Eleven players plus three assistant coaches and a former team captain were on display this afternoon at the Xcel Energy Center. No practice today - just about an hour’s worth of scrimmaging.

It was pretty fun to watch Mike Ramsey, Matt Shaw, Mario Tremblay and Brad Bombardir keep up with the “kids.” I learned that Tremblay’s best weapon is chucking his stick toward players’ skates on a breakaway. I learned that Shaw is a stickler for plus/minus stats. Ramsey can still fire one in there via wrist shot. And as for Bombardir? The seven-time Wild captain still has some fight left in him. After being told some current players said he should head to Houston and give the AHL a try, Bombardir joked it would have to be on a five-way contract.

No real news to report out of today. The red-hot Stephane Veilleux was among the skaters out there, as was Marian Gaborik. Gaborik left the ice for a time midway through the scrimmage, but it was just an equipment issue. He appeared to be moving well.

Craig Weller was stopped by Josh Harding on a point-blank shot early in the scrimmage, and Weller chirped “I love making you feel good, Hards!”

Harding also beat rookie Colton Gillies on a face-off at center ice at one point during the skate. But let’s be honest - Harding does have the goalie’s stick advantage. Broader is better.

After an 11am practice tomorrow, the Wild is off to New Jersey for a Friday match-up with the streaking Devils (10 wins in a row at home). Russo’s headed East to give you all the nuts and bolts. I’ll be back with you tomorrow and then again through the weekend.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 1:44 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.