On Saturday, after a rare home practice before a flight out of town (Jacques usually likes to fly first, then practice there), Lemaire hedged, if only a little.

Remember? On Friday he said all his top guys would play in Sunday’s  game in Colorado and that he would maybe play one or two guys who had been regular scratches of late. Mostly, that’s still true.

But, if Calgary loses tonight and the Wild goes into its game tomorrow knowing the Avalanche will be the opponent? Things might change. Jacques said he’d still play to win and play most of his top guys. But if he knows Colorado is on the docket for the first round he will play more guys who haven’t played much lately.

”I would try certain guys, make sure they get a game in,” Lemaire said. ”It wouldn’t be a bad idea to get them in a game against that team, and then I can tell if they’ll be able to play.”

 If Calgary wins, the Wild would be in the position of being able to influence their own fate as far as a first-round opponent goes. But Lemaire made it clear that he wants to win and isn’t about to start trying to pick his opponent.  That’s one thing you never do, he said.

We’ll all know the story once tomorrow’s game is done as far as who the Wild will play — and when. The Wild will open up either on Wednesday or Thursday. Here are a couple thoughts on that:

–Talking with Russo, it would seem likely that, should Calgary be the wild’s first-round opponent, the first two games would be Thursday-Saturday. Why? Calgary would be the only Western Canadian team in the playoff field, and I’m sure the NHL would love to put the Flames on TV in Canada Saturday night.

–If the first-round opponent is Colorado, it appears scheduling conflicts in Denver would dictate that the two teams will likely have to play games three and four on back-to-back nights on Monday and Tuesday, according to news out of Denver.

 Meanwhile, assistant coach Mike Ramsey, still waiting for his surgically-repaired eye to get to the point where he can travel, was ready to drive to Colorado for Sunday’s game if the wild was in a position of having to win to clinch the division. As it is, he’ll stay home. But it’s the last game he’ll miss this year. He should be able to fly by the time the playoffs start. If not, he’ll drive.

By the way, over 300 fans were in line prior to 9 a.m.  Saturday waiting to buy playoff tickets. Now only single tickets remain for the four potential home games in the first round.

That’s about it. Have a good day.

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