- Rachel Blount of the Star-Tribune: Wild’s Zach Parise and Jared Spurgeon (both upper-body) skated yesterday. Josh Harding practiced for the first time since breaking his foot in September. All three will travel with the team to New Jersey.
“I was happy to get the news they would be joining us for practice, and they looked good,” Yeo said. “The bottom line is that we had to get through today. This was a big step. They looked good in practice.
“We’ll talk some more with them, but we plan on bringing them on the road–not with the expectation they’ll play, but to give them a chance to hopefully get back sooner. So we’ll let them skate with the group, and this is a good first step.”
- Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Blues T.J. Oshie surprised some yesterday by being on the ice before practice, and remaining on until it was over.
“I was shocked that he stayed there the whole time,” Hitchcock said. “I knew he was coming out for the first part. He had a long day today. He was here at 8 o’clock in the morning and he’s still here now. To go through what he went through, he was out there for everything.
“It’s pretty impressive. I don’t know how he’s feeling. I didn’t get into what the trainers talked about. They told us he was going to stay for whatever he could and then he ended up staying right to the bitter end, which is a good sign.”
- Ansar Khan: Red Wings Pavel Datsyuk hopes to return on Friday.
- Aaron Portzline: Blue Jackets Sergei Bobrovsky has tried a few different types of splints to help reduce some of the pain for his broken finger, but results have been mixed. He did say that it is healing.
- Jameson Olive: Panthers Dmitri Kulikov won’t play in their next two games, but may be able to play during their road trip according to Gerard Gallant.
- Mike Halford of Pro Hockey Talk: Citing a “1025 The Game” tweet, Predators Viktor Stalberg will be out for four to six weeks with a knee injury that occurred on Friday during his conditioning stint.
- Josh Yohe: Penguins Olli Maatta could start skating this week according to coach Mike Johnston.