Greetings. Youngblood here. Russo got himself all stoked up on coffee, and now he’s holed up in his war room producing loads of playoff copy. I, on the other hand, went to a Wild practice attended by eight skaters — mostly guys who haven’t been playing much lately — and goaltender Josh Harding. It was a light-hearted affair; at one point they were scrimmaging on a half-rink with a tennis ball.

Jacques was there, but not for long and he didn’t take the ice. He stuck around just long enough to frown a couple times (he’s already got his playoff game face on!) and tell us that he doesn’t plan on resting any of his top players in Sunday’s game. This despite the fact that teh Wild had already clinched the Northwest Division title.

”How will we approach it? LIke the other games,” Lemaire said. ”We’er looking to (use) a lineup that will give us a chance to win.”

Does that mean nobody gets a rest? ”Not our top guys,” Lemaire said.

Lemaire feels it’s more important to keep an edge than to get some extra rest. Indeed, Lemaire pointed to the small number of guys on the Parade Ice Garden rink and said, ”What rest? They have rest today. We’ll have a practice tomorrow, play in the afternoon (Sunday) and come back home.”

That said, Lemaire did say that one or two of his recent regular scratches could get into Sunday’s regular season finale. One name that comes to mind is Mark Parrish. Lemaire mentioned how hard Parrish has worked in recent practices and how close he was to playing in Thursday’s game.

Lemaire said he hasn’t decided whether Harding will get the start Sunday.

On another note, my friend and co-worker Judd Zulgad informs me that Thursday’s telecast of the game was the second-highest rated over-the-air telecast in team regular season history. No. 1 on the list is the Wild’s first-ever home game on Oct. 11, 2000 against Philadelphia.

That’s about it. Have a good day.

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