Remember, if you didn’t read Sunday’s Martin Havlat piece in the newspaper, it should be online at some point Wednesday at the Star Tribune’s Wild page here.

Wild lost 3-1 at St. Louis, but as mentioned in the paper, Wild brought its minor-league team mostly and St. Louis many of its real players. Of the Wild guys, you’ll like Greg Zanon. Steady Eddy, and tough as nails. As advertised, just throws himself in front of shots. Shane Hnidy had some Martin Skoula moments, but also tough as nails in a different way. Won’t back down to anyone. James Sheppard played well. Kyle Brodziak was all over the place. I don’t see a ton of skill there, but won 13 of 16 draws (as you all know, the Wild need that) and had six shots. To me, he’s a center, not wing. Andy Hilbert worked his you know what off, but he’s thrown down pretty easily and as mentioned previously, with Petr Sykora here now, it’ll be a little more difficult for him to make the team. Craig Weller and Colton Gillies were minus-3’s. Benoit Pouliot scored a goal and didn’t back down physically in skirmishes, but there’s still a lack of drive every shift.

Overall, considering how outmanned they were, the Wild competed well once the game got going. I will be on KFAN at 9:20 a.m. to talk about the game and more.

– Also, here is the story on North St. Paul’s own Bret Hedican, who will officially be announcing his retirement Wednesday after 17 years in the NHL

–Here is a feature on the Wild’s second-year winger, Colton Gillies

– And here is tonight’s game notebook, which includes Todd Richards admitting he was rusty and a funny (yet probably scary at the time) story about James Sheppard missing most of the first period with a broken skate blade.

I also threw a Matt Kassian note below that I had to cut from final edition. Couple items: Petr Sykora is in Minnesota, will get a physical Wednesday morning and should practice in the second session. Also, cuts are on the horizon.

You can read the Gillies feature, which has some funny things in there and some interesting comments on his desire to be on the Wild and not AHL Houston. But with the Gillies and Hedican stories, I couldn’t fit everything, so I’ll toss some extra stuff on the blog.

GILLIES

– Gillies sat down during the development camp in July with new coach Todd Richards, and Richards gave Gillies some goals to come back to training camp and achieve, mainly in his fitness testing scores. Most of it had to do with verticals jump and stuff, and Gillies, after a long summer of hard work, says he hit every goal. Richards says he’s been impressed with Gillies thus far and was especially impressed at the development camp how he took his leadership responsibilies as a “veteran” seriously. Gillies is 20, by the way.

– Gillies has spent a lot of time the last few years listening to Owen Nolan, who is working hard at helping Gillies with his game, especially when it comes to positioning on the ice.

– Gillies is definitely mature beyond his years. Often times last season when players were running for the bus on the road after morning skates, there would Gillies be still in his sweats working out of laying on the floor stretching.

“I do believe in taking care of my body. Those are things I need to do. Skating is the biggest part of my game, so I make sure my legs are ready to go and I ice properly. But everybody needs a routine, and that’s part of my routine.”

– If he’s sent down: “It’s a part of life. If they tell me to go down, I’ll go down. I’m not going to change. I’ll be the same person (meaning he won’t pout). I’ll just work on my game more and try to find a way back up.”

– On the way he’ll be as a pro, and this is interesting. He was talking about how much he respects Jarome Iginla, not just because of his game on the ice, but the way he treats people off.

Gillies grew up outside Vancouver. At the Canucks’ practice facility as a kid, Gillies’ team practiced right before the Canucks. The players waited inside Eight Rinks for all the Canucks to come out and sign autographs. Everybody did except one and that’s stuck with Gillies his whole life.

“Pavel Bure. The Russian Rocket. He was the big thing when playing in Vancouver. The whole team, they all came out. We’re waiting and waiting for the Russian Rocket. He ended up sneaking out the back door. We’re all like, ‘Wow.’ I learned from that. I never want to be like that. That’s why I like guys like Jarome Iginla.” 

HEDICAN

Speaking of Bure, sorta, we move on to Bret Hedican, who was traded along with Bure to the Panthers when I was covering the Florida Panthers. I got to cover Hedican — and remember you can read the actual retirement story on the Wild Star Tribune page — for four seasons before he was traded along with Kevyn Adams to Carolina for Sandis Ozolinsh. Hedican was one of the best skaters I ever covered, and one proud athlete.

– He never really felt comfortable in a Panthers’ uniform, but the pivotal point of his career came when traded to Carolina — and not just because he played in two Cup Finals for the Hurricanes and won one. Paul Maurice, then in his first stint as Carolina’s coach, called Hedican into his office immediately after the trade. Because of Hedican’s smooth skating, everybody always expected him to be a star offensive defenseman. That was never his game.

Hedican said Maurice told him, “I love your game. I didn’t bring you here to score goals, I didn’t bring you here to carry the puck all the way up ice. … I brought you here to play great defense like you do. He said, ‘I love what you do defensively.’ It’s like the skies cleared and finally somebody appreciated what I can do and I didn’t have pressure to do things offensively, which wasn’t my game and style. I never forgot that moment — somebody accepting who I was as a player. I thank Paul Maurice for that.”

– Hedican will step back from hockey and commit himself to a new business, mycontent.com, which provides musical artists with the control to market, distribute and monetize their audio and video content.

“It’s hard. I won’t lie. You’re never going to be another professional athlete,” Hedican said. “But it’s time for my body and for me to make the transition in life and see what else I can accomplish.

“Retiring from hockey is not the end of the world. Let’s hope my next chapter in my life is even better. Let’s hope I make a legacy somewhere else. I hope at the end of my life they don’t say I was a hockey player and that was it.”

– “I took a lot of pride in my skating. I took pride in the fact that people enjoyed watching me skate and watching the way I could move backwards, forwards, laterally. I hope I’m remembered as one of those skaters who was fun to watch.”

Here’s the Kassian note I had to trim:

ST. LOUIS – It might have been an exhibition opener Tuesday night, but for Matt Kassian, it was a whole lot more.
“A chance to put on the Wild jersey for real in an NHL game – not just in a rookie tournament or an intrasquad game,” said Kassian. “Just another step in the ladder to hopefully playing in the NHL.”
Kassian, 22, was drafted by the Wild in the second round in 2005, but despite this being his fifth training camp, he’s never gotten a sniff of an exhibition game. In fact, he’s usually one of the first cuts to Houston.
A leader for the Aeros, the tough, gritty left winger hopes to one day get to the show.
“Sometimes I still feel like that 18-year-old kid,” Kassian said. “I just want to play a very, very gritty game. Nothing fancy. Play hard, simple, show some passion, and hopefully one day that’ll be good enough.”
 

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