Practice update: Jacques’ opening line of his presser: “So, surprised to see all the guys on the ice?”

Well, yes actually, I was. Lemaire got all the guys on the ice to get their blood going. Not an intense practice by any stretch, although both power-play units spent much time trying to figure out how to get shots through despite a bunch of shot-blocking Avs.

Lemaire again offered an indictment on his bottom four blue-liners (not Kim Johnsson and Brent Burns) and said they must play better.

Branko Radivojevic and Mark Parrish didn’t practice. Nick Schultz did again, but Jacques says he’s not ready to play tomorrow.

Erik Reitz skated in the taxi-squad practice, then was promoted to the big practice, so perhaps he plays tomorrow night for Sean Hill. If he’s to play, I’d think it would be for Hill and not Petteri Nummelin because Nummelin was still partaking in the power-play practice.

Derek Boogaard had some interesting stuff to say about Cody McLeod and Ian Laperriere, which you can see tomorrow.

Here’s the quote he gave me on McLeod: “I’m pretty sure it’s the same McLeod that my brother (Aaron, former Wild draft pick and current Penguins farmhand) was chasing after in junior. My brother said he pulled the same stuff. That’s probably why he has no front teeth. Somebody caught him.”

That’s it. I have to start writing for the newspaper, so check out tomorrow’s stories. 

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The NHL has officially revised the boxscore for the umpteenth time from last night, deleting the 10-minute misconduct Stephane Veilleux received at 8:30 of the third.

Why? Well, if he got a five-minute major and 10-minute misconduct with 11:30 left, how the heck was he allowed to be on the ice to get a two-minute high-sticking minor and 10-minute misconduct at the 20-minute mark?

So, now the official team-record PIM’s are down to 101.

Regardless, Veilleux was completely out of control last night and needs to tone down the act. He basically had to fight Ian Laperriere because he took a flying leap into Paul Stastny.

Laperriere talked after the game (you’ll see the quotes tomorrow because our Denver stringer emailed them to me) about how much respect he had for Veilleux for knowing he had to “back it up” by fighting him.

Funny though, Laperriere has never felt he’s had to “back it up” for using a star’s head as a punching bag in the regular-season finale. And I say that knowing Laperriere checks out this blog. Laperriere doesn’t feel he has to fight Boogaard, Fedoruk, Simon or even Voros. He chose Veilleux.

But talk about doing your job. Is it possible Laperriere got inside Marian Gaborik’s head so badly in that last game of the season that he’s taken the Wild gamebreaker completely out of this series?

I mean, four games in, no points, minus-3 for Gaborik.

Other thoughts:

– Isn’t it time for Benoit Pouliot? Seems to me Derek Boogaard and Chris Simon haven’t been effective in this series. Nobody will fight Boogaard and he finally lost his cool last night.

And quite frankly, doesn’t seem to me Colorado’s scared of the Wild’s toughness.

After all, Cody McLeod and Ben Guite & Gang continue to play the Wild extremely hard. The Wild’s alleged toughness hasn’t kept McLeod from continually running Wild players from behind. Seems to me Adam Foote wasn’t frightened enough with Boogaard on the ice last night to refrain from driving Gaborik into and through the goal cage.

– Could it be time to maybe give Erik Reitz a cameo? Jacques Lemaire seems to have grown tired of Sean Hill this series. And quite frankly, before Tuesday’s second of a back-to-back, I thought that might have been the time to unveil Reitz just to give a tired Petteri Nummelin (who was beyond brutal) or Hill (who was not good either) a rest.

– Best two-out-three now, and suddenly the Wild’s shortcomings this series have to be a concern.

I mean, they haven’t scored in the first 40 minutes in ALL four games. They’ve been scored against first in ALL four games. They’ve led in just 4:31 out of 264:23 (think about that for a sec). Gaborik’s MIA. Their decimated blue line is overworked.

Still, the Wild has home ice, and I wouldn’t be too concerned about last night’s game bleeding over. Last night turned into a rout because the Wild’s defensemen were completely dead after putting in OT the night before.

I’m sure you’ll see a completely different game tomorrow night. Whether the Wild win or not is a different story, of course.

I’ll make one prediction because I’m always right on those

The team that wins tomorrow wins the series. Put it in the bank like my 3-2 OT prediction last night.

Statistically, that’s usually a fact though. The game 5 winner of any series tied 2-2 in history has won 158 of a possible 196 series (80.6 percent).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 3:34 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.