Nick Bjugstad returns home; Stephane Veilleux on 500 games; "Red Army" a must-see

Wild (8-1-2 in its past 11, winners of three straight at home) vs. America's Team, the Florida Panthers (points in four straight).

Spooky, but the two teams I have covered are identical.

Same system, same neutral-zone forecheck, similar D-zone coverage.

Wild 59 points, Panthers 59 points. Wild can move within two of a playoff spot in the West with a win, Panthers can move within two of a playoff spot in the East with a win.

Both teams playing real well. Both teams desperate.

The Panthers have Blaine's Nick Bjugstad, the former Gopher and Minnesota Mr. Hockey and apparently a terrible softball player on a super secretive special team I plan to write about this summer. He led the Panthers in scoring as a rookie last year with 38 points (Yes, the Panthers' leading scorer last year had THIRTY-EIGHT POINTS, like the lowest in history or something). He leads them in scoring again this year with 18 goals and 33 points. No sophomore slump for him.

He led the Panthers' stretch this morning, his Blaine coach, Dave Aus (who now coaches Brainerd), was in the house and his mom gobbled up a package deal of 160 tickets for tonight's game.

Cute story: I'm chatting with Panthers coach Gerard Gallant in the stands during the Panthers' morning skate and a little kid wearing a Koivu jersey tiptoes over. Olaf was his name, 8 years old.

He starts talking to Gallant about Bjugstad and then goes, "My dad coached him before you. He's nice."

It was one of Aus' four children, and basically, his son arranged a meeting between Aus and Gallant.

On the ice, Gallant skated up to Bjugstad, points to the stands and asks, "Is that your high school coach?"

Bjugstad goes, "Yeah." Gallant goes, "Well, he didn't teach you $&^%&," then turned and skated away, laughing.

Part 2 of this story. Olaf has a school project. He had a choice to write about an NHL player. His choices were Wayne Gretzky, TJ Oshie or Zach Parise.

Turns out, former goalie and Devils color analyst Chico Resch is on Brainerd's staff. Chico texts Parise, and after today's morning skate, Olaf interviewed Parise for his story.

Pretty neat.

Right before, I was standing with Hall of Famer Denis Potvin, a former Islanders teammate of JP Parise, as Denis talked to Zach Parise.

He told two great JP one-liners to a laughing Zach.

2. Whenever Potvin would miss the net and hit the end boards or glass, JP would skate up to him and say, "Your shot sounds great today."

Bjugstad is excited to be back. His dad and aunt came to the skate, and yesterday on the team bus as he pointed out the new Vikings stadium and TCF Bank Stadium to teammates, his teammates wanted him to grab the bus mic and be a tourguide.

They wanted to know where to eat and he told them, "Chipotle, since that's all I ate in college."

Last night, he was able to have dinner with his family after being picked up at the team hotel by former teammate, roommate and maybe future Panthers prospect Kyle Rau.

"It's exciting always coming home," Bjugstad said. "We're both in the playoff hunt and we need these points. We're in the push right now and these are really important points for us."

Devan Dubnyk vs. Roberto Luongo, who if you remember had to stop playing at Xcel Energy Center for the most part with Vancouver because other than a 0-0 tie in his first outing here many years ago and a 2004 All-Star Game appearance, the X has been a house of horrors for him.

He has played one game here since 2010 after being pulled in three in a row and four of five starts.

He is 3-9-3 all-time in St. Paul with a 3.42 goals-against average and .879 save percentage in 15 starts.

Among active NHL goalies, he has the most losses in St. Paul (not including Niklas Backstrom and Josh Harding obviously), has the second-highest goals-against average among active goalies with at least five games played here and ranks 22nd in save percentage among active goalies with at least five games here.

The Panthers have never beaten Minnesota in regulation in St. Paul.

But the Wild can't have any excuses right now, especially after allowing Winnipeg to take a seven-point lead in the standings the other night and Vancouver winning last night and San Jose getting a point.

The Wild, which was two points back of a playoff spot, is now four.

That's part of the reason the team recalled Iowa captain Stephane Veilleux to play his 500th game. Because the legs may be heavy tonight, the Wild decided for this game to call up a straight-line skater who may bring energy and some talking on the bench. We shall see.

Why Veilleux over Tyler Graovac, whom I think will be here in short time? Yeo said, "You look at this game, emotionally, it's making sure that we're bringing up somebody who's going to bring energy and leadership. You look at Cooke, Carter, guys that we've lost, we're missing physicality and different ways they can bring momentum to your group. But also they're guys who talk on the bench and in the locker room and Steph provides some of that. Also, the penalty killing is such an important part for us right now. The more we have to use the Mikkos, the Zachs, the Granlunds in these situations, the more difficult it is to free them up for some offensive roles."

On 500 games, Veilleux said, "It goes so fast. You take a step back and the success and the grind that you have, you feel very fortunate that the work you put in that you actually accomplish that many games. It's a great feeling personally."

Lines tonight:

Parise-Koivu-Pominville

Vanek-Granlund-Schroeder

Nino-Coyle-Fontaine

Veilleux-Haula-Brodziak

Last night, I had the honor of taking in the screening of the Sony Pictures, highly-acclaimed film, Red Army, which opens in Uptown theaters this weekend. It is honestly a sensational documentary. You basically forget you're watching a documentary because the film is so fascinating, funny, artistic, educational and entertaining.

It's mostly through the eyes of Slava Fetisov, one of the most famous and decorated Soviet players in history. There are twists and turns and things you'd never imagine as the writer, director and producer, St. Cloud-born Gabe Polsky, takes you behind the scenes of the Red Army team and Soviet Union and gives you an incredible glimpse of what it was like for these guys after they returned home after losing to the Americans in 1980.

After the film, it was my privilege to moderate a Q and A with Polsky, Lou Nanne and John Harrington with an audience that included hockey fans and well-known hockey people like -- off the top of my head -- Neal Broten, Don Lucia, Brian Lawton, Shjon Podein, Pat Micheletti, Tom Chorske, Blake Sloan, USHL Commish Bob Fallen, Paul Ostby and many other heavy hitters. I brought my buddy George Richards from the Miami Herald with me. Follow him @georgerichards during tonight's game.

Awesome job by the USA Hockey Foundation's Pat Kelleher and Mike O'Connor, who were responsible for last night.

There were some hilarious stories, like Polsky talking about what it was like for Fetisov and him to be on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival.