The short answer: Not on your life.

FYI, Kent just blogged below here with a Wild practice update, so be sure to check his out, too. Also, just released local TV schedule is on the bottom of this blog entry.

Went over to Centennial, Colo., to the Avs’ practice facility today and gathered enough material for this series to go two rounds.

I know this is going to be considered blasphemy to say because I know emotions are running hot inside Russoville, but I was able to catch up with tough-guy and accomplished actor Ian Laperriere (he played Boom Boom Geoffrion in the movie, “The Rocket”) after practice, and like usual, he was one of the great interviews in the biz.

I got the man known as ‘Lappy’ (see website dedicated to him) all to myself about his brouhaha with noted bruiser Marian Gaborik — as play-by-play man Dan Terhaar humorously pointed out, Laperriere must not have been able to find Pierre-Marc Bouchard - and I asked him point-blank, “You think you’re going to have to fight Boogaard to calm the waters?”

Laperriere: “I won’t fight Boogaard. He knows that.”

He then had some real interesting stuff to say, as you’ll read in tomorrow’s Strib.

– Peter Forsberg (groin, really his feet, shhhhh, don’t tell anybody) and Adam Foote (hip, really his hip) didn’t practice today, but Forsberg says he plans to practice Tuesday and coach Joel Quenneville said Foote and Forsberg will both play Wednesday.

– Lots of talk today about coach Jacques Lemaire’s pointed comments that the Wild will be able to get chances against the Avs because they cheat. Everybody said it’s imperative they tighten up and play a patient game similar to the Wild’s.

– I understand from emails and blog comments that Avs fans are talking about the Wild’s style on message boards, referring to their neutral-zone trap and how they suck the life out of games and yada, yada, yada.

Well, guess what. Pop in a video. The Wild and Avs play essentially the same system when they don’t have the puck. Almost identical in fact, so much so that when we were in Edmonton a few weeks ago, coach Craig MacTavish basically said he didn’t watch any video of the Wild because the Oilers had just played the Avalanche, so his players were prepared for the Minnesota system. And if I remember correctly, the Oilers jumped out to a 3-0 lead by cutting the Wild off at center-ice and going the other way.

– Every Avs player is going in with the attitude that they’re the underdog. It was almost like they were all handed talking points or something because every player uttered the same thing.

But lets be honest. This might be the most evenly-matched series in the West. The Avs won 44 games — the same as the Wild. The Avs are on a 13-5-1 streak since picking up Forsberg, Foote and Ruslan Salei. And the Avs have tons and tons of starpower — top two lines have Forsberg, Sakic, Hejduk (former 50-goal scorer), Stastny, Brunette, Wolski.

Ryan Smyth is a checker on this team!

This should be one good series.

Some TV news: All VERSUS games will be blacked out locally.

Game 1: Ch. 45

Game 2: FSN North

Game 3: Ch. 45

Game 4: FSN North

Game 5: Ch. 45

Game 6: FSN

Game 7: Ch. 45

* Games 5-7 if necessary, obviously.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 4:35 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.