Good morning, figured I’d check in before going to the rink. Obviously with a 1 p.m. game, there’s no morning skate, so I’ll put lineup updates on here during warmups.

I’ll be on with some radio guy named Jim Souhan around 11ish this morning on KSTP, 1500-am.

Wanted to clarify something in my Sunday column. Apparently there was confusion regarding the line about, how much could the Wild give up for Hossa when Marian Gaborik said if you got him, he wouldn’t re-sign here in the offseason. The ‘he’ is Hossa, not Gaborik, and one of the copy editors clarified that in the online story last night.

I was referring to the quote in my article at the All-Star Game in which Gaborik said of Hossa, “I don’t think he’d want to go to Minnesota anyway [as a free agent]. I think that’s impossible. I don’t think he would consider it, and I don’t think they’d have interest either.”

Amazing how quiet things are right now. But again, the problem is two-fold. Who’s buyer and who’s seller? Columbus won again last night, for an example. Also, I talked with Mats Sundin’s agent, J.P. Barry, yesterday because he’s Nick Schultz’s agent, too.

Barry was in Pittsburgh, but had just come from Toronto, where he met with Sundin. And Sundin had not yet decided whether or not he’d waive his no-trade clause. A lot of the same teams interested in Sundin are interested in Hossa, so Sundin’s delay has created problems for GM Don Waddell in Atlanta.

I don’t know if you watched Sundin’s presser on TSN.ca yesterday, but if I’m a GM and saw that, I’d move on. Sundin is unbelievably torn. He wants to stay in Toronto but is sort of being pushed out. He said he doesn’t agree with the whole “rental” philosophy and essentially said if he won a Cup with another team, it wouldn’t feel to him like he was a part of it.

How do you give up a boatload of assets for a guy you’re not sure will be mentally on board?

Things are quiet on the Wild front, but one would think GM Doug Risebrough is going to have to do something. Calgary and Vancouver are one point behind the Wild heading into today’s big game against the Flames. And, the Wild is suddenly one point from dropping into eighth.

I’ve gotten two or three emails asking to know more about Olli Jokinen. Not that the Wild is definitely going to trade for him, but here’s a takeout I wrote on him before the 2003 All-Star Game, the one the Panthers hosted. He had a goal and three assists in that game, and it’s the year he literally transitioned from bust to star. Went from a 29-point scorer to a 36-goal scorer in one year. Last night, he scored what’s got to be his seventh or eighth career OT winner (he’s an OT king).

Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)

February 2, 2003 Sunday Broward Metro Edition

FINDING THE BALANCE;

JOKINEN WAS OFTEN HIS OWN WORST CRITIC.

BYLINE: Michael Russo Staff Writer

SECTION: NHL ALL-STAR GAME; Pg. 1C

LENGTH: 802 words

DATELINE: SUNRISE

Olli Jokinen doesn’t feel vindicated. The Panthers’ All-Star center should, but he swears he doesn’t.

Even though critics used his head as a punching bag for the past five years, Jokinen said he probably earned every ounce of criticism.

“Most of the time when you get ripped and criticized in the paper, you deserve it,” Jokinen said a few hours before getting thunderous applause from his hometown fans before Saturday night’s SuperSkills Competition.

“Most times when you don’t play well, you’re going to see it in the paper and you deserve that. I don’t think about that stuff anymore. I used to think about it a lot. But I’ve also learned this year that when you play well, you’re [praised] in the paper, too.”

Jokinen has learned you have to take the good with the bad, and the 24-year-old received a whole lot of bad in his young career.

But Jokinen’s career has come full circle. No center in the NHL has more goals than Jokinen’s 25.

A year after thinking about quitting the NHL and heading home to Finland, a wide-eyed Jokinen walked into a locker room full of All-Stars on Saturday and he didn’t look out of place at all.

“If somebody would have asked me last year [if I belonged] with all these stars, I would have said, ‘Not a chance,’” Jokinen said. “But I’ve had a pretty good year, and I’m really happy the way things are going right now.”

And it’s about time Jokinen felt some happiness. As hard as the fans and media have been on him, he’s been tougher on himself. There are few more self-deprecating athletes than Jokinen. He’s worked to change that, but it’s been hard.

“My whole life I wanted to be better every day, and I tried to learn from mistakes,” Jokinen said. “I think when you’re young, you don’t know how to handle it. I was taking everything maybe a little bit too hard and keeping everything in my head for many days.

“Not just a day after the game but sometimes much longer. I’d make one big mistake and think about that for two weeks and basically ruin my next five, six games. It’s good to be hard on yourself, but you have to find a [healthy] balance on how you handle it.”

Jokinen’s been under pressure ever since the Los Angeles Kings chose him with the third overall pick in 1997 — two slots behind Joe Thornton and one slot ahead of Roberto Luongo.

He came to the United States barely knowing English, learning it mostly from watching Jerry Springer, and struggled early on with the Kings. He was traded to the Islanders, where they tried to turn him into a checker. He was run out of there after a year.

In 2000, he found himself in Florida — his third team in four years — and was considered the throw-in in the Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha for Luongo trade. Suddenly, Bryan Murray’s oft-criticized trade looks awfully one-sided in Florida’s favor.

“When you’re a high draft pick and you come to the league, everybody expects you to score right away,” Jokinen said. “Even in Finland, they expect you to be Teemu Selanne. When it’s not happening, basically everybody’s all over you. It’s not easy to play again. But I couldn’t handle that my first couple years.

“I think a lot of young players go through that. But I really suffered through that. Right now, everything’s going the right way, and my job is to keep working hard so it keeps going the right way.”

Jokinen felt revived when Mike Keenan came to his rescue in December 2001. Keenan gave Jokinen increased ice time and responsibility. This season, Keenan threw a letter on Jokinen’s chest, gave him loads of ice time and put him in every key situation.

Jokinen, who said even before the season that he was more confident than he has ever been, thrived, but he said the Olympics might go down as his turning point.

“After that I really picked up my game and played OK the rest of the year,” he said. “But the big thing was I learned I could play in this league. My game before was up and down. I’d have one good game and five bad ones.

“The good players don’t have too many bad nights and that’s the point I’m trying to get to now.”

Everything was new to Jokinen on Saturday. In the morning, he walked into a ballroom at the Westin Diplomat and looked stunned when he saw the throngs of media. But Jokinen, with lights in his eyes and microphones shoved in his face, answered question after question for 45 minutes.

He took part in two events in the skills competition and took his wife, Katerina, to the players’ party afterward.

So far, so good. Now comes the hard part — today’s All-Star Game, which his family back in Finland will be able to watch live.

“I will probably be a little bit nervous when we jump on the ice,” Jokinen said. “The All-Star Game is new to me.”

But it’s where he finally belongs.

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