Coming to you from Vancouver, where it's been a three-ring circus today with the Rick Rypien suspension coming down. Not a lot of hockey talk in both locker rooms, but a lot of reaction to the six-game suspension.
Just an fyi, Cam Barker injured his groin last night, so Wild defenseman Clayton Stoner will play for the first time since Finland. He's from Vancouver Island and couldn't get the smile off his face. His parents and a bunch of buddies were at the morning skate. Hometown boy Colton Gillies doesn't look like he's playing, but coach Todd Richards said there's a medical issue with Chuck Kobasew and if he can't play, Gillies will. But Richards thought Kobasew will be fine.
Jose Theodore makes his Wild debut tonight vs. Cory Schneider, who starting consecutive home games in place of Roberto Luongo.
Onto Rypien, I just got off the phone with James Engquist, the fan Rypien physically grabbed. He was honored this morning to get a call from NHL Commisioner Gary Bettman, who offered Engquist tickets to a game and dinner.
"He said, 'Sorry about the events, and players should never ever put their hands on a fan.' He said he'd like to offer me tickets to a game and dinner, and I thought that was very nice of him. I mean, what do you say at that point. You're talking to the Commissioner of the NHL. I thought it was really respectful for him to give me a call. He's a very classy man."
Engquist said he's definitely seeking legal representation after a harrowing few days in which he's been harassed on the Internet, through emails and phone calls.
"It's definitely changed my life. I just think it's in my best interest," he said.
He was disappointed in Rypien's six-game suspension: "In a real-world situation, at my job, at your job as a columnist, if you were do what that person did in your job place, I think minimally what would happen – minimally – you would be fired from your newspaper, your beat writing job. And this is Mr. Rypien's career, this is his job, he's being paid to represent the NHL, and they feel to take a two-week break off without pay and come back to work is satisfactory. But as far as the real world goes, that person would be held accountable as far as the law and just as a company in general, that person would probably be fired."
