Here is the story

Yesterday afternoon, I received an email from an always iron-clad source telling me that Marian Gaborik went to Colorado to see a specialist over the break. I wrote that in today’s paper because I got it confirmed from a secondary source.

What I didn’t write today is that the source also said it was recommended Gaborik have season-ending surgery. If you read last night’s blog, I alluded to this, but I felt I couldn’t write it because I couldn’t get it confirmed 100 percent from assistant GM Tom Lynn.

I’ve been digging at this all day and felt I was getting close enough to this being the truth that I got in touch with Lynn again. 

This time, Lynn confirmed to me that over the next two days, the Wild is examining all of its Gaborik options. The most likely, it appears, is for Gaborik to have surgery on what Lynn described as a “hip deficiency” that’s been causing Gaborik groin pain all year.

Last May, Gaborik had surgery on his right hip to repair a torn labrum. This is to his left hip, Lynn said, and he reiterated it’s a deficiency that involves a lot of things, including his labrum.

If Gaborik has surgery, he can begin skating in a matter of weeks, Lynn said, but he’d be out until at or near the end of the season.

This is catastrophic, and I’m not talking about what this does to the team this season.

The Wild likely would have an untradeable asset, one that would likely walk at the end of the season. From Gaborik’s perspective, there is no chance he’d command anything close to around the $8 million a year the Wild offered him at the start of the season.

I’ve had calls into Gaborik all day. He hasn’t called me back yet. Nor has his agent.

I talked to Doug Risebrough this morning, and the reason I got real suspicious to pursue this story? When I asked if he was worried Gaborik wouldn’t play again this season, Risebrough basically said yes. When I told him I had heard it was recommended Gaborik have season-ending surgery, he said, “I’m not commenting.”

Like I said, Lynn is saying it wouldn’t necessarily be season-ending surgery, but pretty much so.

The big question now: Does Marian Gaborik ever wear a Wild sweater again?

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Here is Episode 4 of Wild fans asking players questions as put together by Shari Gross — featured in there is Brent Burns, Mikko Koivu, Nick Schultz, Niklas Backstrom and the Boogeyman.

My personal favorite parts: The Boogeyman, with a grin, saying his favorite old-school players were Bob Probert, Kelly Chase and Tony Twist. Koivu saying his favorite was Mark Recchi, because earlier this season I talked to Recchi for a story about Koivu and he told some cool stories about a 12-year-old Koivu coming to Montreal visiting Saku. Recchi and Saku were road roomies. Here’s the story I’m referring to.

And finally Backstrom saying his favorite was Esa Tikkanen. I covered Tikkanen in Florida in ‘97-98. The Panthers used to practice at a place called Gold Coast Ice Arena in Pompano Beach. After practice one day, I needed to interview John Vanbiesbrouck, and this awful Finnish music was blaring out of the speakers in the locker room.

So I walked over to the stereo and lowered it so I could actually hear Beezer, and from across the room, Tikkanen started screaming at me in his legendary, Tikkanese — part English, part Finnish. Guess what I did?

Cowered like my mother’s toy poodle, Winston. Hey, I was 23. He was a legend (and a little loco).

Now if Tikkanen tried that now, … oh boy, … would I …. OK, I’d probably still turtle like I was Michael Russo and he was Boogaard’s fist.

Speaking of Boogaard, see him break Jody Shelley’s helmet with a punch last night?

As for practice, Gaborik skated before practice but not during. Assistant GM Tom Lynn said he was hoping Gaborik was going to practice Wednesday, was hoping he was going to practice today.

“I guess it’s a plan of hope right now,” Lynn said.

I’m telling you, this is not good.

Defenseman Marek Zidlicky didn’t practice today because he’s sick, Lynn said. He believes it’ll be a “one-day thing.”

I talked to Marc-Andre Bergeron, whom I believe has a knee injury. He’s been skating on his own, but he said he still aches when he starts, stops, turns and pivots.

No captain announced today, although I assume the ‘C’ is going back to Mikko Koivu. Maybe we’ll find out tomorrow.

By the way, the Sharks didn’t make it home last night. It stayed in the Twin Cities because of fog in the Bay Area.

Happy New Year!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Breaking news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.