--Once again, Niklas Backstrom answered the bell. Why should anyone have worried?
The last time he started a game, last week against Calgary, he allowed two goals on two shots and was pulled from the game. Now, neither goal was really his fault, but still, he'd waited days to get back in the nets.
The result: His fourth shutout of the season. Backstrom needed to be extraordinary in the second period Tuesday and he was, stopping all 16 Calgary shots in the period, including two from point-blank range on an Oilers 5-on-3 advantage.
--Brad Bombardir is the Minnesota Wild's director of community partnerships. But on recent game days, he's also been a part of the team's training staff.
Bombardir, a defenseman on the last Wild team to make the playoffs, has been retired since the spring of 2004. But lately, on game days, he has gotten up early to be at the rink in order to don skates and help in Manny Fernandez' rehab from a sprained knee. Bombardir spends about a half-hour taking shots on Fernandez.
"Part of it is my just trying to get back in shape," joked Bombardir, who said he has rarely been on the ice since his retirement. "I think (athletic therapist) Don Fuller asked me. On game days, it's hard to ask a player to come in early and do that. It's fun. It's great to get out there, just to shoot again. I enjoy it. It's been a long time."
Bombardir said he hasn't missed hockey much in the past two seasons. But lately, as the Wild has worked its way into the playoffs, that has changed.
"This time of year you start to miss it," he said. "The stakes are so high; you know the opportunity is there to do great things in the playoffs. Any former player looking in from the outside, they remember what it's like to play on a team that goes into the playoffs. That's what you miss.
The 2002-03 Wild team went from the sixth seed all the way to the Western Conference finals. Bombardir said this year's team is far superior to that one.
"This team is better skilled, it's deeper and the goaltending is just as good," Bombardir said. "And they're experienced."
As a player Bombardir was known more as a stay-at-home defenseman -- he scored just eight goals in 356 career games. So that begs the observation: Given that fact can we assume that having him take shots on Fernandez means the team is trying to bring Fernandez along slowly?
"Is it a joke if it's true, too?" Bombardir said, laughing.
--Petteri Nummelin played for the first time since missing seven games with a groin pull. He replaced Kim Johnsson, who is the latest member of the organization to get sick.
And Nummelin played well, finishing a plus-1 with nearly 20 minutes of playing time.
QUOTE TO NOTE
"You can't think too much on the things that happened in the past. You have to move on. You can't get too high or too low. There is always the next game behind the door." -- Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom, who bounced back from a difficult start against Calgary to get his fourth shutout of the season Tuesday against Edmonton.
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