Pretty newsy day in Frisco today in that four injured players were on the ice in full gear.
Jere Lehtinen (upper body injury), Fabian Brunnstrom (upper body injury) and Mark Parrish (head) all skated at full speed and looked pretty good. Brunnstrom and Lehtinen have shoulder or neck-related injuries and they did not get hit hard, so they are still listed as ``questionable'' for Saturday's game against Minnesota. But with Lehtinen so important to the team and having missed five games, ``questionable'' is a huge step forward.
In addition, Brad Richards (wrist) was out on the ice in full gear and competing hard with his wrist bandaged up. He said he still can't do a lot of things, and said the workout was actually a reminder of how far he has to go, but he also seemed pretty determined to push things as hard as he can. Richards went out Feb. 16 against Columbus and the original return time for his fractured wrist was 6-8 weeks. He said he wants to be patient and do his rehab properly, and added that he has his own ideas of when he might return. But he declared none of his plans would mean he is out for eight weeks.
Dave Tippett gave a ton of veterans the day off, and he juggled his lines quite a bit, but the Lundqvist-Sutherby-Wilson line remained together, so I wonder if that's a sign?
Brendan Morrison played well on the right wing with Mike Modano, and Loui Eriksson is playing well with Mike Ribeiro, so where would you play Lehtinen if he does return tomorrow?
Do you break up the Neal-Modano-Morrison line or do you simply insert Lehtinen on the Sutherby like and drop Wilson or Chris Conner out?
It actually could be a problem for coach Dave Tippett.
_Mike Heika
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