Sorry for the delay on practice update, but I had meetings at work.

First of all, as I indicated on my last post, I’ve sought the answer today to the question of why Chris Simon’s allowed to play in the preseason during his suspension while Sean Hill’s not allowed to play during his.

At this moment, I’ve gotten no answer from the NHL, which is usually real good about emailing me back.

I riled up Hill this morning when I asked him what he thought of his former Islanders teammate getting to play. He wasn’t too happy and planned to ask GM Doug Risebrough the same question. The team doesn’t have an answer either. Obviously, it’s not going to change and it’s not like anything Hill accomplishes on the ice this preseason will help him when he starts playing in seven weeks.

But the reality is there should be consistency with suspensions, especially when it comes to somebody that swung his stick at somebody else’s head.

Bluntly, it’s ludicrous that the NHL allowed Simon to play during his suspension, and the result was another brawl incited by the guy. According to my take on the video, he charged and cross-checked Hollweg, the same guy he swung his stick at last March, in the back of the head.

In my eyes, he should have games tacked on to his suspension. 

Anyways on to the team, the Wild had a good instructional practice today, mostly on back-checking. Jacques Lemaire was delighted with the play of his team, not just last night in North Dakota against the Sabres, but this morning in practice.

I asked specifically about how good Pouliot’s play was yesterday, and Lemaire raved about the kid. Lemaire sees him as a future center, which is good for Pouliot because that’s really where the biggest opening on the team is — whether it’s now or in the future. You watch this kid in practice, he’s got such skill, size and speed, he should be a good player in the future even if it’s not right out of camp.

Lemaire raved about Dominic Moore’s play yesterday. They didn’t have replay in North Dakota, but the Wild thinks he scored a goal that was waved off by the on-ice officials for hitting the pipe.

What’s more, Moore’s passing and defensive play were outstanding. Moore got little chance last season, but I think Jacques is going to give him a significant role this season. First of all, he’s very mobile, so if on the top line, he can keep up with Gaborik and Demitra.

Also, Moore was a top-20 faceoff guy last season, and like I said this morning, it’s pretty much a waste for Gaborik and Demitra to be playing in their own zone all night trying to get the puck. It’s better a guy like Moore can help win possession of the puck so Gaborik and Demitra can do what they do best, and that’s generate scoring chances for each other and possibly Moore, who scored twice last season against Buffalo playing with the two Slovaks.

If Moore plays the way he did last night the next three games, it could affect Pouliot making the team no matter how well the 20-year-old plays. After all, the other three centers — Koivu, Belanger and Walz — will be regulars.

Jacques did say he wanted to pretty much get his full lineup playing during the final three exhibition games, beginning Wednesday against St. Loueeee. He loved the play of all seven kids in yesterday’s win — Pouliot, Kalus, Foy, Sheppard, Gillies, Reitz and Scott.

But he said from now on, maybe two kids will be in because he needs to get his team ready. Bloomington’s Erik Johnson, the No. 1 pick from last year’s Draft and former UofM defenseman, is scheduled to play tomorrow for St. Louis.

I’ll get writing now and be back on later if other stuff from practice comes to mind.

FYI, I just looked it up, Moore was 22nd in the NHL last season, winning 52.6 percent of his draws (tied with Sami Pahlsson), and was over 55 percent in the second half. Belanger ranked 17th winning 53.1 percent of his draws (tied with Sakic).

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.