By Rachel Blount
Kim Johnsson will play. After the morning skate, he said he's really excited to play, because it was hard to sit out -- especially when the team started to play better. He said his conditioning should be good enough to go as many minutes as the team needs.
Richards does not anticipate the NHL will discipline Steve Ott for his hit on Petr Sykora. He said the hit was not easily seen on the video, which would hamper NHL officials' ability to review it. As for Sykora, Richards said he is feeling better, and the fact that he is coming around quickly is a good sign. "It's not a lingering thing where he's kind of in limbo, so that's positive," Richards said.
John Scott will be scratched tonight.
The GMs did not discuss shots to the head today. They will do so when the meetings resume tomorrow. They won't take any action; these discussions will carry over to their annual spring meetings in March, and any rule changes would be made then.
This was just the second general managers' meeting for Wild GM Chuck Fletcher, who said he was watching, listening and learning at the session. In regard to hits to the head, he said he did not consider the hit on Sykora to be vicious. "It wasn't a dirty play," he said. "It's part of hockey. You never want to have anyone get injured, but some things are unavoidable in a contact sport."
