Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Mikko Koivu returns to practice for Minnesota; Latendresse back soon too?

65418_mikko_koivu

Minnesota’s in the midst of a playoff hunt in the Western Conference and despite not having captain Mikko Koivu for the last two and a half weeks and Guillaume Latendresse for most of the season, they’ve been able to hang in there.

News got better today for the Wild and coach Todd Richards when Koivu took to the ice to practice with the team for the first time since breaking his thumb. That update understandably has Wild fans excited but Richards made sure to temper the expectations for when or if they’ll get back on the ice with the team anytime soon.

Michael Russo of the Star Tribune gets the update on the Wild captain.

Koivu won’t play tomorrow and I find it highly doubtful he’ll play in back-to-back games at Nashville and Dallas. But Richards said Vancouver or San Jose is an option. He’ll come on the road trip to skate at the morning skates and two scheduled practices (one in Vancouver, one in San Jose).

But Koivu is still having trouble gripping his stick and has not been cleared for battle drills yet. He is definitely not completely healed, but it’s clear that he’ll be willing to return when he can grip that stick well enough to shoot, pass, take faceoffs.


Getting Koivu back in the lineup is huge for the team as they’ll need him, they’re top center, if they want to make the playoffs and then try to make some noise during them. He’s key for them on offense and as a defender as well. There’s a reason that he’s one of the more underrated stars in the league.As for the long absent power forward Latendresse, he too is getting closer to getting back and as Russo finds out there’s a few reasons why he’s a bit hesitant to jump into the mix too soon.

Asked if he feels pressure to return with the team fighting for the playoffs, he said: “No. I think that’s the good thing about the organization. They respect the players before the team. They want to make sure you’re 100 percent when you come back and that you can actually help the team.

“Second of all, it’s for my future, too. It wouldn’t be good for me to come back two weeks [early] and miss the rest of year and maybe next year, too.”

If the Wild were able to get Latendresse back into the lineup and get his added physical ability and scoring touch, the Wild with Niklas Backstrom playing well in goal become a much more dangerous team to potentially meet in the playoffs. After all, with Koivu out they’ve seen Martin Havlat and Brent Burns take over as the team’s consistent offensive threats. Throwing Koivu back into the mix and Latendresse in there with the rest of them makes them a lot more intriguing.