Good news. I’ve been in New York so long, I’ve rediscovered my old New York accent. And attitude.

In fact, I hate tourists. Get out of my city.

Sooooooooooooooo, not much has happened since we last talked, well, except for the minor news items of the return of the Wild’s best scorer and the loss of the Wild’s best player. Yikes!!!

Hey, back in mid-July when the NHL schedule came out and I phoned my editor and said, “In March, the Wild play in Jersey, then come home, then go back to New York. Uhhhh, I ain’t coming home,” well, it made a whole lot of sense at the time. On Sunday, when I was watching the game from my Manhattan hotel room on NHL Gamecenter on NHL.com, let’s just say, I was not overly delighted with my decision on this one.

Hey, what can you do? Thank goodness for Stencils.

Just a terrible break on the loss of Mikko Koivu. Just a terrible break. Hey, I know Koivu could have sprained his knee walking across the street, but I don’t see the Wild sending referee Mike Hasenfratz a bouquet of roses for his phantom interference penalty that ultimately resulted in Koivu emerging from the box and hurting his knee.

OK, unfair maybe, but I’ve been waiting two days to make that comment. Make sure you see penalties, not think you see penalties and call them.

Hey, and I respect refs. In fact, I got to have breakfast yesterday with my old pal, Pierre Racicot, the linesman, who’s doing tonight’s game, and was introduced to referee Marc Joannette, who’s doing tonight’s game.

Forgive me for feeling a bit nostalgic, but it’s awesome to be back in New York. No cooler arena than Madison Square Garden (although I’m sure I’ll gush and gush to you tomorrow about Nassau Coliseum). You can feel the energy inside the Wild dressing room this morning. This team hasn’t been here since 2006, which means a good chunk of the team either has never even been to New York or certainly hasn’t playing in the world’s most famous arena.

The Wild had an optional skate this morning, and even Marian Gaborik noted how virtually every player decided to practice.

“They wanted to get a feel of the place and psyched for the game. Everybody in the room is excited just for the fact it’s the Rangers, it’s here,” said Gaborik, eyes wide-open.

Only Owen Nolan and former Rangers draft pick Kim Johnsson didn’t skate. Hey, been there, done that for these vets.

Lemaire wasn’t as excited: “This city’s good to be in one day.”

The Rangers don’t have their morning skates at the Garden, so I didn’t get a chance to catch up with Aaron Voros. But he’s got to be one frustrated player. The guy who started this season on fire has been scratched in 20 games. Dan Fritsche is extremely excited to play against the Rangers, who benched him often. He said he wants to show them the player they traded.

The Wild didn’t skate lines this morning, so Lemaire is keeping them a secret for the game. But you’ll see plenty of James Sheppard, Fritsche and Eric Belanger.

With radio analyst Tom Reid still recovering from complications due to several knee surgeries, TV analyst Mike Greenlay will do radio color tonight because the game is nationally televised on VERSUS. Wild GM Doug Risebrough will be doing color tomorrow night on Long Island.

Nice to be back at work, although it’s been a fun three days in New York. Spent time with family and friends (did sort of a Seinfeld tour last night in the upper westside. I saw H&H Bagels, passed the restaurant Pomodoros and ate at Isabella’s. If you know the show, you understand all that).

Got to see an awesome Broadway musical Saturday night, “Hair,” too. Highly recommend. Great cast (highlighted my friend, the oh-so talented Caissie Levy), great music, great story.

Also got to see my best friend from my childhood for the first time in 20 years. Interesting, but when we were kids, after my paper route delivering Newsdays, we used to tape ourselves on cassettes pretending like we were radio DJ’s or sports announcers. The fake station was WMBR (my initials).

For the past 14 years, he’s worked on the Z Morning Zoo at Z100 in New York and I’ve been a sportswriter. Weird, eh? We’re both doing exactly what we wanted to do as kids.

OK, must write.

Snapped the above picture from my Blackberry. It’s a Prudential Center worker preparing to sew back on netting to replace the one Marty Brodeur cut off after breaking the NHL record for victories last home game (552). Being as much a hockey fan as a hockey writer, I just had to take the picture. Just cool that that was the cage. Funny thing is Brodeur’s such a good guy, he probably would have done it himself if he only knew. I wrote about Brodeur as my Sunday column 

Just got back from the morning skates between the Wild and the team that will be coming out of the East (guaranteed) , and it’s great to be back on the New Jersey, New York, Long Island jaunt.

It’s been since 2005-06 that the Wild’s played here, and because I am exhausted from all this travel (you should have just seen me trying to remember my room number for a waiter; I gave him a room number from like five hotels ago), I’m staying in the N.Y area this weekend so I don’t have to travel back to Minnesota and then back to N.Y., and then to Alberta (good schedule, eh?).

It was my first time inside the relatively brand-spanking new Prudential Center, and what a nice arena. And the Devils are drawing crowds lately in downtown Newark, which is a great thing. They should. I think the Devils are the best team in the East, and the way Boston’s been playing lately, I think Jersey’s the team to beat — despite all the Americans, Minnesotans and former college players it’s got, eh?

Just talking to some of the guys I know well in there today, the Devils continue to be the NHL’s elite as far as first-class organizations. Few teams do it better or treat their players better than Lou Lamoriello and crew. People just love playing for them. Also, walking around their dressing room for a long time today and chatting with players, there’s an energy in there — and it’s not just the big names that are everywhere. There’s a confidence that this could be a special year for this deep, deep team.

It’s one of the most well-balanced teams I’ve seen this year, from the young stars like Zach Parise and Travis Zajac and Johnny Oduya, to the older stars like Patrik Elias, to the older vets like Brian Rolston and Bobby Holik and Brendan Shanahan and Jamie Langenbrunner and Brian Gionta and John Madden to a strong blue line led by Paul Martin to the calming influence of Marty Brodeur, who held court forever this morning.

Rolston got a chance to visit with some of his old teammates. It was good to get to schmooze with him for awhile, too. It’s amazing how much the Wild dressing room has changed by just taking his personality out of there. Things just aren’t as light now, especially because Brent Burns — the life of the Wild’s party — continues to recover from his concussion.

OK, enough gushing about David Puddy’s Devahhhhlllllsss, except there are few classier, better guys than Doc Emrick, the Devils’ play-by-play voice. If you’ve got the Center Ice package, you’ll get to enjoy Emrick and Chico Resch tonight because the Wild’s got no home TV tonight. Emrick and Resch are a great team, and two very nice guys.

Wild looks to be going with the same lineup tonight. Kurtis Foster looks in. Colton Gillies and Craig Weller look out, although Derek Boogaard was on late, too. Marian Gaborik stayed on late today, so he’s not going to be a surprise return. Sunday still looks like the day.

Wild is still ninth in the West, but it’s three points back of eighth. So another huge, huge game.

The team had lots of travel problems yesterday. It was delayed 2 1/2 hours in Minnesota, then finally took off, but instead of landing in Newark, because of weather, they landed in White Plains, N.Y. and had to drive to Newark in rushhour. But the players said their legs felt fine.

Former Devils coach Jacques Lemaire and Lamoriello sat in the stands together during the Devils’ skate, and then during the Wild’s skate, Lemaire stood and talked with his old goalie coach, Jacques Caron, for a long time. Lemaire also talked with the Devils’ writers and media for-everrrrrrrrr.

Wild radio color analyst Tom Reid continues to try to recover from his multiple knee surgeries. Bob Kurtz is flying solo tonight.

OK, that’s it. Sneak preview for tomorrow’s notebook, but I’ll be doing a lot on the NHL’s most underrated star, Mr. Zach Parise. Rolston was phenomenal talking about him, and Parise was great, too.

Also have a good note for tomorrow on Rolston talking about Mikko Koivu.

(more…)

First of all, why is everybody wearing green? You all look like Star Tribune boxes. Not a good look.

Just got back from the X. I realized when I couldn’t find my credential that I have not walked into that arena since Feb. 24 or 25.

Also, I found it humorous just now when I left the X that it was disgusting out. Cloudy, foggy. Then, I crossed to the Minneapolis side of the river, and beautiful. Sunny, clear as day. See what our higher Hennepin County taxes get us?

So, Kurtis Foster will make his season home debut tonight against the Colorado Avalanche. People were so excited, they put on their Wild green early and flocked to downtown St. Paul and were about to have a parade. 

Think coach Jacques Lemaire will throw him in the starting lineup to get the crowd roaring? Of course, that didn’t work for Keith Carney in his 1,000th game. He started, and then played about eight shifts afterward and then was scratched again in several games after.

Foster was so excited to get in, he took it out on Peter Olvecky in ping-pong.

John Scott and Craig Weller were definitely out. Colton Gillies was off early, Derek Boogaard late, but that doesn’t always mean anything with those two. Boogaard wouldn’t tell me if he was playing or not. He said, “Mike, you were off yesterday and I had to work. So you’ve got to work for this.” Zing!

Quite frankly, I’m betting Boogey doesn’t even know.

Marian Gaborik worked his you know what off in today’s skate. He said he pushed it hardest in Dallas, and was sore the next day. So he took a day off yesterday and felt much better today. He said it’s coming, but he’ll go day by day on a return. Still nothing on Brent Burns, who’s out with a concussion.

Owen Nolan, born in Belfast, Ireland, was getting asked a lot about his heritage for some reason today. He did show he has the luck of the Irish. He got his skate caught under John Scott’s stick and went crashing wildly and loudly into the boards in the corner of the Wild’s shoot-once end. He stayed down for awhile and assistant trainer Travis Green came running out.

But finally, Nolan got up smiling and said the boards were too hard in that end. Nolan smiling is a good thing. He just got the wind knocked out of him and all the players comically gave him an exaggerated slapping of their sticks on the ice.

Best wishes to radio color man Tom Reid, who’s finally going to shut it down for a few games and try to get his surgically-repaired knee healed. Reid has been gutting it out for the past several weeks, which hasn’t helped. He’s been in unbelievable pain and is finally taking a few games off. Kevin Falness will fill in.

**CONTEST ALERT**

Guess what? The Wild will announce today that its April 5 game at Detroit has been switched to NBC, meaning the game has been moved up to 11:30 a.m. CDT. 

I am offering a free, one-year’s subscription to Russo’s Rants for any commenters who correctly can say why that makes Michael Russo unbelievably happy. A hint is in bold above.

**CONTEST ALERT 2**

I am offering a free, two-year’s subscription to Russo’s Rants for any IT commenters who can explain to me why suddenly, when I turn on my laptop at home, my laptop no longer automatically finds my wireless. I have to manually click on my wireless, and then manually plug in my network key every time. Why???????????????

Lastly, I chatted with Tyler Cuma for awhile today regarding his rehab and what the heck he’s been doing in St. Paul the past five weeks. That’ll be in tomorrow’s notebook, so check that out.

Update: Avs have called up former Gopher and Plymouth native Derek Peltier. They also have Blaine’s Matt Hendricks. I mean, how many Minnesotans do you need?

Hi, I’m going to write this entire blog like this. OK, I’ll stop.

I’m delusional, and feel like garbage, from all this travel, but I’m an “excuse grabber”, as Doug Risebrough calls it. Hey, I have a right to complain about travel. I fly commercial, and I’m a heckuva lot less paid.

Sooooooooooooo, I’ve got little for you today.

Chatted with Mark Parrish for awhile. He got his bell rung the other night by Jay McKee, but he’s been cleared to play and hopes to be in the lineup tonight. Parrish had dinner with a number of his old Wild mates last night.

Kurtis Foster and Craig Weller will be scratched. You’ve got to wonder when Foster’s going to reach his breaking point. This has got to be frustrating to work so hard to come back and still not get to play with Brent Burns injured.

Derek Boogaard and Colton Gillies came off early, but both won’t play unless there’s an unidentified illness. The Wild had an optional this morning. Andrew Brunette is expected to be in the lineup, although I don’t know how. He can barely walk.

Marian Gaborik skated hard this morning. He was last off the ice with Foster and Weller. I talked to him for a bit about his meeting with A-Rod, who had “Marian Gaborik surgery.” I’ll throw that stuff in tomorrow’s paper.

Coach Jacques Lemaire said he has no question in his mind the Wild will come out hard — much harder than in Colorado — tonight. He said the team is well aware of the importance of the game. Lose to Dallas, and it’s three points behind. Wild hasn’t won in Dallas since 2003.

I’m doing my notebook lead on the rest of my one-on-one with Risebrough yesterday. Wait ’til you read what he says about “five-goal scorers.”

OK, that’s it for now.

Funny scene here. Jacques Lemaire skated over to the glass where the media stood to enthusiastically and animatedly show us that No. 10 was on the ice.

Then, he called Gaborik over and jokingly posed for Blackberry pictures. Very funny stuff. You had to be here.

After Gaborik skated off, Lemaire, who was loving this, yells through the glass, “Tomorrow, I don’t know.”

Of course, Gaborik’s return was almost short lived when on the first drill, Gaborik stepped on Eric Belanger’s stick and went tumbling. He got up unscathed.

“Hey, it’s the only way he’ll know it’s alright, to take falls like that,” quipped Belanger.

Gaborik is up in Vail again being seen by Marc Philippon. Gaborik hopes to meet A-Rod. He also talked a lot about how he spent all his time in Vail rehabbing with St. Louis’ Paul Kariya, who had both hips operated on at separate times. In fact, on Jan. 5, Gaborik said he and Kariya had surgery an hour apart — Gaborik went first.

The bad news? Lemaire says Gaborik is not even close. He said minimum a week or two, and Gaborik seemed to concur. But Gaborik said he knows time is critical and he’ll have to return before he’s 100 percent. But he wants to get closer to it.

As for the lineup tonight against Colorado, Craig Weller is scratched, Derek Boogaard is sick (”maybe he’s sick of me,” quipped Lemaire) and Kurtis Foster is a “maybe.” In fact, he was getting bagged by assistant Mike Ramsey, and when Lemaire spotted this, he quickly ran to the glass to yell for Ramsey to let Foster off the ice. So it’ll be a gametime decision between Foster and John Scott most likely.

I talked to Doug Risebrough a lot this morning about the GM’s meeting and the crackdown on fighting. You’ll read a lot about this in my Sunday column. I asked him why he was so outspoken after the meeting (he was quoted everywhere on how he’s “offended by staged fighting” after faceoffs) and he had a funny story.

Risebrough and Toronto GM Brian Burke were sitting next to each other, and all of a sudden, when the meeting wrapped up, Burke booked it. So Risebrough figured this would be the perfect chance to leave because this way he could dodge the media since Burke, who’s never seen a mike he doesn’t like , would have the media’s attention.

Risebrough swings the doors open, and Burke was nowhere to be found and the media swarmed Risebrough. Risebrough typically tries to avoid the media at GM’s meetings.

Anyway, I’ll have a big Gaborik notebook in tomorrow’s paper, one you’ll all want to read.

Lastly, former Hobey Baker winner Tony Hrkac, 42, has come out of retirement and signed a minor-league contract with the Wild’s AHL affiliate, the Houston Aeros.

Circus Hrkac, who was coaching Concordia University in Wisconsin, retired from hockey at the end of 2004-05.

Tom Lynn, the Wild’s assistant GM and the Aeros’ GM, said Hrkac is a friend of Aeros assistant coach Troy Ward and was looking to return all season.

“We think we have the team to make some hay down there this year and we wanted a Rem Murray-like presence to lead the young guys,” said Lynn, referring to the veteran who played with Houston in 2005-06.

Humorously, when Lynn was explaining to Risebrough his idea of signing Hrkac, Risebrough told me he just finally went, “Do what you want.”

Where am I? I don’t know. I woke up this morning, looked around my dark hotel room and had no clue whatsoever.

I feel like I’ve been on the road a month.

As for tonight’s game, the Wild hopes to win Game No. 1 of this six-game trip tonight inside the most difficult building in the league to win in. New Sharks Travis Moen and Kent Huskins won’t debut tonight. Moen’s wife just had a baby; Huskins has a foot injury. Evgeni Nabokov tweaked something, so the Wild faces “backup” Brian Boucher. I say “backup” in quotes because Boucher’s a mere 10-3-2 with a 1.96 GAA and .925 SP.

For the Wild, coach Jacques Lemaire asked defenseman Kurtis Foster yesterday if he wanted to play tonight. But Foster was honest and told him he’d rather wait until L.A. or Anaheim. Remember, the last time Foster was in HP Pavilion, he walked into the arena in a suit and left the arena on a stretcher.

It was followed by a 12-hour surgery and more than a week in a San Jose hospital because of a broken leg. Foster knows he’s going to have to face nerves in his first game, but he was a little worried he’d be haunted by this arena.

So he’ll wait, and Lemaire said he will play this weekend most certainly. Foster talked a lot this morning about the incident, the irony that Torrey Mitchell, the player who caused his broken leg, is still out with his own broken leg and how classy the Sharks’ organization was during his time in San Jose. Sharks GM Doug Wilson and the team’s president, Greg Jamison, treated him royally.

They brought him goodies in the hospital, they set him up with an IT guy so Foster could watch all the Wild games on a laptop, and Wilson’s secretary Rosemary Tebaldi constantly drove Foster’s now-wife to and from the hospital and brought them food. Now you know why the Sharks are considered one of the league’s great organizations. 

A big part of my notebook for tomorrow’s paper will have Foster talking about his future also. I talked to him extensively the other day about it. He’s a free agent July 1, and his future right now is uncertain.

Andrew Brunette, who will be taking a lot of practices off down the stretch because of his knee injury, skated this morning and will play. Brent Burns and Kim Johnsson didn’t skate this morning. Lemaire said, “They’ll be OK,” and will play tonight.

I made you wait long enough, but you’re not going to believe this. What do you know, but apparently there was a misunderstanding between Lemaire and the front office regarding Marian Gaborik.

In today’s paper, from yesterday, Lemaire said, “Something tells me that he might be skating with us when we get back, so that would be a positive.” Asked if “something” tells him that or “someone,” Lemaire said, “Someone.”

So today, Lemaire was asked by a San Jose TV station when he expects Gaborik back.

Lemaire said, “You have to ask another member of the organization. I made a comment yesterday and I guess it was the wrong comment.”

I emailed assistant GM Tom Lynn asking what this meant because Lemaire wasn’t pleased, and Lynn said he thinks Lemaire heard from one of them that Gaborik would not practice until after the road trip and he took that to mean right after the road trip rather than at least until after the road trip. So Lynn said Gaborik will skate with the team after Tuesday, but the specific date is undetermined.

Got it?

Here’s a funny one. So the Wild’s “Robert the Intern” is out here in San Jose because this is where he’s from. This morning, I was watching the skate with Lemaire and “Robert the Intern” asks me, “How’s the road trip so far?”

The smart $%# I am, I said, “I don’t know. Jacques, how’s the road trip so far?”

Lemaire looked at “Robert the Intern,” and says, “You don’t read the papers?”

I then said, “Well, don’t believe everything you read,” and Lemaire goes, “Yeah, don’t believe everything you read, but when they write the score, you can believe that.”

Sorry to put you on the spot, “Robert the Intern.”

By the way, forgot to mention yesterday, the Dallas Stars practiced right before the Wild, so old pal Mark Parrish got a chance to say hi to his old teammates, as did Antti Miettinen with the former North Stars.

Lastly, Lemaire confirmed to me today for the first time that the hard shell he’s wearing on his arm is to protect a broken elbow from the Miettinen mishap last month.

Talk to you tonight.�