Mikko Koivu has strangled the ‘C’ off Andrew Brunette’s chest. Jacques Lemaire probably was going to give it to Owen Nolan until he read that I bet my press credential he’d get it. Brunette and Nolan are the A’s.

Craig Weller is scratched. In fact, Weller, Kurtis Foster and the Boogeyman are sitting above me in the press box.

Vancouver has signed Alex Burrows to a four-year, $8 million extension, meaning the energy bug will be extra energized tonight.

Edmonton and Nashville, two teams right ahead of the Wild, goes to overtime. That’s what kills ya.

I’ve gotten a couple emails about Olvecky being on waivers, and Weller the other day, and why. First, if the Wild intends on sending Olvecky to the minors (and he eventually will to take part in the playoffs in the AHL if Houston makes it), he’d have to clear waivers. Today was a great day to do it because you know he’s likely going to get lost among the several players on waivers today.

If he clears, the Wild has 30 days to send him to the minors at any time it wants before it would have to put him on waivers again. Remember, waivers in the NHL is not like waivers in other sports. Olvecky is not released by the Wild. He’s still Minnesota’s property unless somebody takes him.

As for Weller, it’s clear GM Doug Risebrough was trying to trade him, didn’t find a market and tried to trigger something to happen by offering him to everybody for free. He basically admitted that in my quote in the paper the other day. But he’s still here and is staying for now. 

As for today’s waiver bonanza in the NHL, the sellers are realizing they’re not getting their price by the deadline for these players, so they’re trying to dump their salaries. I have a feeling this is going to be a lot quieter deadline than previous years.

As Risebrough said to me today, “There will still be activity. There always it. It just might not be as busy or might not be as significant.” 

Couple extra quotes that didn’t make the cut with Niklas Backstrom’s signing:

Funny line from my phone conversation with Doug Risebrough: “I’m really excited. When I talked to Nik, I probably sounded more excited than he did. That Nik, he’s pretty even-keeled.”

Backstrom throwing you all some love: “I’ve been here for more than two and a half years. I really like the organization; the fans are unbelievable. You don’t have too many chances to play in front of a crowd like that. It’s great to call that your home crowd.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 6:54 pm and is filed under Game coverage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.