Wild: Gaborik travels; Demitra on call

Pavol Demitra looks like a no-go for the upcoming four-game road trip.

By Michael Russo, Star Tribune

Last update: November 10, 2007 - 11:38 PM

In an update from inside the Wild's groin infirmary, Marian Gaborik will travel with the Wild to Colorado today. But according to coach Jacques Lemaire, Pavol Demitra looks like a no-go for the upcoming four-game road trip.

"No Demo on the trip. He's in the clinic, with one leg on one side, the other on the other side and there's a guy rubbing him," Lemaire said, hysterically laughing at the peculiar picture he painted. "He hasn't moved from that table."

However, Lemaire said if at some point Demitra feels he can play, the Wild will fly him in from the Twin Cities. Officially, he's not likely to join the team and is expected to be out at least another week.

"If he one day wakes up and says, 'Hey, I'm ready to go,' take the plane, come and see us," Lemaire said. "He's going to get a schedule. He'll know where we are."

After skating before practice Friday for the second day in a row, Gaborik said his sore groin is getting better and he hopes to practice this afternoon in Denver.

"It feels much better than [Thursday], so [today] in Colorado, I'll try to go out there and see how everything goes and go from there," said Gaborik, who missed Monday's game against Edmonton.

Gaborik, who missed two recent games because of a sore groin, scored three goals and five points against St. Louis and Calgary. But despite leading the Wild to a victory over the Flames with two goals and an assist, he said the injury was aggravated during the game.

"It felt more irritating and stuff," Gaborik said. "I just wasn't able to play 100 percent or even close to 100 percent. ... If I can't push 100 percent, or close to 100 percent, it's worthless first of all [to play] and second thing, I don't want it to get worse."

Asked if he thinks Gaborik will play Sunday at Colorado, Lemaire said Gaborik would practice today "and see how it feels. If he feels fine again, he will go in the morning skate [Sunday]. If he feels fine, he'll go in warmup. And if he feels good, he's going to play."

In other words, there are a lot of "ifs."

Chart climber

Only on the Wild can a player go from being seventh defenseman to second-line right winger in a few days.

Petteri Nummelin, after his two-assist game against the Oilers, skated with Mikko Koivu and Mark Parrish on Friday. Lemaire said the Wild has no plans to recall a forward because Nummelin will play there.

"The way Nummy's playing, I'm sure that the kid we would bring from the minors would not be as good as Nummy up front," Lemaire said.

Still, usually Nummelin struggles against physical teams, but Lemaire said, laughing, "He'll have to skate faster."

Asked if that would change against physical defenseman Dion Phaneuf and the Calgary Flames on Tuesday, Lemaire said, laughing, "He's going to skate really fast. He might get a pulled groin, but he's going to skate. Oy, yoy, yoy."

Michael Russo • mrusso@startribune.com

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