We interrupt this A-Rod press conference afternoon for some Wild news.

Actually, sorry to bring more lies but I don’t have a whole lot to offer at all. It was a pretty quiet practice down at the X today. Just 10 Wild players took the ice (Sheppard, Clutterbuck, Fritsche, Veilleux Gillies, Weller, Olvecky, Belanger and the two goalies). Jacques Lemaire didn’t even skate. Though a day after another on-ice incident, he was in good spirits, joking that when he skates tomorrow he will be in full gear, including a bullet-proof vest.

Those who didn’t skate did off-ice workouts. Derek Boogaard (illness) was again given the day off and Marc-Andre Bergeron (upper body) was given a second day to rest. Both are expected to give it a go tomorrow.

Practice was pretty light for the 10 on the ice. Some simple pass-and-shoot drills were conducted for about 15 minutes, then an easy-going game of shinny broke out. And that was about it.

Despite the light practice it was busy downstairs. The Wild’s marketing department had several tables set up filled with photos and other items set to be signed and auctioned off. And a handful of high school journalists were in the building ready to meet with members of the local media to talk about covering the Wild. Michael Russo teaching the journalists of tomorrow … that’s a scary thought. Then again, backup reporters apprently weren’t asked to participate (or my invitation got lost in the mail …), so I should probably shush up now

I expect a full, hard-nosed practice Wednesday in preparation for Thursday’s tilt with Calgary. I’ll be there to bring it all to you.

(blog updated after phone conversation with Kurtis Foster) 

You’re not going to believe this, but Wild coach Jacques Lemaire took another violent crash to the ice this morning when he collided with assistant coach Mario Tremblay as they both tried to avoid a deflected Colton Gillies clear.

Lemaire was nailed right in the back by the puck and hit the deck hard. He looked like he injured the right arm — the opposite arm that was hurt when he was accidentally hit from behind last week by Antti Miettinen.

Lemaire rolled on the ice in pain and took a few moments to get up, but he finally did and laughed it off when Tremblay started making jokes.

“I got the puck right on my back, so I went down … again,” Lemaire quipped with perfect comic timing.

“[Gillies] shot right off my back. That’s a smart way to get back at me. It’s OK. Still won’t play. He hit Mike [Ramsey] in the corner [earlier in practice]. He shot at me. He still won’t play,” said Lemaire, I think, kiddingly.

“They just found a name for him before the practice,” Lemaire continued. “They call him, ‘Crash.’ I said, ‘Take that away because he’s going to kill somebody.’”

Poor Gillies. The rook seemed a little spooked by the incident after practice. He said it deflected when Andrew Brunette stuck out his stick to attempt to deflect the clear.

The Wild had a bit of a unique practice this morning. They spent the first roughly 15-20 minutes practice 6-on-5’s with an extra attacker on instead of a goalie behind them. This had a lot do with the Ottawa game, especially when Lemaire pulled Josh Harding for an extra attacker. However, Ottawa quickly gained possession and Harding had to rush back to his cage.

“Well, we had possession when I called him. We lost the puck, so ‘get back, come back,’ — little bit like a horse,” said Lemaire.

Marc-Andre Bergeron missed practice with upper body soreness. Derek Boogaard missed practice with sickness. They’re both expected to be on the ice Tuesday. On Tuesday, half the guys will be in the gym, half the guys will be on the ice.

You can read the rest in Tuesday’s article.

By the way, defenseman Kurtis Foster played all three games this weekend for the Houston Aeros. He had four assists in the past two games. Yesterday, he was supposed to play just the power play, but John Scott was a little sick, so Foster said he played the whole game.

He said he’s feeling great: “A lot better than I thought I’d feel.” He said his shot feels incredible, and the two things he feels he needs to work on is “taking the rush a little better and in the D-zone, being a little more intense.”

The Aeros play Thursday and Saturday, and right now, he’s scheduled for a flight back to Minnesota on Sunday.

After losing three in a row, the Aeros have won four in a row since Foster’s arrived. Some Wild players were joking that maybe the Wild would put Foster on waivers after he returns to the Wild from his conditioning stint just to get him back to Houston since he’s clearly the difference down there.

I asked Foster if he’s started to wonder where he’s going to fit in when he returns to Minnesota.

He said, “It’s funny, I read what you wrote in your Sunday column, and I’d say you worded it exactly how I feel. With this kind of comeback from a major injury, I just want to help. I’m not going to be disappointed if I’m not playing right away. There are six D who have been playing all year and playing well. I just want to show them enough in practice that if somebody gets injured or they need me, they know I’m ready to go. This is a tough part of the year. We’re fighting for a playoff spot and these last 20 games are important points. I know I have to gain a lot of trust in Jacques in practice. So I’ll be quite all right if I have to work my way back as a depth player until hopefully I can work my way into the lineup fulltime.”

I was thinking, after I wrote my column the other day, another option for Lemaire at times is to dress 11 forwards and Foster as an extra seventh defenseman considering how quickly recently Lemaire’s cut his lines down to three anyway.

OK. That is it. Either Stensaas or myself will be on the blog after Tuesday’s practice.

Lastly, a reader sent me this, but here’s a nice blog last week from Washington Post’s Tarik El-Bashir on something he witness from Caps owner Ted Leonsis.

For some reason, being down at the rink today, I had Ben Harper’s, “Another Lonely Day,” reverberating inside my head.

I just felt like the song was apropos.

The Wild didn’t go on the ice this morning. To add insult to injury after last night’s blown 3-zip lead, the Ottawa Senators, before their trip to Nashville, was practicing at noon while Wild players were behind their locker-room door being talked to by General Manager Doug Risebrough.

By all accounts, it was a very positive meeting. In other words, Risebrough’s sole objective was to put last night’s loss behind them rather than a wake-the-heck-up meeting. Risebrough also made clear his belief that there are only “four or five good teams in the league” and “the rest of us are all the same.”

In other words, get your act together and you can make the playoffs. The problem, of course, is the Wild is out of the playoffs, won’t play again until Thursday, has four days now to think and hear about last night’s meltdown and the reward for being so patient to play again is Calgary, Detroit and Chicago. 

For most of what went down today, I implore you to read Monday’s article because quite frankly, I need to make this quick. I’ve got a lot of things to do that I saved for today because I didn’t expect to have to head down to the X.

But couple tidbits:

– Marian Gaborik is skating, Risebrough said, and Risebrough maintains that he expects Gaborik to eventually return to the Wild’s lineup, not somebody else’s. However, Risebrough said Gaborik has a big physical that he must pass March 3 in order to really ramp up his training. You know me by now. I’m a conspiracy theorist. I find it interesting that 1) Risebrough knows the date because he normally lets Tom Lynn handle details about most everything and 2) March 3 is one day before the trade deadline. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence, eh?

– Risebrough did his best to lower expectations for any “magical trade deadline” move for a scorer. Risebrough said, grinning, “He’s recovering,” meaning Gaborik. He said all teams are in the same boat, and because half the league is pretty much right up against the salary cap ceiling, he said most teams will be “switchers,” and can’t “add, add, add.” More on that in the paper.

– I asked Risebrough what’s going on with Niklas Backstrom, and I got the customary, “I don’t know.”

– Lastly, I thought it was interesting that Risebrough wanted myself and the other Wild beat writer to interview him in the locker room right after the meeting with lots of players around. Typically, he’d want to go into a room somewhere or a hallway. But Risebrough clearly wanted players to see us interviewing him, and at times, he even raised his voice to air his overall point over again, which was, “Today was about you’ve got to get through these things, you’ve got to get by these things.”

My opinion? The Wild’s in deep trouble. Starting next week, the Wild opens 14 of 17 on the road. This is a team that’s shown zero ability to win more than two games in a row this season. That’s the facts Jack.

As Brian Rolston used to say, “it is what it is,” and this is a consistently inconsistent team that gains and loses confidence by the hour.

With that, enjoy your Sunday. Talk to you after Monday’s practice.

Frightening moment during today’s practice down at the X when Wild coach Jacques Lemaire was plowed over from behind accidentally by winger Antti Miettinen.

Lemaire was talking to center James Sheppard by the Wild door of its bench on the inner part of the blue line when Miettinen’s skate knocked Lemaire’s leg during a 3-on-3 drill. Lemaire scarily flipped violently backwards on the ice. His hat flew off. His left glove flew airborne high and into the photographer’s box between the benches probably 20 feet away.

Luckily, Lemaire landed on his left arm as opposed to his head. Practice came to a hush. Nobody even cracked a smile, which immediately told the seriousness of the situation.

Lemaire got up but was in visible pain. Assistant coach Mario Tremblay said Lemaire turned green. Lemaire stayed a few minutes, but he finally left to see the trainer.

He returned probably 10-15 minutes later, but he kept his left arm pinned to his side the rest of practice. Anytime he played the puck, he poked at it with his right arm. He did not talk to the media after practice as he went to get x-rays taken on his elbow (undisclosed at this time).

It obviously could have been a lot worse than it was. Everybody was scared he landed on his head (coaches don’t wear helmets). Quotes and stuff in tomorrow’s paper.

Miettinen felt bad. Sheppard was relieved to hear it was Miettinen because he thought he did it.

I’ll throw a story on the bottom, but this reminded me of when Pavel Bure was smoked in Panthers’ practice by Chris Wells after reconstructive right knee surgery. Wells’ career flashed before his eyes.

As for other stuff:

– Remember how in the blog and initial article after the Sheldon Souray vs. Craig Weller fight last month I wrote that it looked like Souray hit Weller with his wrist and forearm rather than punches? I quickly changed my tune when it was unconfirmed. Well, apparently, an angle has been uncovered that clearly shows Souray repeatedly punching Weller with his wrist/forearm. Ch. 45 showed it on its telecast the other night, analyst Mike Greenlay told me, and I’m trying to get a DVD dubbed from the station.

Obviously, this is all a moot point. It’s beating a dead horse at this point. Weller’s still hurt. He didn’t practice today, although he skated before practice.

– First-round pick Tyler Cuma has aggravated his sprained MCL sustained at world junior selection camp. It happened in his first game back with the Ottawa 67s on Friday. Assistant GM Tom Lynn confirmed to me that Cuma is on his way to Minnesota to see team orthopedist Joel Boyd. He referred me to fellow assistant GM Tommy Thompson, who’s taking the lead on Cuma. However, I haven’t heard back from Thompson, and when I exchanged emails with him the other day, he was in Sweden. So I don’t know if I’ll learn more today.

(Update, spoke too soon): Tommy Thompson just emailed me: “Last Friday, Tyler played his first game since injuring his knee eight weeks earlier. During the course of the game, he believed that his knee did not feel right. As a result, we had him go to Minnesota to be examined by Dr. Boyd. Any injury causes us concern, but there is no need for alarm in this case.”

(more…)

Here’s a sure-fire way to learn practice has been cancelled.

You’re walking down the stands of Xcel Energy Center and you see Josh Harding skating in a warmup suit stick-handling the puck. And then he screams at you, “This is me on the PP.”

Harding should stick to goaltending, as one of the three guys (Brent Burns, Colton Gillies and Craig Weller) he was playing shinny with told me (I won’t divulge which one).

Yep, practice was cancelled. The players just worked out in the gym and came and went as they chose. Not only that, but not many Aeros guys will be going on the ice today after getting into town after 2 a.m.

Both teams will be practicing Tuesday, however.

Not much is going on. Stensaas has a neat story running in Tuesday’s paper, and I’m doing a big Dan Fritsche story likely running Wednesday (got some colorful stuff). If you noticed Fritsche playing the penalty kill, power play and overtime yesterday, those facts alone should tell you Jacques Lemaire’s gaining confidence in Fritsche.

Putting a player on the penalty kill is Lemaire’s highest form of flattery.

Not much else going on. Shot the breeze with Derek Boogaard today about Zack Stortini. He’s not a fan. As he said after the game, Nik Backstrom could beat him up.

Funniest thing at a casual morning down at the rink? Trainer Don Fuller’s 20-month-old daughter was running around saying, “Mikko. Mikko. Mikko.” Apparently, around the house, she says two words, “Mikko,” and “Andrew,” as in Brunette, I assume.

Speaking of Koivu, I set him up this morning. Since he wrote on his blog that he doesn’t read the papers often, I gave him Jim Souhan’s clip today to read. I then snapped a picture of him reading it. Of course, it backfired because I’m a moron. When I went to save the picture, I hit the trash can. Did you know the trash can throws pictures in the trash???

Apparently, I didn’t.

Ran into Boogaard/Burns/Marian Gaborik agents Ron Salcer and Tobin Wright, but they were in the convention center, so they weren’t breaking any rules

I also ran into Aeros coach Kevin Constantine, whom I’ve known for awhile, at Headwaters Cafe. I used to enjoy shooting the breeze with him when he coached the Penguins. In the rink, he can be an intimidating fellow. Away from the rink, just a great dude. In fact, my buddy Joe Starkey, who’s now a columnist at the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, used to play hoops with him all the time when Starkey was covering the Pens.

Constantine said other than putting the Aeros down 3-on-5, Kurtis Foster played a helluva game for his first time. Constantine told me his teams have made the playoffs 13 straight seasons, so just the fact Houston’s teetering has been a little nerve-racking for him.  

That’s it for now. Like I said, not much going on. Oh, Weller was heading to the doctor to take his neuro-baseline test. A passing grade would allow him to return. Between you and me, I saw him writing answers on his hands.

Good day from Minny, where I’m getting sick and tired of this heat wave.

Veteran Owen Nolan, who missed the past two games with an “upper body” injury, practiced today, and coach Jacques Lemaire declared him good to go for Sunday’s matinee against the Oilers. Right wing Cal Clutterbuck missed practice. GM Doug Risebrough said Clutterbuck wasn’t feeling well, and he ranges from questionable to probable for tomorrow’s game.

Craig Weller took the day off from skating. He said he still feel a bit “off,” but he says he’s close to taking a baseline test. If he passes that, he’d be cleared to return from his concussion.

Kurtis Foster is travelling right now to meet the Houston Aeros in Quad Cities. He’ll then bus with them to Chicago, where he’ll make his season debut against the AHL Wolves tomorrow at 5. He’s “real excited for tomorrow.”

His parents flew to Chicago from their hometown of Ottawa and met Foster’s wife there this afternoon.

The Wild had a great, up-tempo practice today that predictably ended with a lot of skating without pucks.

“I could tell their minds were there today. Just a day late,” said coach Jacques Lemaire, referring to last night’s 2-0 loss to Nashville.

Marian Gaborik’s agent, Ron Salcer, and his banned from Xcel Energy Center agent and pal Tobin Wright were at Parade Ice Garden this morning as Gaborik received treatment from Wild trainer Don Fuller. I guess Parade is a public place, so Wright could freely enter.

Salcer said there’s been zero conversation between Gaborik’s camp and the Wild regarding a contract.

FYI, check out Sunday’s article in the paper and return to the blog later for a special Q&A from that story.

Enjoy your Saturday, folks