Good afternoon from beautiful Vancouver. Just a bit of trivia: On this day 40 years ago, Wild assistant GM Tom Lynn was born.

That means Lynn will have to be removed from the NHL’s Who’s Who list of successful under-40 year-olds. Or, is the list, 40-and-under? I’ll have to check. 

Practice update is on the bottom.  

Because of how much last-second work I had on deadline, I never really got a chance to blog. Couple thoughts:

– On Kurtis Foster. Man, you’ve got to feel bad for this guy. Not just because he’s one of the nicest dudes you’d ever meet, but does anybody have worse luck? I mean last season he’s sitting on the bench and Kim Johnsson shoots one off his larynx. He’s taken about 10 pucks and sticks and elbows to the face this season. And now this, a broken femur. This will be a very long-term injury, and with some extensive rehab.

I remembered on one of my flights this morning shooting the breeze with Foster a few days ago. He was the most confident he’s been this season about his game and was talking about getting to the 10-goal mark for the second time here.

I know there’s a big Torrey Mitchell debate going around the league. The NHL has decided not to suspend him, and he definitely felt remorse. But what a reckless play. I mean, he was not going to beat out that icing, so why push Foster when he was in such a dangerous, vulnerable position? I cannot explain to you how loud it was in the arena when Foster hit those boards. It sounded like a train smashing into a car.

I will probably address the no-touch icing debate in my Sunday column and hold off the Q&A for a week.

As for the latest Foster update from the team, he underwent six hours of surgery this morning by San Jose Sharks doctors. He had a steel rod inserted. He’ll obviously be in the hospital for a few days and is resting comfortably. According to assistant GM Tom Lynn, they won’t have a good idea of a prognosis for a few weeks. He’s out this season obviously, and depending on how much trauma was created around the break and how quickly the bone starts to callous, that’ll give an idea of when he could get back on the leg.

– On the game itself, entertaining game. Couple interesting tidbits.

1) Both of Gaborik’s goals were basically on slapshots. I can count on two hands the number slappers I’ve seen this guy even attempt. He needs to add it to his arsenal.

2) Boogaard’s fight with Shelley. Apparently Shelley said to Boogey in the penalty box, “We’re going to fight again.” Boogaard just laughed. When Boogaard repeated the comment after the game, Todd Fedoruk chimed in, “He said that again! He always says that.”

3) Couple bad signs for the Wild last night, even though it battled wholeheartedly. But what about the 1:06 delayed penalty in the first period where the Wild couldn’t even touch up the puck? Both teams executed full line changes on a delayed penalty to James Sheppard. I’ve never seen that. And, how about the three minutes in the first period where the Wild literally couldn’t get out of its zone? They turned the puck over four times (I counted) at the defensive blue line.

And how about a two-minute 3-on-3 in overtime? It was awful hockey. But it was interesting how Mikko Koivu was continually thrown out for the faceoff, would win it, then go to the bench so Marian Gaborik or Brian Rolston could jump on.

4) How incredible was Jeremy Roenick last night? The ancient one was absolutely flying, and was rewarded with a goal, one assist and the shootout winner. That is one fast, talented, aggressive team with an exceptional blue line and goaltender. Those ingredients often equal Lord Stanley.

5) Jacques denies he contemplated putting in Josh Harding for the shootout, but I’ll ask more at today’s practice. I do think this is a bit of a risk. Two reasons: Injury, but maybe more importantly, the risk of humiliating Nik Backstrom by taking him out. I just don’t know if it’s worth it.

Practice update:

All big-minute guys exercised their options today. Guys who got limited minutes yesterday, are on the edge of the doghouse or didn’t play skated — P-M Bouchard, Derek Boogaard, Benoit Pouliot, Todd Fedoruk, Sean Hill, Mark Parrish, James Sheppard, Keith Carney, Matt Foy, Aaron Voros and Chris Simon.

Here’s the deal, the Wild is stuck. It didn’t make a trade for a defenseman at the deadline. Petteri Nummelin is injured. Erik Reitz has an ankle injury. And to quote Jacques Lemaire’s indictment on the other minor-league defensemen, “I’m sure that none of the other guys can’t be that good to play in the NHL.”

So, the Wild will go with the six it has, and Jacques Lemaire drove the bus right over veteran Sean Hill, a minus-8 in his last six games, today. Lemaire then pulled forward, and backed the bus up again.

To give you a little taste: “If he’s not playing better, we’ll be in trouble.”

For the rest, buy the paper

Jacques also ripped into the refs again for not giving Mitchell a major for hitting Foster, and then not calling Patrick Marleau for the trip on Martin Skoula, which led to a 3-on-1 goal.

He basically said fans pressure the refs, and then, seemed to take a little swipe at Minnesota fans.

“The fans are good. Really. The fans are great. They put them under pressure. They’re great here (Vancouver), they’re great in Calgary, they’re great in Edmonton, they’re great in San Jose. In Anaheim, they’re great.”

He seemed to leave one city out, so we asked, ‘What about Minnesota?’

“They’re not as good for the refs as they are somewhere else. West coast is the best, better than even East coast.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 2:23 pm and is filed under Practice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.