Afternoon from New Yawk City, where my hotel room looks down on Madison Square Garden and looks off at the Statue of Liberty in the distance.
The GM of this hotel is a hockey fan.
The Wild, winners of three in a row, practiced out in Newark today in preparation for the start of its four-game trip Saturday vs. David Puddy's Devils.
Some practice updates:
The good news is the entire team made the trip, including the banged-up guys.
The bad news is two of those guys didn't practice today.
Erik Haula, whom I've mentioned has been playing on a lower-body injury for a week, definitely looked to aggravate it when he was tripped up at the defensive blue line last night. He didn't practice today. Frankly, it's amazing he has been playing ... and playing as well as he has ... when you watch him walk around off the ice.
Jared Spurgeon, who sustained an upper-body injury with 11:20 left last night when checked by Matt Martin, didn't practice.
Marco Scandella, who missed the Toronto game because of an illness, did practice.
Sooooo, what's this mean?
If Spurgeon can't play, Scandella will likely just replace him in the lineup unless Bruce Boudreau plans to maybe also sit Mike Reilly and give Nate Prosser his season debut.
If Haula can't play, the Wild will either have to make a roster move to call up a forward after 4 p.m. today or in the morning, or play seven defensemen, meaning Prosser would make his season debut if Spurgeon is also out.
Remember, the Wild's not carrying an extra forward right now.
So stay tuned. If I'm not back, talk to you Saturday.
Big Scott Stevens feature in Saturday's paper, so please give that a read. A ton of good stuff in there.
