Wild gets in crisp practice before heading out on the road

The Wild had a crisp workout at their practice facility Wednesday, the day before they'll fly to Vancouver to begin a weekend back-to-back Friday and Saturday against the Canucks and Edmonton Oilers.

Coach Bruce Boudreau decided to give the team a tough workout today rather count on being able to get one in after landing in Vancouver tomorrow.

"I didn't think we'd have a great practice in an off site,'' he said. "Getting off the plane and practicing , so I thought it'd be good to have a good practice here.''

Giving the team more rest Thursday could help with the back-to-back looming. Especially considering how the last road back-to-back went, with the Wild losing in Arizona and then going to Colorado and getting off to a slow start. The Wild lost both games.

"Every weekend, this month, it's back-to-back,'' Boudreau said. "And so we have to save the energy. At the same time, we can't use that as an excuse, because every team has between 10 and 15 back-to-backs during the course of the year.''

Here are a couple other notes from practice today:

--Defenseman Nick Seeler isn't just dealing with a biceps injury. He's also fighting the flu, calling into question his ability to travel with the team on this trip.

"I think he had a temperature of 103 yesterday,'' Boudreau said. "So it's going to be day-to-day with him, as far as whether he makes the trip. Even if he got completely better, coming out of the flu, not skating for a week? I don't have an answer [on whether he'll travel or not] for you.''

--Not surprisingly after Tuesday's rout, Boudreau kept his lines together. Mikko Koivu with Zach Parise and Nino Niederreiter; Eric Staal with Mikael Granlund and Jason Zucker; Matt Cullen with Tyler Ennis and Charlie Coyle; and Joel Eriksson Ek with Marcus Foligno and Daniel Winnik.