Late update I know, but I had all sorts of travel problems getting from L.A. to San Jose, had to go right to practice, then needed to write for the paper, then needed to finish my Sunday stuff (which I still haven’t) and I’m keeping half an eye on the Twins game as well.

Plus, there wasn’t any news at practice. Same lineup Saturday against San Jose, other than Niklas Backstrom getting the start. Jaime Sifers will again be out, unless for some reason Greg Zanon can’t play. But Zanon practiced fully today but he looks a little banged up from the hit he took from Dustin Brown in the third period last night.

The word of the day down at the HP Pavilion was “accountability.” Marty Havlat and Petr Sykora were benched for parts of last night’s blowout loss at LA, and Richards said his gloves are coming off. If players don’t show up, they too will get cemented to the bench. He said he’s done giving players the benefit of the doubt. Show up or lose ice.

Havlat admitted he had a tough go last night and said any coach would have benched him for being a minus-3 on his first three shifts. I asked him if he’s ever had a worse period, and he’s said always in L.A. Havlat’s game log confirms. Career at Staples Center: Three goals, two assists, minus-11 in eight games.

I did want to point out today after reading my story in the paper, Richards never called out Havlat last night. The way it reads, I wrote that Richards “clearly blamed” Havlat for the goal. I didn’t mean that to read that he audibly blamed Havlat for the goal after the game. I meant he clearly blamed him for the goal because he benched him for the next seven minutes.

When I asked about Havlat after the game, that’s when Richards answered with the quote about certain guys not showing up.

Richards talked a lot about the players’ pride today and how they know what they’re going wrong. He again bemoaned how difficult it is to get the players to rid themselves of previous coaching habits, but it’ll come.

The growing pains though could be long in my opinion. Power play, Wild’s been great — first in the NHL. Five-on-five, they’re terrible. Two goals for. Eight against, and loads of scoring chances.

I’ll talk to you Saturday, but lastly, from the Wild:

    SAINT PAUL/MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Saturday, Oct. 10 is the distribution day for the used hockey equipment drive headed by the Minnesota Wild, Let’s Play Hockey and Minnesota Hockey. It will be held from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at Xcel Energy Center, inside Gate 1. FREE hockey equipment is available to all individuals, families, teams and associations on a first come, first served basis. New and used youth and adult hockey equipment will be available.
�
    Over 2,000 pieces of new and used hockey equipment were collected during the equipment drive including goalie gear, sticks, helmets, gloves, breezers, bags, socks, jerseys, elbow pads, shin pads, shoulder pads and skates. All collected items will be available to pick up for FREE on Saturday, Oct. 10 from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. inside Gate 1 of Xcel Energy Center.
�
WHAT:   Over 2,000 pieces of new and used hockey equipment to be distributed for free on a first come, first served basis as part of the Minnesota Wild, Let’s Play Hockey, Minnesota Hockey Equipment Drive
�
WHEN:   Saturday, Oct. 10 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
�
WHERE:  Xcel Energy Center Gate 1

This entry was posted on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 7:21 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.