(UPDATED)

As promised, here are some DVD extras from yesterday that I couldn’t squeeze into the paper.

Just returned from the Wild’s morning skate. Defenseman Martin Skoula is the latest player to be hit by the most disgusting illness in history. But I won’t tell you the details during lunchtime. I’ll wait ’til later.

Its running its way through the team. Stephane Veilleux, who missed the Bruins game, painted me a detailed picture, and let’s just say, that picture won’t make its way into the Walker Art Center.

Skoula’s out tonight, which will hurt bigtime. He’s been playing big, steady minutes, and now the Wild will have to play two rookies tonight, something Jacques Lemaire was not happy with. He again indicted Reitz this morning while praising John Scott. And with Marek Zidlicky just getting back from the plague, Brent Burns, Kim Johnsson and Nick Schultz might want to eat their vitamins. Get used to seeing a lot of Nos. 8, 5 and 55 in your TV screen tonight. A lot of them.

Andrew Brunette, who hasn’t missed a game since 2001-02, is trying to stay away from his teammates. In fact, Skoula never ever misses games either because of injuries or illness. He’s missed five in his career (again injury or illness, not the Michael Russo-induced scratches of last season) and I’m pretty sure Skoula’s 682 games are the most of any NHL defensemen born in 1979 or later.

This’ll be Johnsson’s first game back in Philly since leaving as a free agent. As he said, he’s sure he’ll be greeted warmly because after all, this is the “City of Brotherly Love.”

Veilleux, who clearly read my blog because he talked a lot about what it was like to travel commercial here like us common folk, said he’s playing. So Benoit Pouliot will likely cozy up with the press upstairs tonight.

As you read in today’s Nik Backstrom story, I talked briefly with agent Don Baizley last night and called in a quote to be inserted into the story.

The good news if you’re a Backstrom fan: Baize, as we in the media call him, said there’s been conversation between the two sides – as my gut said on yesterday’s blog.

The bad news if you’re a Backstrom fan: Nothing’s in the works.

The good news if you’re a Backstrom fan: Wild assistant GM Tom Lynn and Baizley have a terrific working relationship. They work well together; see all Mikko Koivu’s contracts.

The bad news if you’re a Backstrom fan: This is business, not friendship.

The good news if you’re a fan of Baizley’s wallet: Of his two deserving Wild clients, it was the guy in a contract year that made the All-Star Game.

A couple other Backstrom quotes from yesterday:

More on playing in Minnesota, and specifically what it’s like to play in front of fans that know something about the sport: “You go out there and perform and you know people are watching you. They know a lot about hockey. Sometimes it’s tough on us because they know about hockey. Like the Chicago game (Dec. 28). We played bad. It was right for them to boo us. But against Carolina (Dec. 23), we killed the [two-minute] 5-on-3, and they went crazy. It’s those things you remember, it’s those things you have in your mind. It’s special.”

On his loyalty toward the Wild: “Without them, I’d probably be playing still in Europe, that’s for sure. They gave me a chance to come over here. That’s always going to be. They believed in me and gave me a chance. You remember that for sure.”

Doug Risebrough on Backstrom making the All-Star Game: “It’s a great statement for how he’s played for us this year. The other stuff (contract) all works itself out. Let’s not overshadow it. He’s been a big part of the season and I’m glad he’s going to the All-Star Game. I know we’ve had two MVPs (Backstrom and Koivu). I wish they were both going.”

By the way, Lemaire agreed with Risebrough’s assessment that it’s easier to play goal in the Wild system. But asked if anybody could do it (in other words, is Backstrom irreplaceable), Lemaire said, “Woah, woah, woah. Not quite.”

I was going to squeeze this into my midseason analysis, but space is tighter than I expected, so I’ll just throw it on here. I might have already put this on the blog at one point, but on the perception that it’s so easy to play goal for the Wild, I get it.

The Wild took Dwayne Roloson from the minors and he led the NHL in save percentage his first year, I believe. Backstrom came from Europe, and in his first season, he led the league in goals against average and save percentage.

But I do believe there’s two flaws with the theory that the Wild will just throw Josh Harding in net or acquire somebody else and they’ll be as good as Backstrom.

First, there’s no guarantee Lemaire will be the Wild’s coach in future seasons, so there’s a chance the Wild’s style – or system — could change. Plus, it’s hard to say the Wild’s system lends itself to great goaltending when the majority of most Wild games – especially in December — are spent in the defensive zone.

I know it’s consistently on top or near the top in goals against. I know the Wild’s defensemen have done a superb job lately limiting quality shots and cleaning up messes in front of the net. But I do believe Backstrom would be missed if he was gone. Think Colorado won’t want him? Think Edmonton won’t want him? Think Los Angeles won’t want him? Think Philly won’t want him? Think Ottawa won’t want him?

Should I continue?

On another front, I am way backed up with emails. Probably 75 deep over the last few weeks. Give me time (I’m swamped right now with work), but honestly, if you’ve written me a college-like thesis on the Wild with a million questions and opinions, I don’t know if I’ll be able to get to those.

I appreciate your passion, but there’s only so much writing I can do on the Wild – and my first priority is the newspaper and blog.

With that said, I try to answer as many emails as I can, and eventually I’ll open them and read them and even try to answer them.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 9:32 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.