Good afternoon from Vancouver, where the city's already taking shape for February's Winter Olympics. In fact, this will be my last trip to this great city until those three weeks.
I learned the hard way that the VANOC's taken over the city because I wound up getting trapped at a fence at BC Place this morning as I tried to cut through to get down to GM Place. That little detour cost me about 10 minutes and another three-quarters mile walk.
No biggee, but I wanted to catch Vancouver's skate and missed it. I did run into former Wild defenseman Willie Mitchell on his way out of the arena. If you haven't seen the news up here, Mitchell and teammate Ryan Kesler nearly came to blows at Friday's practice. Mitchell jutted out his hand and showed me why. Kesler two-handed him right across the hand, and Mitchell's got the swelling to prove it.
But all's good with them now.
As I guesstimated when we were in Nashville an ion ago, Josh Harding will get the nod tonight. In two starts vs. the Canucks, Harding's 0-2 with a 5.87 goals against average and .811 save percentage.
Owen Nolan will not play with a lower-body injury. He was bumped near the Wild bench at the end of the second period last night and fell awkwardly. He says the leg injury isn't serious.
The Wild had an extremely optional skate this morning, and coach Todd Richards exercised his option, so I don't know for certain who will play for Nolan. But the logical guess is former Canucks center Nathan Smith will come back into the lineup and James Sheppard will move back to wing. The only other option would be to dress John Scott or Jaime Sifers at forward. That's doubtful. I'd assume Scott is scratched for the second straight evening and Sifers will be back in at the blue line.
Andrew Brunette will be on Hockey Night in Canada's After Hours for about 10 minutes after the game. If you've got the Center Ice package, After Hours does air unlike most postgame shows that are cut off. Scott Oake and Kevin Weekes will be hosting the show, and Bruno is one of Oake's favorite all-time guests. Not a shock if you know Bruno. The guy's hilarious.
And, Weekes will be able to lend some tremendous perspective. Little known -- or remembered fact. Weekes and Brunette were teammates during Weekes' rookie Ontario Hockey League season with Owen Sound the year Brunette led the OHL with 62 goals, 100 assists and 162 points.
Weekes was awesome this morning talking to me about Brunette, who after such a sensational season was drafted in the SEVENTH round by Washington. As has been the case throughout Brunette's NHL career, skating was the big question mark. I think Brunette proved some people wrong, eh? Weekes was great on this subject.
He's only scored 223 goals and 626 points in 13 NHL seasons and 899 games. Incidentally, his first NHL goal was scored in his fourth NHL game on Feb. 29 (Leap Day), 1996, at Florida in a 2-2 tie with Washington.
I was there!
Anyway, Brunette left Owen Sound after that 1992-93 season and Weekes, the second-ever draft pick by the Florida Panthers (1993, second round; Rob Niedermayer was first at No. 5 overall), held out from Owen Sound and forced a trade to the Ottawa 67s because he was platooning with Jamie Storr and they both naturally needed playing time.
As mentioned, Weekes is now working for Hockey Night in Canada on CBC and does analyst work for the NHL Network's highlight show, On the Fly. Weekes does an amazing job, especially when one considered he was still at NHL goaltender last season.
Want to follow Weekes on Twitter? Go to @kevinweekes
You can read Weekes on Bruno in tomorrow's Strib.
Chatted with Derek Boogaard, who fought Brian McGrattan last night. I've got to think McGrattan is hurt. He played only one shift after the fight and looked like Bambi going to the box. Boogaard said the entire warmup, McGrattan was staring at him. Normally, Boogaard wouldn't have fought him because he was extremely late in his shift and exhausted, but he figured he'd grant the fight. That was not good news for McGrattan.
OK, talk to you after the game.
