will be in goal for the Wild tonight against the L.A. Kings. It promises to be a pretty intense game, given L.A.'s playoff drive.
The Kings won 4-1 in Edmonton last night, with the victory pushing them to the top of the Western Conference's Pacific Division -- and the No. 3 seed in the conference overall -- one point ahead of Dallas.
Greetings. Kent Youngblood here. I'll be covering the game tonight, with Mr. Russo on the way to Chicago. He will cover Sunday's game.
But back to tonight. According to Wild coach Mike Yeo, defenseman Marco Scandella has "a bit of an upper body injury'' and won't play tonight. It does not appear serious. Scandella skated today, is being called day-to-day by Yeo and is scheduled to travel with the team to Chicago.
But that means Kurtis Foster will suit up.
Other items Yeo touched on this morning after an optional morning skate:
--Yeo is pleased with the way the Wild power play -- 5-for-19 the past seven games --is performing. But he would like to see the Wild get more opportunities. The reason for the uptick in production? Yeo said the team made some changes in the way the power play was set up in the offensive end. "I think it's helping us distribute the puck a little more," Yeo said. "It's giving us threats from both sides of the ice. But, as much as anything else, the way we're set up now, i think there is a little more focus on moving the puck quickly.''
--Yeo doesn't expect fatigue to play any role in tonight's game, despite the late hour of the Kings' arrival here last night.
That's about it. Tom Gilbert will play in his 400th NHL game tonight and Cal Clutterbuck will play in his 300th.
I'll get back to you after the game. Have a good afternoon.
Backstrom, Falk to return tonight against Florida
Posted by: Michael Russo Updated: March 29, 2012 - 11:49 AMNiklas Backstrom, who suffered a painful-looking groin injury early in the first period March 1 in Montreal, will return to the nets tonight against his goalie partner of last year, Jose Theodore, and the Florida Panthers, who have points in nine of their past 10 (6-1-3).
Backstrom was brilliant against Theo and the Panthers in Sunrise on Feb. 23 when he stopped 41 shots and both of Florida’s shootout attempts in a Wild win. It was after that game that Florida went out and made a couple trades to assure a playoff spot and improve on shootouts (like Wojtek Wolski).
Justin Falk, who has missed 10 games with a knee injury, returns and Kurtis Foster will be the lone healthy scratch.
Jason Zucker will be the 45th player to dress for the Wild this season and eighth to make his NHL debut. He'll be the 14th rookie. All those numbers are NHL highs.
Several North Stars alum will be at the game for the Reunion Weekend. If you want to meet many of them, they plan to attend Tom Reid's Hockey City Pub after the game. The schedule of events for the weekend is on the previous blog.
The Panthers look to be playoff bound for the first time since 2000. They haven’t won a playoff round since their Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1996 and haven’t won a playoff game since 1997. Think about that: There are freshmen and sophomores in high school who have not seen the Panthers win a playoff game in their existence.
Panthers lifer Stephen Weiss, drafted in 2001 and a player the Wild has long sought, would get to play in his first postseason. It's been a lot of pain in Fla.
Scott Mellanby and Doug MacLean in that picture, which is courtesy of the Twitter account, @jose97luis
Wild's Matt Cullen out with season-ending surgery; Horde of Rangers with Minnesota ties
Posted by: Michael Russo Updated: March 27, 2012 - 12:36 PMUPDATED
Center Matt Cullen, after having more pictures taken of his broken right index finger, underwent season-ending surgery this morning. Chad Rau remains.
Niklas Backstrom was back on the ice this morning, so Matt Hackett was reassigned.
Josh Harding starts vs. Henrik Lundqvist tonight.
Defenseman Justin Falk (knee) also skated with the team this morning and expects to get into a full practice tomorrow.
Erik Christensen and Jed Ortmeyer both held court with the Rangers' large press corps this morning. In the Rangers' locker room, there's tons of guys with Minnesota ties -- Derek Stepan, former Minnesota Mr. Hockey Ryan McDonagh and the great Stu Bickel. Michael Sauer has been out with a concussion.
Of course, there's also Marian Gaborik and John Scott, who will be scratched tonight. Scott, not Gaborik, who is lighting it up this season for the Rangers, the team he once scored five against in this arena.
Gaborik has missed two of the three games against the Wild with injury, so tonight will be his second game in this arena after an assist during last year's meeting (night the Rangers got stuck here due to that ice storm).
Seeing Gaborik brought back a lot of memories of Derek Boogaard and Pavol Demitra of course, and I talked to him a little about that. A lot of those Rangers guys were very close with Boogaard, too.
More on all this in tomorrow's Star Tribune notebook.
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