Wild brothers are just as proud as the dads

TAMPA, Fla. – As dads watched their sons take part in the Wild's morning skate Saturday, three men didn't take their eyes off the coaching staff.

Paul Yeo, brother of head coach Mike Yeo, and Dan Hendrickson and Jamie Brunette, brothers of Wild assistant coaches and ex-Wild players Darby Hendrickson and Andrew Brunette, enjoyed every moment.

"It's a great experience just to see how much goes into one game," said Paul Yeo, 45, four years older than little bro.

To make the fathers, brothers and other mentors feel more included, Mike Yeo allowed them to sit in on the Wild's pregame video session with players.

"They were all pretty quiet. I felt like a school teacher," Yeo said laughing. "I asked a couple questions and nobody wanted to talk, and a couple guys started to put up their hands, and their sons started to grab their arms and push them down."

Jason Zucker knew his dad, Scott, wouldn't say anything.

"He kept his mouth shut, which I was happy about," Zucker said, chuckling. "He doesn't know too much about hockey, so if he did say something, who knows what it would have been."

Jamie Brunette sounds and laughs like Andrew: "We have very similar traits to our father [Dan]." Paul Yeo has, let's just say, a tad more hair than his younger brother.

In 1993, the Washington Capitals had back-to-back draft picks in the seventh round. They took Dan Hendrickson, 39, a former Gophers center, 173rd overall and Andrew Brunette 174th.

"I like to look at it as we had a great career — we played 1,100 NHL games combined," joked Hendrickson, who never played in the NHL. "I'm still Darby's brother, but I was one pick in front of Bruno."

That's Hendrickson's claim to fame, said Andrew Brunette. "He has a little shed at his house, and I think that's posted on it," Brunette said, laughing. "For some reason they picked him ahead of me. Karma though, right?"

That's because years later, Dan's brother, Darby, would become Brunette's Wild teammate, close friend and now fellow assistant coach.

Mike Yeo's dad has been on father-son trips before, so Mike thought it would be nice to reward Paul, whom Yeo calls his "netter. I'm the guy who catches the fish and he usually helps net. … He's been without question my biggest supporter. He just loves the life. He loves the game. He loves being around it and talking about it."

Paul's proud of his brother, seeing him grow from a rookie coach to a fourth-year NHL coach. "Like anything, the more experience you get, the better you are, the more confident you get," Paul Yeo said. "He's always learning."

He watched his brother impressively deal with scrutiny last winter when his job was on the line.

"It was very stressful, but he persevered, so did the team and that's a big step forward. It'll be good for him," Paul Yeo said. "As a family, we're always following everything that's going on with the team."

• After missing most of the third period two nights earlier in Philadelphia because of illness, Wild captain Mikko Koivu played against the Lightning and centered Nino Niederreiter and Justin Fontaine. …