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This is Michael Russo's 18th 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 and seen weekly on Fox Sports North.

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Posts about Wild practice

Cullen could play Monday in Calgary

Posted by: Kent Youngblood Updated: April 14, 2013 - 2:51 PM

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 There weren't too many folks on the ice for Sunday's optional skate at Xcel Energy Center.

Goalies Josh Harding and Darcy Kuemper with a handful of skaters -- Nate Prosser, Justin Falk, Charlie Coyle, Mikael Granlund, Jason Zucker, Brett Clark.

As they took turns taking shots on goal at one end of the rink, Matt Cullen was at the other, working very hard on battle drills with assistant coach Darby Hendrickson. Cullen was on the ice long before anyone else. And when he came off, he had good news.

"We're getting to the point in the season where you have to be in there," said Cullen, who has missed six games with a lower body injury. "So it was a good day to push it a little bit, see how it feels in the morning, how everything is going. But it was definitely a good day. And it's definitely getting better."

Cullen is going on the trip with the Wild, which plays its next three on the road. And coach Mike Yeo said there was a chance Cullen could be in the lineup Monday night in Calgary.

"He looked really good," said Yeo, who didn't skate Sunday but did make sure to look in on Cullen. "He looked good today. We'll see how it is tomorrow."

Yeo indicated that should Cullen be ready, he'd be inclined to reunite Cullen with Devin Setoguchi, considering how well the two clicked before. The question would be who would be the third man on that line. Yeo said it would be either Jason Zucker or Pierre-Marc Bouchard.

 

Here are some other items from today:

--Russo blogged earlier that there would be no supplemental discipline from the NHL for his hit on Artem Anisimov early in the game with Columbus. Coyle said he wasn't surprised, that he thought it was a clean hit and that he wasn't trying to hurt anyone. But he disappoint his family, who came a long way to watch him play all of 17 seconds. The good news? His family was also around to watch the Wild game Thursday. Plus, Coyle said his two nephews enjoyed watching him fight Brandon Dubinsky Saturday.

--Yeo said center Zenon Konopka, who was wearing a cast on what is believed to be a broken foot, would not be out an extended period. "I don't think it will be a long time," Yeo said. Konopka did not fly with the team to Calgary, but Yeo said there was a chance Konopka could join them on the road trip should he heal sufficiently.

That's it. Have a good afternoon. 

 

Wild practice Friday: Suter sits out, Zucker recalled, new-look lines

Posted by: Rachel Blount Updated: April 12, 2013 - 4:43 PM

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Order will be restored to the universe tomorrow, when Mike Russo is back in the daily-coverage seat. Until then, this is Rachel Blount, checking in from today's practice.
 
Defenseman Ryan Suter, who missed part of the second period and all of the third in Thursday's 2-0 loss to St. Louis, didn't skate at all today. Coach Mike Yeo refused to say what kind of injury Suter has or where it is, saying only that Suter is day-to-day. It did sound as if he has a decent chance of playing Saturday, when the Wild face Columbus at Xcel. Here's what Yeo had to say after practice:
 
"He's day to day. Obviously, we want to keep him off today and give him a better chance to rest up for tomorrow. With the minutes he plays, with a guy like that, you pretty much go into these practice days and see how he's feeling anyway. So if he's not feeling 100 percent, then you might as well just keep him off.''
When asked if Suter thought he could work through the injury Thursday, since he did return in the second period after missing shifts early, Yeo said it wasn't worth it to keep Suter in. "Why run the risk of hurting yourself worse?'' he said. "It wasn’t quite good enough yesterday. This is a tough guy. He is a tough, tough guy. So again, having part of that game and all of today to rest should help.''
 
Matt Cullen did skate on his own again Friday, but Yeo said he also is day-to-day.
 
The healthy guys did some line shuffling Friday. RW Charlie Coyle was reunited with C Mikko Koivu and LW Zach Parise, while Jason Pominville--who was playing right wing on that line--was teamed with C Kyle Brodziak and LW Pierre-Marc Bouchard. Yeo emphasized it was not a demotion for Pominville. He simply thinks, he said, that Pominville fits well with Brodziak and Bouchard, and that their complementary skills might spark this hard-luck offense.
 
Those numbers again: the Wild has been shut out in three of its past four games. It has six goals in its past six. And it has not scored in the past 121 minutes, 25 seconds.
 
RW Cal Clutterbuck also was placed on the fourth line with Torrey Mitchell at center and Mike Rupp at LW, while Zenon Konopka was holding a space at LW alongside C Mikael Granlund and LW Devin Setoguchi that will be filled by Jason Zucker, who was recalled Friday afternoon. Zucker was named to the AHL all-star team last week and leads Houston with 24 goals, 50 points and eight game-winning goals. In 14 games with the Wild this season, he had four goals and an assist and was a plus-5.
 
Yeo on Pominville's move: "Their line (Parise-Koivu-Pominville) hit the post and had four or five quality chances (Thursday). They could have easily potted a couple of goals last night, so this is in no way, shape or form based on the idea that that line can't be really effective for us. We've seen they can be. What it's really about is trying to find some balance through our lineup and putting (Pominville) with Butch and Brodz, that's a line that can definitely produce for us. ... It's got speed, it's got skill, it's got a shooter, it's got a guy who will go to the net. There are a lot of pieces in there. All three are smart players. I'm anxious to see how it works out. ''
 
Yeo also was careful in discussing the move of Clutterbuck, who hasn't gotten a point in the past seven games and has just three goals and five assists in 33 games this season. "If you're talking about points, then yes, (Clutterbuck is struggling),'' he said. "There are other parts of his game that have been really good. I'm not big on the whole first, second, third, fourth lines. To me, we've got four different lines, four different identities, four different roles.
 
"As far as I'm concerned, the line he was playing with today fits his role, fits his identity, and it should have the ability and potential to generate some offense. It can certainly generate some momentum and be a line that’s really tough to play against. I don’t think that changes his role. We can say it's the fourth line, but what I see is a line that can be very tough to play against and can bring us some momentum.''
 
Yeo continued the theme he struck after Thursday's game, that the Wild is doing many things well despite the lack of scoring and that players must stick to the plan and stay positive. Clutterbuck said there is one thing that is making it easier to do so than it might have been in the past.
 
"We're in the playoffs,'' he said, referring to the Wild's seventh-place spot in the Western Conference standings. "It's a lot more positive than it has been the last couple of years around here. If we win (Saturday) night, then we'll be having a much different conversation the day after.''
 

Josh Harding returns to Wild practice; lineup update vs. Blues

Posted by: Michael Russo Updated: April 10, 2013 - 3:42 PM

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UPDATED

 

Josh Harding practiced with the Wild for the first time since the morning skate Feb. 11 in Calgary. The next day, he was scratched from his anticipated start in Vancouver because of complications he was having adjusting to new medication for multiple sclerosis.
 
“I felt quick, I thought I was making the saves I should have made,” Harding said. “Each day’s a new step, but I’m definitely happy on how today went. I felt like my old self, which is good to feel like.”
 
Darcy Kuemper will remain at least until Harding is ready to return. I assume he would need a number of practices, but at some point probably next week, the Wild will send Harding to Houston to get a couple games in. There’s only five games left in Houston’s season after tonight’s game against Oklahoma City.
 
The Aeros, who are fifth in the West, are three points up on a playoff spot.
The Wild had its team photo this morning. Afterward, injured Matt Cullen tested his "lower body" injury a bit. It's clear he is getting closer to returning, but he did not practice today and thus won't play tomorrow against St. Louis.
 
Same lines against the Blues. Tom Gilbert is expected to return to the lineup and be paired with Justin Falk. That means Nate Prosser sit because he’s a Right Defenseman and Jonas Brodin, Jared Spurgeon and Gilbert will be ahead of him.
 
Clayton Stoner remains in the lineup. Coach Mike Yeo talked to him today and said it’s imperative to push last night’s mistake (turnover on losing goal to Marian Hossa) aside and probably do his best to block out the outside noise.
 
The Blues are a big, hard-nosed team and Yeo said the Wild must play a hard game, and thus Stoner is needed vs. the Blues.
 
The big thing going on with the team now though is the state of flux the lines suddenly are in without Cullen and Dany Heatley. The second line has been ineffective without Cullen, and without Heatley, Charlie Coyle has taken his spot there. The Mikko Koivu line is also trying to gain chemistry with Jason Pominville.
 
So Yeo is trying to weigh the balance between giving these guys the chance to gain chemistry as top-3 lines or when do you shake it up with the urgency needed with only nine games left in a season that has hit a bump in the road lately.
 
My guess is the Blues game will be the big determining point. The second line is the big area of concern. Devin Setoguchi has gone from hot to cold without Cullen. I’m not so sure it’s a coincidence that Pierre-Marc Bouchard (no goals, one assist the past 8 games) has seen a dip in play since that outside pressure of Jason Zucker taking his spot disappeared with Zucker’s reassignment to Houston.
 
There is going to come a point here where the Wild has to get Zucker, who made the AHL All-Rookie team, back in the lineup here.
 
There’s a number of factors why Zucker isn’t here, the biggest being a complicated transaction technicality. I will explain in more detail in tomorrow’s Strib (that’s our print-edition newspaper, check it out), but basically you get four non-emergency callups after the trade deadline and the Wild would put itself right to the max if it called up Zucker without sending down Mikael Granlund.
 
The Wild needs Granlund up here now to play center because of Cullen’s injury. Like I said, I’ll get into this more in tomorrow’s paper, but there will come a point very soon where the Wild may need to just call up Zucker and deal with being at the callup max for the rest of the season. From my understanding, this is not why Marco Scandella isn't here. I just don't think his game is in order, and frankly, it wasn't when he was here earlier this season.
 
Former Gophers center Erik Haula will make his Aeros debut tonight against Oklahoma City. He’s centering Brett Bulmer and Carson McMillan.
 
Blues are coming off two Brian Elliott shutouts in a row and have won five in a row. Elliott vs. Niklas Backstrom on Thursday.
 
I am technically off on Thursday, believe it or not. Rachel Blount will be at the morning skate and blog afterward. She is also covering the game, although I’ll show up to tweet my fingers off, blog and do my regularly-scheduled Fox Sports North gig.
 
Laterz!
 

 

Wild looks to rediscover its game Sunday against Marian Gaborik and the Columbus Blue Jackets

Posted by: Michael Russo Updated: April 6, 2013 - 2:25 PM

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Marian Gaborik, the all-time leading scorer in Wild history, somebody who would have been an original Columbus Blue Jacket and not Rostislav Klesla if the Wild hadn't won a coin flip to allow it to pick 3rd before the 2000 draft, will make his home debut Sunday night (5 p.m. CT).

It comes in the same arena -- Nationwide -- where Gaborik played his final game as a Wild on April 11, 2009. He scored two goals, one assist that game, the same game Jacques Lemaire announced after would be his last behind the Wild bench. Three or four days later, the Doug Risebrough era came to an end, too.

Oh, the memories

Now Gaborik plays for Todd Richards, the former Wild coach who never got to coach Gaborik because he signed a five-year deal with the Rangers. On Wednesday, Gaborik waived his no-trade clause to join the Wild's expansion cousins.

The Jackets, who have played great hockey for awhile behind BOB (Sergei Bobrovsky), are a desperate team right now, so the Wild should expect their best effort. Columbus' loss in St. Louis on Friday night was its third in regulation in the past 19 (11-3-5). The Wild has won six games in history in Columbus, and the Jackets currently have a 12-game home point streak going -- no regulation home losses since Feb. 10 (9-0-3).

This is a hard-working, fast team that became even faster with the acquisition of Gaborik, whom we all know doesn't need too many chances to make you hurt.

You know he'll be jacked (no pun intended) up Sunday to debut in front of the Jackets' faithful.

The Wild, it will be looking to rediscover its game after three consecutive losses and four in the past five. Today at Nationwide, the Wild had its first real practice in 14 days. The legs feel better, the spirits are high and the Wild says it's time to get its act together.

After Sunday, the Wild returns home for a three-game homestand, so a win in a tough arena Sunday could result in a much-needed exhale of relief.

The Wild will be without Dany Heatley and Matt Cullen though. Heatley's injury is not a wrist, by the way, but we'll stick with upper body. But the guess is he'll be out at least a week or more. He did make the trip from California with the team for treatment but coach Mike Yeo said the Wild may send him home to see the doc. Cullen has been home with his lower body injury and Yeo hopes he'll be close to a return when the Wild gets back to Minnesota.

Niklas Backstrom vs. the BOB. Backstrom was yanked after giving up two goals on two shots Thursday in L.A.  He is 20-2-4 in his first start after being pulled with a 1.91 goals against average, 16-0-2 since March 26, 2008 with a 1.69 goals against average and .943 save percentage.

Yeo indicated he may tinker with the blue line against the Jackets, so we'll see if that means Justin Falk AND Nate Prosser get in or just one.

Lots of questions lately about why Jason Zucker isn't here. He is tearing it up in Houston again.

I agree with you and my guess is it's coming. There will be 10 games left after Sunday. The only priority should be putting the best lineup on the ice that will help win games, not worrying about hurting feelings.

The problem is there's only a couple guys that could come out, so my gut tells me Pierre-Marc Bouchard, whose game has slipped again, best have a good one against Columbus or we could see Zucker up by the homestand. The Wild needs Zucker's speed, energy and goal-scoring ability. 

A lot of questions why Mikael Granlund got the call instead of Zucker in the first place. I agree with you there, too. I can only say that without Cullen, the Wild felt it needed a center and the Wild feels Charlie Coyle is best used as a winger. But I wasn't particularly impressed with Granlund's game in L.A, so man, the Wild needs Cullen back bigtime if the Wild feels it doesn't have a better option at center.

For more on the running-hot Jackets and their desperation level, here is the blog of Columbus Dispatch ace beat writer Aaron Portzline.

Talk to you after Sunday's morning skates.

Josh Harding back on the ice for Wild

Posted by: Kent Youngblood Updated: March 28, 2013 - 3:10 PM

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 Rarely has anybody been as excited about taking part in an optional practice as Josh Harding was today.

Harding got to Xcel Energy Center early. Warmed up. Waited.  Then, in pads, he took the ice with four teammates in a very informal setting and took some shots.

“It was an exciting day,” Harding said.

Another step.

It was discovered last fall that Harding had multiple sclerosis. It was hoped that it could be contained with proper treatment. But, after his body didn’t react well to his medication, he was put on injured reserve Feb. 12 . That began a weeks-long process of trying to find the right treatment combination. A process that was, for Harding, at times very difficult.

“The slope I was taking, I could feel it,” Harding said. “I think everybody around me was noticing, too. It was going downhill, and a couple days you wonder if you’re going to get better. The scariest thing was when I tried some things that were supposed to help me and they didn’t. And that was when it kind of started getting to me, that this might be serious. And you think about hockey, you think about how your life is going to change. That’s why it’s exciting for myself to feel better this last week and a half.”

Harding is confident in his new treatment regimen. He has been working out hard for a week and a half. He had skated twice before Thursday, but hadn’t taken any shots. That’s why being in net and taking shots was so important.

There is no timetable for his return. That won’t be determined until Harding, the doctors, coach Mike Yeo and general manager Chuck Fletcher all get together and talk about the situation.

But Harding said he feels good.

“I think we kinda got it under wraps here,” he said. “This was a big step for me. Hopefully it just keeps going the right way.”

 

Here are a couple other notes from today:

 

--Yeo wouldn’t say whether he plans on having goalie Niklas Backstrom stay in the Twin Cities while the rest of the team goes to Dallas. We will know more later this afternoon, as a move would have to be made if Backstrom stays behind to get some rest. “I haven’t considered it yet,” Yeo said. “Or, maybe I have.”

But Mike Russo is pretty certain Backstrom won't be on the trip, which would mean Matt Hackett would need to get called up later this afternoon. If that is the case, the question is, who will start, Hackett or Darcy Kuemper?  Hackett struggled with Houston on Tuesday. Backstrom, who has had a heavy workload of late, would then be rested for Saturday's home game against Los Angeles. 

 

--Yeo wasn’t about to talk about any potential lineup changes. And that includes whether the recent play of defensemen Tom Gilbert and Justin Falk. Brett Clark and Nate Prosser were two of the three skaters at Thursday’s optional skate – Mike Rupp was the other. Might it be time for Clark to make his Wild debut?

 

--Here is Yeo on the trade of Jarome Iginla to Pittsburgh:  “There is a reason why good players want to go play there,” Yeo said. “They’ve created a winning culture there, and players want the chance to win.’’

But won’t it be strange to play Calgary without seeing Iginla in a Flames uniform? “It will be good, that’s for sure,” Yeo said.

 

That’s about all for now. Russo will be back in the saddle tomorrow.

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