Good day from Minny, where I’m getting sick and tired of this heat wave.

Veteran Owen Nolan, who missed the past two games with an “upper body” injury, practiced today, and coach Jacques Lemaire declared him good to go for Sunday’s matinee against the Oilers. Right wing Cal Clutterbuck missed practice. GM Doug Risebrough said Clutterbuck wasn’t feeling well, and he ranges from questionable to probable for tomorrow’s game.

Craig Weller took the day off from skating. He said he still feel a bit “off,” but he says he’s close to taking a baseline test. If he passes that, he’d be cleared to return from his concussion.

Kurtis Foster is travelling right now to meet the Houston Aeros in Quad Cities. He’ll then bus with them to Chicago, where he’ll make his season debut against the AHL Wolves tomorrow at 5. He’s “real excited for tomorrow.”

His parents flew to Chicago from their hometown of Ottawa and met Foster’s wife there this afternoon.

The Wild had a great, up-tempo practice today that predictably ended with a lot of skating without pucks.

“I could tell their minds were there today. Just a day late,” said coach Jacques Lemaire, referring to last night’s 2-0 loss to Nashville.

Marian Gaborik’s agent, Ron Salcer, and his banned from Xcel Energy Center agent and pal Tobin Wright were at Parade Ice Garden this morning as Gaborik received treatment from Wild trainer Don Fuller. I guess Parade is a public place, so Wright could freely enter.

Salcer said there’s been zero conversation between Gaborik’s camp and the Wild regarding a contract.

FYI, check out Sunday’s article in the paper and return to the blog later for a special Q&A from that story.

Enjoy your Saturday, folks

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 7th, 2009 at 1:57 pm and is filed under Practice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.