We were sworn to secrecy this morning regarding the status of Niklas Backstrom because the Wild was hoping he would be able to start, but he will miss tonight's game against the Nashville Predators for personal reasons (not serious).
Josh Harding gets the start, but the big story is the Wild has signed Paul Deutsch, a 51-year-old beer-league goalie, to an amateur tryout to back up tonight because Matt Hackett won't make warmups. Deutsch is the buddy of former assistant coach Mike Ramsey who used to periodically fill in at Wild practices when either Backstrom or Manny Fernandez/Josh Harding/Dwayne Roloson were dinged up in the past.
He runs a printing business in Richfield. Soooo, warmups should be a must-see tonight. Leave your homes early because the pre-Thanksgiving traffic on I-94 heading east is the worst I've seen.
I should be talking to Deutsch before the game, so I'll toss up quotes soon.
