L.A. story: Wild's Bruce Boudreau was on the go during All-Star weekend

LOS ANGELES – Bruce Boudreau, in his glee all weekend … except for the 20 minutes he coached the Central Division to a 10-3 semifinal loss to the Pacific, decided not to call a timeout during Sunday's 3-on-3 All-Star Game tournament.

"I asked for running time instead," cracked the Wild coach before the Metro Division went on to beat the Pacific in the championship for a $1 million prize.

Luckily, for his own health, Boudreau hasn't had to endure anything like Sunday with the Wild. The reason Boudreau was in Los Angeles in the first place is because he's coaching the top team in the Western Conference.

So, taking advantage of the opportunity of being on the national stage, Boudreau spent virtually every waking moment playing the role of salesman and pumping the tires of his often overlooked team.

Here are some examples:

• Boudreau on Ryan Suter: "His numbers, to me, are really what a Norris Trophy winner should be. He defends, he's plus-[28], he plays 27 to 30 minutes a night, he's the backbone of your team whether it's penalty killing, power play, five-on-five, last minute of a game. That's Ryan Suter right there. Because he does it with very little flash, he gets overlooked for what he deserves."

• Boudreau on Eric Staal: "It's been like a new lease of life, and he's taken advantage of it. Forty-one, on his way to 70 points. I don't even know if there's a trophy for Comeback Player of the Year, but if there is, he should be definitely up for it."

• On the Wild's style and character: "When I got the job, I told [General Manager Chuck Fletcher] we have to get bigger, that we have a bunch of smurfs, all small guys. But these guys we have can all just skate and they get in everybody's way, and they're like little gnats. But they're very, very effective gnats. Nobody cares who scores. All they care about is the end result. I don't think there's an awful lot of egos on our team. It's pretty hard to have an ego when you've got a Hall of Fame defenseman [Scott Stevens] with no ego behind the bench working just as hard as any of the players."

Some other Boudreau, Suter and Devan Dubnyk scenes from All-Star Weekend:

One of the coolest parts for Suter was getting to bring his 10-year-old nephew, Jut, the son of his older brother, Justin.

Besides hanging at the pool with cousin Brooks (Ryan's son), Jut got to be on the bench and soak in everything in the locker room. He was wide-eyed sitting at Suter's stall watching Patrik Laine being interviewed.

"That's what it's all about for me," Suter said.

There were two people Boudreau was excited to reunite with over the weekend — Dave Keon and Bobby Orr.

Keon was Boudreau's teammate on the Minnesota Fighting Saints in 1975-76.

"My time with the Fighting Saints was brief and blurred," Boudreau said. "In 1976, we did a lot more than just play hockey. We partied an awful lot, so when I say blurred, I was young and stupid back then and I wish I could undo a lot of things. Dave said something to me that first year and it didn't resonate until about six years later, about how hard you had to work to be a good player. And by that time, I was in the minors so long I wasn't considered a prospect. But I wish I would have taken that notice at 21."

Keon, 76, said, with a laugh, "It was his first year as a pro, and he was just learning how to be a pro living away from home for the first time. He liked to have fun."

When Boudreau was around 21, he worked at Orr's hockey camp.

Boudreau loved attending the NHL's 100 Greatest Players Show on Friday night.

"You just see so many of the greats, and the ones you knew, you're telling your son, 'Oh yeah, I played with him,' and then the ones you don't know, you're in awe," Boudreau said. "You see all these guys on stage at the same time, the hockey lore and the stories, if you just sat around, you could sit there for days."

Son Brady, a goalie for Junior A New Ulm, got 50 autographs during the weekend, including Don Cherry, Patrick Kane, Scott Niedermayer and Tony Esposito.

Boudreau made Brady cut his long hair for the weekend: "He looks like a kid again."

Boudreau also loved the private plane that took him, Stevens and Dubnyk, and their families, to and from L.A.

During dinner Saturday night, before an NHL party that included performances by Snoop Dogg (Dubnyk got a picture with Snoop) and Blink 182, Boudreau and his wife, Crystal, and Stevens and his wife, Donna, and Wild team operations manager Andrew Heydt went for sushi.

After Boudreau toasted Stevens for being named one of the NHL's greatest 100 players, several heavy hitters, including Niedermayer, sat down for conversation. At one point, Wayne Gretzky, who idolized Boudreau as a kid, sat down for a drink.

Finally, after 15 minutes, Boudreau tapped Heydt on the shoulder and whispered in his ear, "You're sitting next to Wayne Gretzky."