Wild resumes season Tuesday night in Edmonton; Brett Sutter's bro a hit at All-Star Game

The All-Star break has ended, Team Toews beat Team Foligno 17-12 and Wild defenseman Ryan Suter had a goal, assist, was plus-2 and blocked two shots in 19 minutes, 46 seconds.

This morning, barring any player's travel issues returning to the Twin Cities, the Wild will meet at MSP for a charter flight to Edmonton. It will practice in surburbia this afternoon and resume its schedule tomorrow night against the Oilers. The Wild has won 8 of its past 9 in Edmonton and 15 of past 19 overall.

The Wild, with points in three of its past four games (2-1-1), makes its first trip to western Canada this season and plays former now-defunct Northwest Division

rivals Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver each for the first time (believe it or not).

Stu Bickel was recalled to add an extra body (he can play wing or defense if needed) for at least the start of the road trip. I would presume (barring anything unknown) that coach Mike Yeo will go with the Suter-Jonas Brodin; Marco Scandella-Jared Spurgeon; Nate Prosser-Christian Folin defense pairs he did last Tuesday in Detroit.

Matt Dumba is at the AHL All-Star Game in Utica. That game is tonight. So Justin Falk and Jon Blum were the only other options to be called up. If the Wild gets to a point this trip where it needs a D, it wouldn't shock me if Bickel and Dumba are swapped.

We'll maybe find out later if Mikael Granlund can return against the Oilers. Unless he's been skating on his own during the break, I would think that would be a stretch, but we shall see.

Also, if you didn't see this cool moment during the All-Star Game, here's a tweet from Iowa Wild forward Brett Sutter (one of L.A. Kings coach Darryl Sutter's three kids) and a great article from the L.A. Times' Helene Elliott. What I love about the video is the like-father, like-son sight of Chris putting his arms around the shoulders of Bobby Ryan, Radim Vrbata and Alex Ovechkin. Darryl Sutter is the king of talking to players that exact same way during games on the bench.

Lastly, this is amazingly the one-year anniversary of the death of my stepdad, Lenny, who died peacefully five minutes after the Wild lost to San Jose in overtime last Jan. 25 (Pacific Time).

He made quite the influence on my life and how I became a sportswriter. If you don't remember, I found a blog he wrote meant for hospice patients on his iPad and posted it on my blog when I returned to the team in Denver a few days after he passed away. Unfortunately, it was the only blog he got a chance to write.

Here it is if you want to give it a read.

Also, a day after Lenny's funeral, my mom and I got trapped in the Atlanta ice storm. We had to walk three miles to my bro's house. I tweeted a poignant photo that and the Atlanta-Journal Constitution picked up on it. (see below article). My best to my mom today. She's recovering from knee surgery Thursday and unfortunately I didn't make it down there because I was sick all weekend.

HIGHLIGHT: Stranded woman, son take a walk with love, death --- and the cold.

They faced the same vexing decision countless other motorists faced Tuesday in the midst of the epic Snowjam. Stay in the car, or leave it behind?

Four tedious hours and only three-quarters of a mile into the four-mile drive to Sandy Springs, Mike Russo and his mother, Barbara Tabin, decided to hoof it. Their journey, after all, carried the weight of life and love.

Tabin's husband of 29 years, Lenny, had died Sunday. His funeral was Monday under a brilliant blue sky. On Tuesday, as a snowstorm seized metro Atlanta, relatives and friends were supposed to meet at her youngest son Adam's home in Sandy Springs to sit Shiva, to mourn Lenny's death and celebrate his life.

The winter storm that trapped workers in their vehicles and kids in their schools and buses, and locked down one of the critical logistics hubs of the Earth, also ensnared the everyday rituals and happenings of joy and grief.

A baby was born Tuesday night in a car on the Perimeter. Some of the region's most vulnerable citizens hunkered down at home hoping their food and medicine would hold out. Birthday parties were canceled. And, like the Shiva gathering for Lenny Tabin, goodbyes were delayed.

Russo, a hockey writer for The Minneapolis Star Tribune, pulled their car into a parking lot near Perimeter Mall. Tabin, 67, slipped her six-pound poodle, Oliver, into a grocery bag. She wrapped a scarf around her head and looped it around Oliver's neck, lifting the sack to her shoulder.

Barbara and Lenny Tabin lived in Boca Raton, Fla., for nearly three decades, and only moved to Dunwoody in August to be close to her youngest son after Lenny got sick. Atlanta's weather seemed a better fit for a couple of Floridians than the treacherous winters of Minnesota.

Then weather, panic and poor decisions left Atlanta in a straitjacket.

"I could feel my husband watching, laughing, and saying, 'Only my wife would do this,'" Tabin said. As she got out of the car, the air was sharp but invigorating, she said.

On any normal day, Russo and Tabin's drive to Sandy Springs would have taken about 10 minutes. Now they were looking at a couple of hours of walking through bitter cold.

Things started out orderly, but as nerves frayed, temperatures dropped and the limitations of human bladders set in, some snowbound car travelers became unglued.

"People were hungry, thirsty and had to go to the bathroom. They were cold," Tabin said. "They couldn't move but inches, and they were using up the gas in their cars."

Aggressive drivers tried to force their way around other cars, Russo said. One man got out of his vehicle and started punching the driver's side window of a car that was blocking traffic. Other drivers ditched their vehicles along the side of the road.

"He had just given up," Russo said.

They crossed over Ga. 400 where cars and trucks were frozen in place. They slowly walked up one icy hill and down the next.

"I kept thinking of 'The Little Engine That Could,'" said Tabin, a retired speech pathologist at a school in Florida, referring to the children's tale.

"That's how I felt, you can do it, you can do it, keep going, keep going," she said.

As they walked, others poured into the streets. A treacherous walk was better than being stopped.

Lenny Tabin, 72, retired several years ago as a banker. But he loved kids, and his wife convinced him to become a substitute teacher. Their Boca Raton school sent a care package of food for the Shiva.

Their trek started as a drive to pay tribute to her husband and to say goodbye. But Lenny never really left, Barbara Tabin said.