Here’s a sure-fire way to learn practice has been cancelled.

You’re walking down the stands of Xcel Energy Center and you see Josh Harding skating in a warmup suit stick-handling the puck. And then he screams at you, “This is me on the PP.”

Harding should stick to goaltending, as one of the three guys (Brent Burns, Colton Gillies and Craig Weller) he was playing shinny with told me (I won’t divulge which one).

Yep, practice was cancelled. The players just worked out in the gym and came and went as they chose. Not only that, but not many Aeros guys will be going on the ice today after getting into town after 2 a.m.

Both teams will be practicing Tuesday, however.

Not much is going on. Stensaas has a neat story running in Tuesday’s paper, and I’m doing a big Dan Fritsche story likely running Wednesday (got some colorful stuff). If you noticed Fritsche playing the penalty kill, power play and overtime yesterday, those facts alone should tell you Jacques Lemaire’s gaining confidence in Fritsche.

Putting a player on the penalty kill is Lemaire’s highest form of flattery.

Not much else going on. Shot the breeze with Derek Boogaard today about Zack Stortini. He’s not a fan. As he said after the game, Nik Backstrom could beat him up.

Funniest thing at a casual morning down at the rink? Trainer Don Fuller’s 20-month-old daughter was running around saying, “Mikko. Mikko. Mikko.” Apparently, around the house, she says two words, “Mikko,” and “Andrew,” as in Brunette, I assume.

Speaking of Koivu, I set him up this morning. Since he wrote on his blog that he doesn’t read the papers often, I gave him Jim Souhan’s clip today to read. I then snapped a picture of him reading it. Of course, it backfired because I’m a moron. When I went to save the picture, I hit the trash can. Did you know the trash can throws pictures in the trash???

Apparently, I didn’t.

Ran into Boogaard/Burns/Marian Gaborik agents Ron Salcer and Tobin Wright, but they were in the convention center, so they weren’t breaking any rules

I also ran into Aeros coach Kevin Constantine, whom I’ve known for awhile, at Headwaters Cafe. I used to enjoy shooting the breeze with him when he coached the Penguins. In the rink, he can be an intimidating fellow. Away from the rink, just a great dude. In fact, my buddy Joe Starkey, who’s now a columnist at the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, used to play hoops with him all the time when Starkey was covering the Pens.

Constantine said other than putting the Aeros down 3-on-5, Kurtis Foster played a helluva game for his first time. Constantine told me his teams have made the playoffs 13 straight seasons, so just the fact Houston’s teetering has been a little nerve-racking for him.  

That’s it for now. Like I said, not much going on. Oh, Weller was heading to the doctor to take his neuro-baseline test. A passing grade would allow him to return. Between you and me, I saw him writing answers on his hands.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 1:59 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.