Wild prepares for crucial stretch

Greetings.

Kent Youngblood here. Believe it or not, but Russo has another day off, so I once again had the honor of covering practice:

--Both Matt Cullen (groin) and John Madden (upper body) took full part in practice today. That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that both are still doubtful for the Ottawa game Thursday. Coach Todd Richards said the status of both remain the same. Talked with Madden after practice and he sounded like he was a ways away from returning.

--Richards said after practice that he had not yet decided which goaltender to play. My guess: Theodore.

Richards did expound a bit on his memories of watching Dino Ciccarelli play for the North Stars. Ciccarelli, the recent hall of fame inductee, will be honored by the Wild Thursday night. And that's something that's right in my generational wheelhouse.

Richards, too. First, the coach:

His strongest memory of Dino came during that memorable run to the Stanley Cup finals in 1981 against Russo's much-beloved New York Islanders. Richards was 15 in 1981, and he remembers going to one of the North Stars home games in those finals, Game 4, the only game the Stars won.

Ciccarelli was listed at 5-10, 180 pounds. And yet he lived in front of the net, and that was back when defensemen could really pound on players.

"It just goes to show, if you want to score goals, where do you go?" Richards said. "It takes a lot of courage to go to that area. A lot of times you get rewarded for your courage. He could score in a lot of different ways. He could pick up the loose pucks in front of the net, because he was there. I remember him coming down the wing and blowing pucks by the goalie, too. I remember him on the forecheck, he was an aggressive player. Everything he got, he earned."

Here is a link to the column Russo wrote the day before he was inducted into the hall of fame last month:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/wild/106802933.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU

I was attending the University of Minnesota in 1981 and I remember a bunch of my buddies cramming into my dorm room to watch their playoff run on my little TV. What a great spring that was. Ciccarelli scored 18 goals and had 30 points in 32 games after being called up from the minors. Then he had 14 goals and 21 points in 19 playoff games.