Saturday practice update
Posted on March 8th, 2008 – 2:45 PMBy Kent Youngblood
Greetings. Just got back from a rather chilly, but uptempo, practice at Highland Arena. Some quick updates: 1. Brent Burns, who has been pulling major minutes in recent games, was given the day off by Jacques. 2. Eric Belanger wasn’t there, either. He was having his leg examined this afternoon. And it doesn’t appear he’ll be ready to go tomorrow, because the team has decided to bring up a player from Houston. And that player is…..(drum roll, please) Steve Kelly. The 6-2 veteran has 10 goals and 28 points in 47 games with the Aeros. He is a minus-5. He has nine goals and 21 points in 147 career nhl games. Now, the question is whether Jacques will plug him in at the center position or move another player (say Rolston or Demitra) to center. Jacques said after practice that he and the coaching had a meeting scheduled and that was the top item on the list. That’s about it. Well, no, wait. One small item: When the Wild is forced to practice away from Xcel Energy Center and can’t get into Parade, they usually bus the team to the arena already in gear ready to go on the ice. That way they get in, lace up their skates and hit the ice. After practice is over they jump back on the bus and head back to Xcel. Well, there is usually a considerable group that gathers to watch them practice, and Saturday was no exception. After practice several kids were asking — and getting — autographs. Pavol Demitra came off the ice and was asked for his autograph by a young boy. Demitra signed, then held out his stick. ”Do you want this?” Demitra asked, handing it over. The kid looked like he’d won the lottery. That’s about it. Have a good day.
50 Responses to "Saturday practice update"
kid better not use it or he will no longer score goals.
G* knocks it out of the park.
Green*, C-L-A-S-S-I-C!!!
G*: That…was….AWESOME!! Might as well add some humor to our misery. Let the Steve Kelly era begin.
Zing!
So… what is the best way to find out where the Wild are practicing, and at what time?
I suppose it is easy to figure out when the X isn’t available. But is practice always at the same time?
Hey, Demitra is the only one that is scoring. He scored twice in the last 3-4 games. Now if it was Gaborik, Zing!
G*: Priceless. Absolutley priceless!
Maybe that’s why Demo wanted to get rid of it? Any time the stick was within 30 of #10, the blade turned his direction. Couldn’t shoot the thing if he wanted too…
Good one Green*! I’m afraid that’s the case with a lot of Wild players right now…
Anyone else see the end of Dallas at Colorado this afternoon? At least Jose Theodore knows how to stop pucks in the last minute of a game!
(Sorry, Backstrom lovers.)
3 way tie atop the NW Division. For the moment the Wild hold the tie breaker head to head
With the Avs that is for the second spot.
Don’t know if anyone noticed, but everyone’s favorite player, Matt Cooke, received a five-minute major for kneeing and a game misconduct today against Boston.
Matt Cooke SUX!
It was probably skoulas or johnssons stick he gave away, since those two morons only use it for give aways and shooting it out of play for penalties.
He’s just misunderstood.
Give us a BOOGAARD update. hell with the other players now
Yeah, we NEED that scoring machine that is Boogaard back as soon as possible.
The PP has been dreadful without him.
“The PP has been dreadful without him.” Good one, kj.
You, too, Green*.
KJ what have I told you about picking on my Boogie? Besides as poorly as the PP has been he couldn’t have made it worse.
I go watch AA championship game now.
kj, are you saying a powerplay of fedoruk, simon and boogaard wouldn’t be successful?
i have a strong distaste for the 2 schools involved but i will watch anyway.
Green*…I am saying it wouldn’t be any less successful… 
Just out of principle I cannot watch HM.
Food TV here I come…
rachael ray is on for more than 30 minutes and while i like her, i can only take her for said 30 minutes
Am watching Peter Mueller tear it up for the ‘Yotes vs. Ottawa tonight…better than seeing another game featuring Every Day I Need Attention…
[…] bought in Perrine and Crestview, lottery officials reported. The 334 tickets mwww.nwfdailynews.comSaturday practice updateSaturday practice update Posted on March 8th, 2008 ?? 2:45 PM By Kent Youngblood Greetings. Just got […]
Good Old Wally knew the Wild would be calling Houston, as this made the most sense to do given their current status.
Wally believed that 1 player must exist in Houston that might play better with a shot to play in the NHL
Mr Russo did not mention that Lemaire and Steve Kelly have worked together before. He was traded to JL in New Jersey the year they won the cup, and now with 16 games left he is back with JL 8 years later with the quest for the cup at hand.
He came to JL in crisis as a 1st rd pick, 6th overall player back in 99, and now he is coming back in 2008 looking to get a career in the NHL again
The call up is no accident as DR signed Kelly as a free agent at the beginning of the year with the idea in mind to give him a chance to see what he can at the right time
It hopefully is more then wishfull thinking to think that Steve Kelly can produce some positive results with this call up
If Steve Kelly can play (Aaron in Houston, can you help?) it should be an improvement. Of course, you can’t do much worse than the Wild have the last two weeks. The dreaded ’swoon’ has indeed arrived, just as JL said it would, because this team cannot play for 60 minutes to save their season.
3-6-1 in the last 10 games does not a playoff team make…and the future does not look especially bright right now. Should the Wild lose and Nashvile win at Detroit today, the Wild will wake up Monday morning in a 3-way tie for 6th-7th-8th in the Western Conference, with Vancouver 2 points behind them.
The Wild cannot do anything the easy way…like win…
Sorry..the Wild record in the last post should be 3-5-2. It’s still bad, folks…
It is bad.
It won’t improve without it coming from within the Wild themselves.
Today would be a good start, but I am not holding out much hope.
WRT…it is little one day at the X. We need to find two more tix for the girls.
See ya there.
kj: Look on Wild websire, Ticketmaster ticket exchange. 2 seats across the aisle from you 3 rows up. Cheap.
See you there.
We need Gordon Ramsey to get in the locker room, kick some a$$ and take names later. Get those boys to reach down in those breezers and find their bullocks 
Bandgeek - pick on my Boogie? no pun intended, right? 
I’ve been checking…everything is over face value. The way they are playing, it isn’t worth it…
Kind of late in the season to come to this realization isn’t it?
“These last two games were a wake-up call for us,” Brian Rolston said of the Wild’s two-game road trip to Carolina (regulation loss) and Atlanta (shootout loss). “It is imperative we start winning our home games.”
….that was an epiphany, Brian Rolston :l
Rolston’s realization shows just how that locker room doesn’t get it.
Either that or there has been so much concern over the market in their WSJs that they’ve been too pre-occupied to play hockey.
kj - if you can email me at adam1010@comcast.net soon I can get you 2 in 201 for face value
PS - a WSJ shot was long over due on this blog
SS6 no pun at all, besides it’s not nice to compare my favorite curly haired Canadian to the British slang for snot. I need to finish resetting my clocks. Have all of you remembered to do that?
KJ I’ve noticed since they made scalping legal the only tickets on the exchange that are even close to face value is the ones in the lower bowl. I suppose the people selling those figure those seats are already expensive enough that if they mark them way up they won’t have any chance of selling them off. I love going to games but I just can’t afford 50 a piece for tickets that are $22 face value. It’s really cut into the number of games I can attend.
I decided it was better to sit fairly close together than to take chances with a scalper at the game.
Thanks for the offer Adam but I sit in 218 and found tickets in 217 across the aisle. $5 bucks over face value wasn’t so bad.
I took the liberty of making a WSJ shot since smuggla has become very sporadic with his postings…
Oh…and if Steve Kelly is the differencemaker this franchise is in worse shape than the trolls think!
kj - a $5 premium isn’t so bad, glad it worked out. I have 2 tickets to sell in 201 for a friend so if anyone else wants them I should be checking email again around 1:00.
ss6: Gordon Ramsay would pull his hair out over this bunch. He’d tell them to grow some cajones and start playing like men. No soul in this team whatsoever. This could become a 2007 Mets (or 1982 Twins) type of major train wreck if this crap keeps up. (Call for the big hook.)
The Wild players are so-o-o insulated from the criticism that they really don’t get it. Russo is one of a few people who have so far been able to even partially penetrate the Teflon shield the club puts up.
And yes, ss6, I remembered to ‘Spring forward’, even though this is six weeks too early!
Slovakian golf season approaches?
Bandgeek: Yeah, I just saw that you put the ‘Spring forward’ reminder on the blogroll. Sorry ’bout that!
When does the Slovak country club open?
fyi - tickets sold
Jarko Ruutu, and Matt Cooke just had a big center ice collision in the Caps v Pens game. Funny stuff.
Then Ruutu took one of the dumbest checking from behind penalties. *rolls eyes* It wasn’t vicious or even particularly hard, just stupid as h3ll.
Finally, our savior is here! We all knew Steve Kelly was the answer when he was signed…
