Casey Mittelstadt is "50/50" to play against Clarkson this weekend.
The freshman forward did skate Wednesday, dealing with an upper body injury. Mittelstadt, who has 2 goals and 2 assists in 5 games, was kept out of Saturday's 4-0 loss to North Dakota as a precaution after being cross-checked during Friday's 2-1 victory, according to Minnesota head coach Don Lucia.
"He'll skate (Thursday). I would say he's 50/50. We'll see where he's at come Friday night," Lucia said.
Lucia also said that Mittelstadt wanted to play. At this point of the season, however, the team would rather error on the side of caution.
Fellow freshman Scott Reedy looks to be close to ready to return after missing the past three games.
When Reedy, a full participant in Wednesday's practice, gets back into the lineup, there's a good chance he will take some faceoff draws. Minnesota has been running four left-handed centers. Having right-handed Reedy and Tyler Sheehy, both of whom have played center before, will help out in a department the Gophers would like to improve. Sheehy took some draws both nights against North Dakota.
"It hasn't been our 5-on-5 draws as much that have hurt us as our specialty draws," Lucia said. "When you're starting in the D zone on a penalty kill or you're starting in the offensive zone on a power play, when you lose the draw in your own zone then they start on the power play. When you lose the draw in the offensive zone now you have to go 200 feet. You've just lost 20 seconds of your power play just because of a faceoff.
"That's an area we've talked about, it's an area of emphasis that winning draws is critical in those specialty situations. It might be that we have to use a couple guys who are winning more and then if we win it on the defensive side, they'll have to get off and put someone else on. We got to find some guys who can take those critical draws because when you lose two guys who did that a year ago, now you have to find replacements and grow into that role."
The two guys referenced are Vinni Lettieri and Justin Kloos, who led the Gophers in faceoff percentage last season. Right now Sheehy (.584%) and Tommy Novak (.527%) are the only players above .500 that have taken more than a handful of draws.
--
Speaking of Kloos, the two-year Minnesota captain made his NHL debut Tuesday night, seven months removed from playing with the Gophers. The Lakeville, MN native skated at Xcel Energy Center with his hometown Minnesota Wild.
"They didn't get the win, but it's good to see someone that works so hard and is such a Gopher great get called up," said Jack Ramsey, who caught the third period.
Kloos is the 113th University of Minnesota alum to play a NHL game. He finished with 150 career points in 4 years - the fifth-most among Gophers who played for Lucia - while never missing a game in his college career.
"It's great. The thing with Justin, and I've known Justin since he was 10-11 years old, for Justin it's always been the relentless work he has," Lucia said. "That's what we talked about with our team. I love those lessons. Vinni is the same way. Those guys were undrafted but signed NHL contracts not because they're 6'3" but because their relentless work ethic.
"For Justin he came back his senior year, got a little bit older, put himself in a good spot, had a really good senior year and was signed. He took advantage his situation."
Lucia also said that he texted with Kloos to congratulate him.
Two of my favorite Kloos features I've written over his time at Minnesota deal with leadership. The first was his junior year and was on finding an identity as captain. The second was a Q&A his senior year on what leadership means.
No comments:
Post a Comment