Weird morning down at the X because the lineup appears so certain — yet uncertain.

As of now, the scratches appear to be Chris Simon, Matt Foy, Petteri Nummelin, … Mark Parrish and … believe it or not, Benoit Pouliot.

They were getting skated hard after practice. Parrish, whom I thought played well against Edmonton Monday, has definitely been told he was out.

Aaron Voros is playing.

Pavol Demitra is back in the lineup and Jacques said Pierre-Marc Bouchard, who missed last game with the flu, is in — although he came off early and said he’s not 100 percent.

But Stephane Veilleux missed the skate with the same thing Bouchard had. Veilleux told Lemaire, “Don’t count me out,” but if he can’t play, one of those scratched forwards will have to play.

Lemaire said he’s worried the flu bug is circulating the team again. Remember, there was one trip to San Jose/Anaheim earlier this year where 15 guys came down with the flu and players had to all get their own rooms in the middle of the night. Wild beat the Ducks, however.

If we do the math, the lineup as of now would be:

Left wingers: Todd Fedoruk, Brian Rolston, Stephane Veilleux and Derek Boogaard.

Centers: Pavol Demitra, Mikko Koivu, Eric Belanger and James Sheppard

Right wingers: Marian Gaborik, P-M Bouchard, Branko Radivojevic and Aaron Voros

What this shows me: 1) Parrish is bigtime in trouble if he’s taken out for Voros (and I don’t mean that as a slight to Voros at all); 2) For Pouliot to be scratched to keep Demitra at center, this just shows that Lemaire wants Demitra at center no matter who’s in the lineup/healthy and whether Demitra wants to be there or not.

Backstrom obviously back in. He was hung out to dry on the first three goals the other night. And because he was playing tonight, Jacques put him back in the third just to regain his confidence.

That’s it for now. You’ll either hear from Kent or myself later; we haven’t determined yet who’s for sure covering the game.

Like Veilleux, I’m a gametime decision.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 12:12 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.