Car is good as new.

They just don’t make drivers’ door mirrors as strong as they used to. It was no match for that bank ATM pole

Call it an expensive mistake — more mula than that check I was depositing, I’ll tell you.

Soooooo, on the way back to the arena from the car dealership, I got a call from a journalism professor from the great state of Illinois who’s writing a college sportswriting textbook. He interviewed me for awhile on “How to be a Hockey Writer.” I realized during the call, there’s actually a lot to this gig. I was giving him tidbits I didn’t even realize I consciously do during a day, game, week, etc.

So my words will be teaching sports journalists for generations upon generations, so apologies in advance.

I also learned during that call, as did my now sore throat, that I like to hear myself speak. Speaking of that, if you don’t get enough of me on here or in the newspaper or startribune.com/wild, “Russo Radio,” will be coming to the Matt Thomas Show on KSTP (1500-AM) on Wednesdays from 6-6:30 p.m.

There will be some weeks it’ll be Tuesday or Thursday, but I’ll let you know when we’re forced to revise the schedule due to my travel or other conflicts, like Twins spring training games, etc.

I will also continue to be heard occasionally on Chad Hartman’s show on KFAN (1130-AM).

I know, I’m tired of myselF, too.

Oh, there’s a game tonight, as the circling Zamboni just reminded me.

Colton Gillies thought he was back in, so somebody will have to come out for him.

Jacques was not happy with the start of the skate this morning, but he said it got better toward the middle:

“I didn’t like the start of the practice. But as it went on it got better. Hopefully we’ll have a better start tonight.

“They go on the ice. We do optionals for certain guys. Sometimes you think you’re doing the right thing, and sometimes when they hear optional, it’s ‘oh, we don’t have to to bear down today. It’ll be fun.’ They just want to play with pucks and fool around. We go on, we want things to be serious all the time.

“I like the kids to go on the ice because they don’t know what to do during the day. It cuts the day in half. You’ve got to keeep them busy so they don’t think too much. Get them out of bed, get them out of the house. Otherwise they could stay on the couch watching TV. It’s good for them to come here, shoot a few pucks.

“I mentioned today to the whole group, ‘Bruno (Andrew Brunette) works harder now than when he did when he was here the first time.’ It’s funny. He works harder in practices and harder in games.’

On another note, how about this: So Travis Green, the assistant athletic trainer, gets five stitches from a stick against Buffalo. Against Columbus, head trainer Don Fuller takes a puck to the melon. That same night, Houston Aeros
equipment manager Mark Kincher took a puck to the head and got stitches around his eye.

As somebody said to me, “Serendipity.”

That’s it. I’m staying in the press box.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 2:19 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.