First, Mikko Koivu, who has missed the past three games with a knee injury, is expected to return tonight against the Oilers.

However, right wing Pierre-Marc Bouchard will miss his second game in a row. He munches on the Oilers, so now you know he’s hurt. And as suspected, General Manager Doug Risebrough is now calling it a concussion, likely suffered when he was smoked in the Islanders’ game by Nate Thompson.

Also, goalie Niklas Backstrom has lower-body soreness. I saw him walking in the streets of Edmonton today, and he was walking eerily slow. In fact, I was a little worried he was going to do something drastic. Turns out he’s just hurt.

However, he was dressing like he was playing — or at the very least backing up. Anton Khudobin, who has spent most the season with the ECHL Florida Everblades, is here on an emergency callup (not an official callup).

Update: Backstrom came out first in warmups, so if he leaves without aggravating the groiner, he’s got the nod in the arena he’s been yanked from in four straight. 

The Wild has also recalled center Krys Kolanos, who has scored three goals and three assists in 19 games this season with Minnesota. He will play.

“The original callup was just to see how guys were going to be, but we just decided to put [Kolanos] in the lineup,” Risebrough said.

However, there could be some other changes in the lineup because lots of guys are banged up.

“Guys are banged up, but they’re not hurt,” Risebrough said. 

One is Peter Olvecky, who is out. He blocked a shot off the knee last night. Colton Gillies is out, too.

Kurtis Foster is the only scratch I know for sure. Marc-Andre Bergeron, who played a little wing last night in Calgary, will move back to the blue line.

Speaking of Bergeron,

I just talked to him about playing forward last night. I don’t think I’ll have space in the notebook in tomorrow’s paper because I’m doing a notebook lead on Wild prospect Carson McMillan, who’s currently in the WHL playoffs. The Wild is currently in contract talk with McMillan, their seventh-round pick in 2007, and Cody Almond, their fifth-round pick from 2007. That means four of their five draft picks that year will be pro’s (includes already-signed Colton Gillies and Justin Falk).

Here’s snippets from Bergeron interview:

“It was exciting. It’s hard to describe. But I was really excited actually. I wish I would have played a little more because maybe I’d get a better feel for it.?”

First shift all over the place? “Felt awkward obviously. I kept it simple. I tried to get on the forecheck. It’s verrry tiring. You’re not used to it. The footwork is different, too. A couple times I felt off-balanced, and I feel I’m a pretty agile skater. It’s a lot quicker.”

When did you find out? “Before meeting. Said yeah sure, love, too.”

Every play forward? “Played most of my young career as a forward. Decided I wasn’t going to try to be Wayne Gretzky out there. Just get it in and try to get it.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 29th, 2009 at 4:34 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.