Soft ice, hard lessons in loss to Blue Jackets

From the Strib...

Soft ice, hard lessons in loss to Blue Jackets

The already battered Wild lost another player to injury Monday night.

By MICHAEL RUSSO, Star Tribune
Last update: September 22, 2009 - 7:45 AM

COLUMBUS, OHIO - The Wild won't even chance strapping on the boots today.

While it's being billed as an "off-ice work day," the Wild brass is praying it's really a recovery day.

Wild coach Todd Richards admitted after Monday night's 5-1 exhibition loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets that he's worried about how he's going to get his new team to perfect a brand-new system with a half-dozen or more injured players missing every day.

Wild forwards Mikko Koivu, who practiced Monday, Andrew Brunette, James Sheppard, Derek Boogaard and Craig Weller, and defenseman Shane Hnidy are all "dinged up," and against the Blue Jackets, the Wild lost Benoit Pouliot because of a strained groin.

The ice was so bad at Nationwide Arena (two Blue Jackets were hurt Monday morning), Richards benched Antti Miettinen and Kyle Brodziak for most of the third period to protect them.

"We already lost one," Richards said.

While the Wild injuries are considered minor, Opening Night in Columbus is 12 days away and Richards feels way behind.

"You want to practice the power play, but you don't have your power-play guys," he said. "I'm worried about trying to get them all on the same page. There comes a point here where there needs to be some urgency on everyone's part. We're losing time."

The Wild has suffered two road losses with inferior lineups, but even in the Wild's two home victories, Richards felt his system's execution was "sporadic."

"It seems like guys then resort back to old habits or teams they played on in the past," Richards said. "What we need to do is get everybody out on ice, but unfortunately we can't right now due to injuries."

Richards and the Wild management have complained about bad ice at Xcel Energy Center all of training camp, and they're blaming it for the injuries.

"When you're skating on soft ice, it puts that much more strain on the leg muscles. I think that's what we're finding right now," Richards said.

Tough lesson for Cuma

Defenseman Tyler Cuma, 19, was given a painful NHL lesson Monday night, and it might have sealed his eventual fate back to the Ontario Hockey League's Ottawa 67s. Cuma played a key role on three Columbus goals, especially one by superstar Rick Nash.

"He's one of the best in this league and pulled a pretty nice move on me," Cuma said. "The lineup they had tonight was just unbelievable. It was a little too much for us to handle."

Richards felt empathy for hanging goalie Josh Harding "out to dry. That score could have been a lot worse."

But the coach said it was imperative for the Wild to see some youngsters against the Blue Jackets' NHL-stacked lineup.

"Some guys were just outmatched," Richards said. "They had their Rick Nashes and those type of players, but we had to see that. This is how you evaluate because this is what we're going to see every night in the NHL. We had to make judgment on players. And when you play games like this, you can really see."

If the ice is so bad at the X (presumably because it's new ice), why aren't they skating over at Parade or another rink that has ice in all summer and give the ice at the X more time to set?

Pouls and groin injury...........sigh.......didn't we get rid of a groin injury guy.

00Xtremeninja wrote:: Pouls and groin injury...........sigh.......didn't we get rid of a groin injury guy.

Sorry, but groin injuries are the most common injury in Hockey. Most don't get them and miss as many consecutive games as Gabby though is all.

Posts : 170 Join date : 2009-09-21 Location : Farmington

MuckandGrind wrote:: If the ice is so bad at the X (presumably because it's new ice), why aren't they skating over at Parade or another rink that has ice in all summer and give the ice at the X more time to set?

Common sense?
Using the current ice condition and the media to further push the need for a separate practice facility near the X.
Like the one that St. Paul approved but got shot down in the end (it did get shot down by the Gov right?)

TaLoN wrote:

00Xtremeninja wrote:: Pouls and groin injury...........sigh.......didn't we get rid of a groin injury guy.

Sorry, but groin injuries are the most common injury in Hockey. Most don't get them and miss as many consecutive games as Gabby though is all.

well what'd ya know. here is my new thing learned for the day. i guess with how the reports are nowadays though it is hard to know "lower body injury"

it makes sense though, the motions the body goes through could easily pull a groin when skating.

BTW - Havlat is also known for missing patches of 5 consecutive games at various times in a season due to groin issues as well.

damnit, we need to go and have one of the hospitals around here hire the best damn groin specialist in the nation. pay him good amounts of money and let him do his magic on the guy's groins!

that sounded horribly inappropriate.

00Xtremeninja wrote:: damnit, we need to go and have one of the hospitals around here hire the best damn groin specialist in the nation. pay him good amounts of money and let him do his magic on the guy's groins!

that sounded horribly inappropriate.

Didn't Gabby do that the year before last, he had surgery and still missed most of last season due to the lack of foresight to look into the other side as well? Laughing

gabby didn't care as long as he was still able to operate the clutch peddle on his F-1 simulator

Yeah, but it still means even the best groin specialist in the world still failed.

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» Loss to Blues brings out Richards' frustration