Just got back from the skate.

Wild players were unbelievably loose this morning. Lots of laughing and fun on the ice. Maybe it was last night’s Coldplay concert, which many players were raving about.

We’ll see if that continues against a Columbus team that always makes it tough for Minnesota. The Blue Jackets looked great last night in Buffalo and are 5-1-2 in their past eight.

The Wild will dress the same lineup as Thursday against Phoenix. Colton Gillies, Craig Weller and Tomas Mojzis look like they’re scratched.

For Columbus, Rostislav “Rusty” Klesla is out tonight with a lower body injury. Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock called it a slight ankle sprain, but announcing specific locations is against my policy.

Steve Mason in net.

There was actually plenty of funny stuff down at the rink today, but I’ll save most of it for my notebook tomorrow.

There was Cal Clutterbuck talking about all the text messages he got from buddies, not so much for his fight the other night with Keith Yandle, but with his screaming match with the greatest hockey player in the world, Wayne Gretzky. Gretzky wasn’t happy Clutterbuck fought with a visor, although replays of the fight appear to show Clutterbuck unstrapping his helmet and asked Yandle to take his off. Yandle refused, Clutterbuck said.

There was Hitchcock bemoaning all the home cooking Minnesota gets from the league office. Two years ago, Wes Walz had a puck roll up his pants that counted for a goal in overtime, and last month Rick Nash had a goal overturned because of a controversial high stick.

Also, Columbus rookie phenom Derick Brassard is close friend’s with Pierre-Marc Bouchard’s brother Francois, a Washington Capitals draft pick. Remember I told you in camp, Brassard sat with me in the press box during an exhibition game because Pierre-Marc and Brent Burns were sitting with me.

Brassard said his shootout goal against Montreal on Nov. 7 was because he watched Pierre-Marc practice it during the summers. Maybe this is the new move (here’s Brassard’s goal) Bouchard said he’s been perfecting this summer.

Funniest thing I saw was the two broadcast teams — Columbus’ Jeff Rimer and Danny Gare and Minnesota’s Dan Terhaar and Mike Greenlay — chatting it up in black coats. They were facing each other. Just a funny sight. It looked very much like West Side Story, minus the snapping.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 15th, 2008 at 1:45 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.