Morning from Calgary. Have some time to kill before I head to one of my favorite arenas, the Saddledome, so figured I'd say hello like Uncle Leo.
Up in Canada, we're being inundated with Grey Cup coverage. Congrats to Jose Theodore's and Pierre-Marc Bouchard's and Justin St. Pierre's Montreal Alouettes. Sorry to Josh Harding and his Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Also, the very sad news up here is Canada's native slapstick son, Leslie Nielson, died from complications from pneumonia. One of favorites. In fact, I quoted his character, Lt. Frank Drebin, in my Sunday column eight days ago.
Just got back from the concierge lounge, where as usual I chatted it up with the referees. Yes, refs and media stay at the same hotels in most cases.
St. Pierre and veteran Paul Devorski will be working tonight's game. Take advantage of Devo's 'Mo," because you won't to see it after tonight. His stache, like many in the NHL, is coming off tomorrow. He'll be working Thursday's Flames' game, too, clean-shaven.
As for tonight, follow me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/russostrib) in a little bit for Wild news. I can't imagine Jared Spurgeon flew to Calgary to not make his NHL debut, so either somebody's hurt (Marek Zidlicky?) or maybe he plays for former Spokane Chiefs teammate Justin Falk or inconsistent Cam Barker. I should know the starting goalie, too, and as I wrote today, I'd think it's Jose Theodore.
As I wrote today, too, the Wild needs better play from Mikko Koivu. Enough is enough. This is not a team talented enough to get sub-par play from its captain. And to me, he's lacked energy for some time. Just look at his backchecks. Eighteen points seem good, but six of his 14 assists are second ones, and he's scored goals in three out of 22 games.
As for the team, Matt Kassian and Robbie Earl switch places. Earl was just reassigned and Kassian will offer a tougher element in tonight's lineup in a tough building against an even more desperate team than the Wild. Kassian, like Spurgeon, is from Edmonton, so maybe their families can carpool south.