Hello all. Happy Valentine’s Day/Marian Gaborik’s 27th. 

Wild radio analyst Tom Reid will miss his first broadcast since 1978 tonight when the Wild hosts the Ottawa Senators. As I mentioned in Detroit, Reid has had three knee surgeries in the past couple weeks.

It was determined that he needs another. Reid will have a fourth operation this afternoon and the Wild is hoping Reid will be able to return to the booth for Thursday’s game against Calgary.

Wild radio personality Kevin Falness will fill in for Reid tonight and do color alongside play-by-play man Bob Kurtz.

We wish Reid our best wishes toward a speedy recovery.

In other news, the Houston Aeros had a big comeback victory last night against Iowa when the Aeros scored thrice in the third to beat the Chops, 4-2. Benoit Pouliot finally lit the lamp with one and one, and Brandon Rogers, Marco Rosa and Nick Schultz’s cuz Jesse scored in the third.

Kurtis Foster played his second game. He had three shots and minus-1.

Foster said he “felt much better last night. Lot more confident with the puck” followed by three exclamation points.

He’s going to take warmups tonight and see how it feels to decide if he’ll play back-to-back. Houston also plays at home tomorrow against the Chicago Wolves, so if Foster doesn’t play tonight, he’d certainly play tomorrow.

Three in three would seem like too much, but we’ll see.

As for the Wild, nada is going on. I’m not certain of tonight’s scratch.

Senators goalie Brian Elliott took a hard shot and sustained a stinger this morning. But he’ll be good to go for the game.

I attended the Gophers-Alaska Anchorage game last night. Just a bad hockey game. I was sitting with Senators GM Bryan Murray and assistant GM Tim Murray in the third, and Tim Murray said (and he said I can print this), “If anybody ever says again that the NHL should go to bigger rinks, come watch a bad college game.”

Also hung with Darby Hendrickson for awhile last night. Nicest guy. Too bad I didn’t get to cover him.

He reminds me of Bill Lindsay, the former Panther, Nordique, Thrasher, Flame, Shark and Thrasher (oh, and Canadien). I did a radio show in Miami this morning, and Lindsay, who scored the most famous goal in Cats history (used and abused Ray Bourque to score a huge playoff goal against the Bruins the year the Panthers went to the Finals), and fellow former NHLer Randy Moller were the hosts.

I thought it was funny getting peppered with questions from Lindsay when I used to do the same to him. 

I’ve got nothing else for you. I’m back living in a hotel, so it’s time to take advantage of the fitness center.

I got Niklas Backstrom and Derek Boogaard at each other’s throat again this morning. That’s like the favorite part of my day these days.

I was interviewing Boogaard about his three penalties (including double minor) last night for tomorrow’s notebook, and Boogaard admitted that Jacques Lemaire was giving him the “death stare” in the penalty box after the Avs tied the game in the third period. He said it was pretty frightening.

At that moment, Backstrom came up to his stall two stalls down. I said loudly, “Backs couldn’t have been too happy with you either.”

Boogaard says loudly, “What are you talking about? I only took one more penalty than him last night.”

Backstrom retorted, “I at least made somebody bleed. What do you do? I hope [NHLPA Executive Director Paul] Kelly saw. Maybe my jersey will sell more now.”

Which shows Backstrom’s reading the papers. Last week, Boogaard said, in response to Kelly questioning the role of fighting in the NHL, that his jersey sales are right up there with Marian Gaborik because fans love the fighters.

By the way, I’ve gotten a few questions lately from readers about the defensemen not protecting Backstrom by leveling guys after they hit him or come close to him. I asked tomorrow’s birthday boy about that, and Backstrom said there’s a time to get tough and he’d prefer the defensemen don’t waste their energy that way. But he did say getting bumped is part of the game and that maybe the Wild forwards need to crash the other net more.

What else funny happened this morning? 

Oh, it’s Colton Gillies’ 20th birthday. He’s the youngest guy on the team. The oldest guy on the team, Owen Nolan, turns 37 today. I went over to Gillies to let him know that he was one years old when Nolan scored 110 points in his last year in Cornwall and was preparing to be the No. 1 pick in the Draft.

Gillies gave me the old, “Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

He said only a select group of people know it’s his birthday because he doesn’t want anyone pulling a prank. So between only you and me, it’s Gillies’ birthday.

Because the Wild checked into its hotel at 2 a.m., only seven guys were at the rink today. Both goalies, Gillies, Dan Fritsche, Peter Olvecky, Boogaard and Andrew Brunette.

Brunette and Backstrom worked off the ice, the other five on the ice. Harding, who was in goal for that 6-5 shootout win last year, will get the nod.

Chris Osgood’s in the cage for Detr-oy-it as East Canadians like Doug MacLean pronounce it. I love walking to the rink, by the way, from my hotel. It always makes me think of that Alan Alda, John Candy, Rhea Perlman movie Canadian Bacon from the ’90s. I think Rip Torn was in it, too.

When you’re walking to the rink, Windsor, Ontario, is literally 200 yards across the river, so I always think of that movie, which was a comedy about how President, we’ll call him Alda because I can’t remember and don’t feel like looking it up, wanted to start a war with Canada to raise his approval rating.

Kevin Pollak was in it, too, if I remember correctly, and one of my favorite standup comics, Steven Wright.

Ok, talk to you before the game. Not sure of the scratch, but I’m assuming Boogaard will be out. He often doesn’t play against the skating Red Wings, and after last night’s penalties, I see a message being delivered.

I have to return home via Atlanta tomorrow, so I need to write my Sunday stuff now (little legroom on those Delta 757’s in coach, so my laptop would get squashed by a seat recliner). I’ve noticed that lately, I’m getting roughly the same three questions regarding the Wild over and over again in my email box, so I plan on answering them in my Sunday column.

Stensaas here. Russo at this moment is probably somewhere over the Appalachian Mountains en route to Detroit on what must be one of the strangest MSP-DTW itineraries ever. I thought my Madison-Twin Cities-Houston jaunt was weird when I was in high school. But, this is worse.

I write this from the Xcel press box where I’m looking down at a local TV station’s crew is taking forever to get its stand-up shot on the ice. Other than that, the arena is quiet.

Today’s pregame skate was a quick one. Mario Tremblay ran it. Jacques was here, but he did not take the ice a day after taking a nasty spill in practice. Lemaire, by the way, is fine. But that wasn’t the case about 9 o’clock last night. Lemaire said he was pretty miserable with an aching left elbow and shoulder. Today, though, he’s better. He said he’ll be able to shoot a puck again in two or three days.

“They tried to get rid of me,” Lemaire sing-songed, “but they can’t!”

Colton Gillies was getting bagged after the skate, so I’m guessing he’s scratched.

And Craig Weller participated in full team drills for the first time since sustaining a concussion Jan. 15. Like I said, today’s skate was quite short and far from taxing. But for Weller to be back with all his teammates again was a bonus. No word on when he’ll be cleared to play. But he’s obviously getting there.

I’m told the Avs got in about 1:00 this morning and will not skate prior to pregame warm-ups today. The Houston Aeros, however, will skate here today and again tomorrow before boarding a bus for a weekend trip to Iowa.

I’ll be back on pregame with any news, and the official lineups.

Good day from the X press box, where I am watching an unidentified left-hand shot defenseman (vision … bad, sorry) and injured Jordin Tootoo get bagged by the Nashville assistants. 

Looks to me like Pekka Rinne’s in net, so Dan Ellis must be starting. Rinne, by the way (don’t remember if I mentioned on the previous blog), was Niklas Backstrom’s backup for Karpat Oulu when they won two Finnish Elite League titles together.

Right now, and this has got to be a joke being played, but the entire Predators’ team and their dads (father-son trip), are on the Nashville bench watching them being bagged. Like these tired chaps want an audience.

It’s actually a busy arena this morning. Mikko Koivu’s father, Jukka, is here with 30 members of the ownership/board/sponsorship for Turku in Finland. They’ve been meeting with the Wild to observe the way the team runs its business. They’re all wearing Koivu jerseys. They’re all at Headwaters Cafe right now eating lunch. They’re all freaking me out!!!

Koivu and I had a funny conversation today. He writes a Finnish blog, and it was translated recently on the Wild message board. It was emailed to me (can be read here), and it’s about his dealings with the media. It’s very accurate.

It took Koivu awhile to get used to us “lurking.” I’ve written about this before (in fact, Koivu lives right around the corner from me, so I’ve talked to him about this at this coffee shop we both frequent), but in Finland, reporters apparently don’t cover every practice, only games. So it took him awhile to get used to us constantly being around.

Koivu’s great to deal with, but man, he’s one surly guy after losses, which I respect because the guy hates to lose. But it’s pretty funny. He and I have had a couple near brawls (overstating) after losses (a December game in St. Louis was the highlight), but we always patch it up the next day. Like I said, the way he hates to lose is another reason to respect the guy.

So today, I went over to Koivu just to jokingly tell him I read his blog and not to think that stuff goes into a vacuum. He goes, “I knew you were pissed at me. You didn’t say hi all week.”

Not true. Plus, I only read it for the first time this morning.

Also, 35 fans are here for the Wild fantasy camp.

They’re about to go on the ice with Darby Hendrickson, Phil Housley, Shjon Podein, Brad Bombardir and the most spine-tingling celeb of them all, Kevin Gorg.

Maybe I’ll cover the game from the press box. Although, to do so, I’d want a piece of the action (just a joke).

(Now the Preds are posing for a picture with the dads).

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Mike Russo back on the clock, and I’ve suddenly got a big pain in the you know what I’m going to be dealing with over the next several days, so I’m going to make this quick so I can get back to that.

Wild owner Craig Leipold announced to season-ticket holders during a conference call this afternoon that the team is freezing season-ticket prices for the 2009-10 season. The Wild has yet to decide what it will do with single-game tickets, but that’ll be announced this summer.

The Wild is also freezing 2009 playoff ticket prices at last year’s prices for season-ticket holders. The team also announced more flexibile payment plans for season-ticket holders.

“We are pleased to let our loyal season ticket holders know that ticket pricing will not change for the 2009 playoffs and 2009-10 season,” said Jamie Spencer, Vice President of Customer Sales and Service. “In light of the current economic conditions we wanted to announce ticket pricing as soon as possible and will be offering our fans a number of payment options so they can plan accordingly.”

As for tonight’s game, Derek Boogaard (muscle spasms) said he’s ready to return, but we’ll see if that happens. Craig Weller (head) skated for the start of the morning skate.

Mikko Koivu’s dad sat in the stands and watched the skate.

Also, I chatted with Marian Gaborik, who got back to town Sunday, for a bit. He’s heading back to Vail next week for a follow-up exam and hopes to begin skating three times a week next week, as well.

That’s it for now. This would have been a much longer blog with juicier, more fun stuff (like I was going to tell you how many times maintenance actually came on my delayed plane from Seattle to Minny on Sunday), but like I said, I’ve got some non-work stuff I’m suddenly overwhelmed with.

“Russo Radio” returns to KSTP tonight at 6.

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Danny Irmen called up in case Brunette can’t play. More soon

This is mean, but since so many of you emailed me to tell me you couldn’t get Toto’s Africa out of your head, here’s another one — only this is a great song. So I’m walking around Grant Park this afternoon and stop into the Corner Bakery for lunch and they’re playing Death Cab for Cutie’s Sound of Settling.

I dare you: Listen to that, say, twice in a row and see if you can get it out of your head for the next 24 hours: “Ba Bahhh, Ba Bahhh, this is the sound of settling, Ba Bahhh, Ba Bahhh.”

My new thing each week is going to try to get music buzzing around the inside of your heads.

Next week: Rusted Root.

Live from my room overlooking Grant Park at the historic ——— Hotel (I don’t need any crank calls ), here’s your morning skate update.

Andrew Brunette grimaced his way through the morning skate today, but it sure sounds as if he’ll play. The Wild will probably skate Erik Reitz in warmups just in case Brunette says he can’t go, but it looks as if he will.

Niklas Backstrom in the cage, meaning Josh Harding may get tomorrow’s game at home against the Kings (but that depends on the workload Backstrom sees).

Not much else going on. I talked with Patrick Kane Sr., the father to Patrick Kane Jr., for about a half-hour this morning. Fascinating guy and as nice as can be. Like all Buffaloans, he loves that place. I guess you have to live there to love it because they all do.

But he grew up a huge Sabres fan and I was able to introduce him to assistant coach Mike Ramsey, who played virtually his entire career in Buffalo and coached there as an assistant for three years. Kane Sr. said to Rammer, “I grew up watching you,” which made old man Ramsey laugh hysterically. They talked old Sabres stories for awhile. 

Kane’s son’s first NHL game was in Minnesota, and the elder fell in love with the city and the arena during his time there. He also knows lots of Minnesotan players because his son grew up in the U.S. program, so he played with guys like Erik Johnson and was linemates and close friends with Mike Carman.

Kane Sr. was full of stories. My favorite, for a couple years since Kane was drafted first overall in 2007, Kane Sr.’s been trying to arrange a meeting between his son and Greg Oden, the No. 1 pick in the 2007 NBA Draft. Technically, Oden was born in Buffalo and going back to 1970, Kane Sr. said, no two No. 1 picks in any pro draft were from the same city.

So a few weeks ago, Portland was in town and Kane and Oden got to meet and take a picture at center court.

“One looks like he could barely drive and the other looks like he should be getting social security, and they’re the same age,” Kane Sr. said, laughing.

I’ve been talking with NHL discipline czar as I like to call him, Colie Campbell, for the past couple days about Sheldon Souray connecting with Craig Weller with that plastic wrist protector. Campbell told me today that he’s talked to the team to inform the Oilers to tell Souray to get the wrist guard higher, and he plans to talk with Souray and the medical trainer at the All-Star Game this week because they’ll both be there.

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