Coming to you from an eerily empty, and very cold, Xcel Energy Center press box.

Good day. Wild had an optional skate this morning, with Marian Gaborik and Kim Johnsson the only two not on the ice.

Nik Backstrom in for the Wild. Chris Simon back in for Aaron Voros, who said it stings that he won’t be playing against his former team. Matt Foy and Sean Hill are the other healthy scratches. 

Steve Kelly, who won a Cup with Jersey in 2000, is in the lineup.

The Devils, for the last couple of months, only skate their scratches on game mornings, so not many Jersey players were around this morning.

I plan on speaking with Paul Martin before the game, but he got a couple suites for tonight’s game to entertain apparently close to 100 people. Apparently, Martin’s got about 80 first cousins in the area.

Themes heading into the game:

– Lemaire wants a more involved Chris Simon, who played four scoreless games games before missing the last three games — two because of the flu. It’s been clear to Lemaire that Simon’s been tentative because all “eyes” are on him, but Simon was acquired to make a physical presence. Lemaire wants to see that.

Further proof the NHL flies by the seat of its pants? Pronger gets away with stomping Ryan Kesler? Chris Simon got 30 games for trying to step on Jarkko Ruutu. And it’s not like Pronger’s a saint. Simon’s been suspended eight times, Pronger seven. And Pronger’s got a history of injuring opponents.

– Lemaire wants plenty of shots on Martin Brodeur: “We’ve got to get 100 shots. I don’t know if he can handle that. His [only] weakness is when the puck’s behind him, which doesn’t happen often.”

– Wild got a lot of help yesterday as Alex Ovechkin scored the winner against Calgary with about two minutes left in regulation, and Anaheim trouncing Vancouver. Tonight, besides the Wild, the four teams the Wild care about are all in action: Calgary’s in Atlanta, Nashville hosts the Kings, Edmonton’s in Colorado and Vancouver’s in Phoenix.

I’ll probably throw some other stuff on as I transcribe. Talk to you later.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 1:11 pm and is filed under Pregame skate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.