Tuesday update: Burns, Nolan at practice
Posted on November 11th, 2008 – 2:44 PMBy Brian Stensaas
Compared to that last post, this one won’t be nearly as serious nor as important. But here goes:
Injured players Brent Burns (upper body) and Owen Nolan (lower body) were both back with the team today. Neither played on the last road trip. They started out together - wearing the same color practice jerseys skating on a line with Krys Kolanos - but by the end things were much different. Burns was wearing a red defenseman’s jersey, while Nolan went into the locker room early.
Having Burns skate as a forward for the beginning of practice was just that; so he would indeed get some good skating in up front. He did some scoring, too. Early on, he roofed a shot over Backstrom’s glove, off the crossbar and into the net. Burns then let out a celebratory howl some at the Como Zoo (or even Burns’ live-in pets) would envy.
As for Nolan, coach Jacques Lemaire said he noticed the veteran slowing down as practice wore on. So he figured better be safe than sorry.
“I don’t want him to push too much, especially the first day (back),” Lemaire said. “It’s really when you can aggravate an injury, is when you’re tired. I just wanted to be sure that this won’t happen.”
In true Jacques form, he was switching lines all over the place during drills. “I switch the lines so you guys have something to talk about,” Lemaire quipped to reporters afterward.
Lemaire was then asked if he thought the Wild will ever have a full, healthy roster this season. His response? “Not the way it’s going. It doesn’t look like it.”
Interesting …
Anyway, on the Marian Gaborik front the Wild still will only say he is skating on his own. Gaborik (lower body injury) has only played in two games this season. There is no timetable for his return.
That’s it for today. Russo’s back tomorrow. For those of you reading this in the Twin Cities, be careful on those roads out there.
Newspaper Subscriptions
eEdition
RSS
Newsletters