Reid says Wild has never been better

Tom Reid, an excellent NHL defenseman who played for the North Stars from 1969 to '78, is a color commentator for Wild broadcasts on WCCO radio and has seen every game the team has played since the start of the franchise.

Reid calls this season's roster the most talented in franchise history, better than the 2002-03 team that came back from two 3-1 series deficits in advancing to the Western Conference finals during the Stanley Cup playoffs.

"[It's] because of not only the experience they have with guys like [Pavol] Demitra and some of the older guys who have been around but also the development of our young kids," Reid said. "The [Pierre-Marc] Bouchards, the [Brent Burnses], the [Mikko] Koivus, the [Nick] Schultzes, guys who have come in here and really have developed very quickly."

However, Reid has one question about this team: How will the defense hold up without Kurtis Foster, sidelined by a broken leg suffered last month at San Jose, and Schultz, who had his appendix removed Monday and is out at least for the first round?

"Schultz has been a very steadying player back there. You don't notice him a great deal, but he really adds a lot of stability to that blue line," Reid said. "Now all of a sudden we're down to six defensemen; if we lose one more defenseman we're in trouble. I think [Petteri] Nummelin can step in here and do something. He's very offensive-minded. He's not a physical guy, but he certainly moves the puck well."

Reid believes the Wild goaltending -- Niklas Backstrom along with Josh Harding -- is as good as ever.

"The one thing about the combination we have now, especially Backstrom, he's a very calming influence, he doesn't get rattled, he doesn't blame anybody else. If there's a goal scored, he seems to be the type of goalie that can put it behind him," Reid said. "[Manny] Fernandez, he was very emotional; when things didn't go his way, you knew about it. He wore it on his sleeve and he was short with his teammates and with other people, but I think Backstrom is very mild-mannered.

Much tougher Reid believes that right now the Wild is the most physical team in the NHL.

"We were pretty well manhandled last year against the Ducks," Reid said, referring to last year's first-round playoff loss in five games to eventual Stanley Cup champion Anaheim. "And I think Doug [Risebrough] had a plan in mind, we had to toughen up.

"We've done that. [Derek] Boogaard was all by himself before on an island [as a Wild enforcer]. If he got into an altercation there was nobody to back him up. Now all of a sudden we've got [Todd] Fedoruk, we've got Boogaard, we've got [Chris] Simon, we've got [Aaron] Voros who can step in there. Brent Burns is a very physical influence also."

There isn't any question in Reid's mind that the players today are much better than those in Reid's time, because of improvements in training over the past 30 years.

"You remember our old training room, you look at their training rooms now and what they have in the way of weights and all the equipment they have," he said. "Our training room consisted of a color TV, a pop machine, a pool table and one of those machines where you put the belt around your waist and it jiggles you. That was it."

"Now, with the addition of [Peter] Forsberg and Adam Foote, that certainly helps that hockey club," Reid said. "And the fact that they've got Sakic healthy again, they've got [Paul] Stastny healthy again, this team has a lot of firepower. This is going to be a very interesting series."

Jottings Gophers men's basketball coach Tubby Smith says he doesn't have any interest in the Oklahoma State vacancy and can't understand how his name ever came up. Smith said he picked Kansas to win the national championship because he thought the Jayhawks were very athletic. Of course, it's been widely reported the Cowboys are interested in Jayhawks coach Bill Self, a former Oklahoma State player and assistant coach. ... Smith and Self have more in common than just winning a national championship: Both were successful coaches at Tulsa. Smith took the Golden Hurricane to the Sweet 16 in 1994 and '95 before going to Georgia and then Kentucky. Self was at Tulsa for three seasons, including an Elite Eight appearance in 2000, before moving on to Illinois for three years and then to Kansas in 2003.

Gophers basketball recruit Devron Bostick will play in a junior college all-star game April 20 in Scottsdale, Ariz., and is a leading candidate to be named junior college player of the year. Bostick played at Southwestern Illinois Community College this season. ... Fellow Gophers recruit Devoe Joseph will play in the Hoops Summit on Saturday in Portland, Ore., and Ralph Sampson III will play in the Capital Classic on Sunday in College Park, Md. ... The Gophers are still recruiting, and Smith could sign up to two players for this fall.

Former Gophers basketball player Rick Rickert, who missed 35 games in New Zealand because of a back injury, expects to return to his New Zealand team next year.

Tony Brinkhaus, John Jakel, Robert McGarry, Todd Meisel, John Shevlin and Steve Shidell, all seniors on the Gophers football team last fall, were named members of the National Football Foundation Hampshire Honor Society. To be selected, a player must be a starter or a significant substitute in his last year of eligibility, achieve a 3.2 cumulative grade-point average throughout his academic studies and meet all NCAA-mandated progress toward degree requirements. ... There's good news for the Gophers defense: Outstanding junior college cornerback Traye Simmons has passed all of his academic requirements at Strayer University in Atlanta and will enroll at Minnesota in June.

Zach Loppnow, the state heavyweight wrestling champion from Lake City, has signed a letter of intent to join the Gophers.