Greetings. Kent Youngblood here. Sorry for the relatively late post, but I decided to do it after finishing my work for the paper tomorrow. Here is a recap from today's practice at St. Thomas Academy: --Chuck Kobasew and Cam Barker both missed the workout with groin pull injuries. Kobasew is expected to play tomorrow, Barker probably not. --Pierre-Marc Bouchard took another step today, taking part in his first full-contact practice. But there wasn't a lot of significant hits in the drill-heavy workout. But Wild coach Todd Richards said PMB looked very fast and pretty sharp. Of course, he's got a long ways to go to get into game shape, and that's after he's officially cleared to play by a doctor. --I'm not used to seeing a lot of emotion on the ice from Niklas Backstrom, but after letting in a few goals during practice he flung his stick at the wall behind the net in frustration. Meanwhile, I want to let you guys in on a charity auction that has been set up to help Chris Garner, the hockey equipment manager at Minnesota-Duluth. He has been diagnosed with MDS (Myelodysplatic Syndrom), which was previously known as pre-leukemia. He was diagnosed earlier this year and was put on a list for a bone marrow transplant. A match was found, and he has begun preparations for the procedure, which will take place at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. There are a lot of costs involved, including the cost of the treatment itself and the cost of his relocating to Rochester for the duration of the treatment. Jeremiah Minkel, the St. Cloud State hockey equipment manager, has been friends with Garner since the two met as student assistants at SDSU. Minkel has put together an on-line auction, which started today, to help Garner defray the cost of his treatment. I'm not going to list all the items for sale, but there are some nice ones. There are at least 82 college and pro jerseys, more than 20 autographed sticks and many other items. If you're interested, here is a link to watch a video about Garner and the auction items: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Om1Xw9gJs4. The auction items can be found at this link: http://www.obermanauction.com/current.htm