Proving the rotating captaincy is still a rotating captaincy, defenseman Kim Johnsson has been named December captain. No Wild player has ever worn the ‘C,’ for three consecutive months, so I guess letting Mikko Koivu keep the ‘C’ would have set, dare we say, a precedent.

Johnsson’s had a very strong season so far, and Jacques Lemaire wanted to reward him. Lemaire said changing things up was no slight to Koivu, whom he praised endlessly.

Johnsson has never worn the ‘C’ before. He was handed the sweater in a locker room meeting before the skate, and he did the traditional lap around the locker room high-fiving his teammates. He said the best two captains he ever played for were Brian Leetch and Mark Messier his first two seasons in New York.

As for the lineup, the only change is Eric Belanger in for Colton Gillies. Oh, and of course, Niklas Backstrom in for Josh Harding. Craig Weller earned a second straight game and Cal Clutterbuck will have to sit for a second straight game.

(Caveat: I’m writing Clutterbuck’s out because he got bagged after the skate. But after listening to Jacques, he’s talking like Clutterbuck’s playing. So we will see. Clutterbuck didn’t think he was playing though).

Lemaire said Clutterbuck slowed down after he praised Clutterbuck and said he deserved everything he’s gotten after the Washington game. Lemaire said it’s the last time he says a guy’s got a spot on the team. Lemaire said it wasn’t a wake-up call, but if you watched Clutterbuck skate in this morning’s skate, he got the message. He was absolutely flying.

But Lemaire said he’s not taking Weller out after the Nashville game. Weller, by the way, looks like he’s played every game the last two months. His face is swollen and it’s myriad colors.

Belanger was out on the ice early testing his injured leg. He was clearly in discomfort, but he said he’s playing. Belanger, unlike some players, has a high pain threshold. Remember, last year he broke his foot and was supposed to miss 4-6 weeks. He was back in like two.

“I can play through a lot of pain,” Belanger said.

 Derek Boogaard had some funny things to say about his three-second shift. I’ll try to squeeze that into the paper tomorrow. He said the stat guys in Nashville were actually generous.

He said it’s the first time he played just one shift. I reminded him of Atlanta ealier this year, and he said, “Yeah, but that was a full shift — 30 seconds.” Actually, 29.

Since the Wild doesn’t feel it necessary to comment and inform their paying customers about its highest-paid player ($7.5 million) who will miss his 21st consecutive game tonight, I got to the rink early to see if Marian Gaborik was again skating on his own. He still isn’t.

He was there getting treatment, I was told.

Peter Budaj is starting for Colorado, I believe.

OK, talk to you prior to the game.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 10:18 am 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.