Folks - Some important news just in via an e-mail received by Russo from Jiggs McDonald’s daughter, who lives in Minnesota:

Canadian Tour Group Stranded in Bangkok, Thailand
Jiggs McDonald, former NHL announcer and Hockey Hall of Fame member, and his wife Marilyn and approximately 80 other Canadian citizens on a 30-day Asian tour are currently stranded in Bangkok due to the political unrest there.  They are headed into their 4th extra day in the city, with no end in sight and the threat of violence growing around them.

The tour group was on the final day of their 30-day trip and was scheduled to fly out of Bangkok on Wednesday morning.  The international airport was shut down on Tuesday due to political conflict in Thailand.  An anti-government group (PAD) took over that airport as well as a smaller domestic one and is demanding the resignation of the country’s prime minister.  They refuse to leave until he resigns. 

The government has declared a state of emergency at both of Bangkok’s airports, giving them the right to intervene and oust the protesters, but the opposition group has declared that they will not leave and will “fight to the death.”  A larger pro-government group of citizens has threatened to take to the streets to fight PAD.  And there is talk of a potential coup or military intervention.  In other words, every day that the conflict at the airport and in Bangkok continues, the threat of these Canadian citizens being caught up in a violent conflict grows.

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Happy Friday afternoon to you all. Stensaas in for Russo today, about set for some afternoon hockey. I hope everyone had a good, safe and happy Thanksgiving. My father came to town for the holiday, and today is sitting in Sec. 229 taking in his first NHL game live since the North Stars played here. Our family used to come to Bloomington from Southern Wisconsin about once a year for North Stars games. Watching the game today will be a little different for Dad, I bet. I’ll be anxious to hear what he thinks of the league now compared to the 1980s.

By the way, he’s hoping for “a few skirmishes” today

Obviously Wes Walz is a big story today. He makes his return to the X as an assistant coach for the Lightning. I was downstairs a little while ago, and a passerby the Lightning locker room saw Walz and remarked: “Hey, there’s the Mayor of Xcel Energy Center!”

Walz’s son will help do the “Let’s Play Hockey” call today at the X. There will be a video tribute to Walz.

For the Wild, Colton Gillies and Craig Weller are again scratched. Marek Malik and former Shattuck-St. Mary’s player Matt Smaby are scratched for Tampa Bay. Smaby, who played in 14 games last season, was just called up to the team yesterday.

The arena’s starting to buzz. Apparently not too many Wild fans gorged on turkey yesterday or were up early today for all those great sales.

I’ll be back after the game.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I’m planning on this being the only blog today unless something massive happens at practice, so really eat this up and enjoy.

By the way, Stensaas is covering tomorrow’s Wes Walz extravaganza as I head to Nashville Friday afternoon for Saturday’s game there. I talked to Walz on Tuesday for a story to run Friday.

From last Dec. 4, here again are some of your Walz memories we ran in the Star Tribune. 

FYI, the Lightning called up local boy Matt Smaby. It’s not known if he’ll play yet.

As released by the Wild ands Xcel Energy Center, patrons attending the X on Friday should allow extra time and use alternate routes to avoid traffic congestion and parking problems. Heavier traffic is expected due to the game and the Hmong New Year.

Shuttle service will be available from 8 a.m. – 11:30 p.m. for anyone attending the game or Hmong New Year. The shuttle pick-up will be at the parking lot located at 390 East Kellogg Blvd. in St. Paul. Shuttle drop-off will be on 5th Street between the Ordway and Roy Wilkins Auditorium on Friday.

    For more information on parking in downtown Saint Paul, patrons should refer to http://www.xcelenergycenter.com/GettingHere/Parking.jsp or http://www.rivercentre.org/parking/ to find Park Smart! Maps, designed to offer alternate routes to the most convenient parking locations for events in Saint Paul.

I feel like I’ve just gone 10 rounds (OK, one round) with Boogaard. That was exhausting to cover with Thanksgiving deadlines.

I don’t even know where to begin with this wacky one. I don’t know if I’ve covered a stranger game in my life.

First of all, Marty Turco was the shakiest I’ve ever seen a goalie that a) didn’t get pulled and b) won.

For 60 minutes, Turco was literally flopping around like Sean Avery drawing a penalty. Turco probably needs a masseuse after all the spasms and jerks he performed. It’s amazing he didn’t pull a groin. Yet the Wild still blew a 3-1 lead to lose 4-3. The Wild hit, I believe, five crossbars or posts – including one from Brent Burns with eight ticks left.

On one Antti Miettinen third-period chance behind the net, Turco was again a fish out of water, but James Neal, who already had two goals, saved a goal. Eric Belanger missed one wide-open net, which came a minute after the Mikko Koivu disallowed goal, net-off-the-moorings incident I’ll get into in a second.

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From the Xcel Energy Center press box, just a quick check-in as the Dallas Stars skate.

Marty Turco didn’t practice this morning, but fyi, as an update to what I wrote before, I just talked to Dallas Morning News writer Mike Heika and he expects Turco to start.

The Wild had an optional morning skate today, but defenseman Kurtis Foster joined the team for the first time. He asked coach Jacques Lemaire permission, and the coach said sure.

This doesn’t mean anything other than it’s just another step mentally for Foster. He’s still a long way from returning. Every time he took a shot, he looked like a peacock as he lifted his left leg off the ice and shot off his right.

Foster said he still can’t put any weight on his left leg when he shoots because a shooting pain goes down. But Foster was excited with how well it went and he said he hopes to participate in more morning skates (doubtful on practices).

The Wild will go with the same lineup tonight. Colton Gillies and Craig Weller got bagged. Niklas Backstrom will start.

Have a funny note from Cal Clutterbuck in tomorrow’s notebook after I went to him thinking I’d get a different note. The other night after Clutterbuck’s two-goal game, the Washington Post writer asked Caps coach Bruce Boudreau if he had ever even heard of Cal Clutterbuck. Boudreau said no, but Cal’s brother used to attend his hockey school.

I went to Clutterbuck to ask about that, and Clutterbuck smiled and said, “I don’t have a brother. It was me.” The first hockey school Clutterbuck ever attended was Boudreau’s Golden Horseshoe Hockey School in St. Catharines, Ont. 

He was five, six and seven.  

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Apologies for getting this up just now. I was stuck at the X all afternoon, and where I had set up shop I had a very weak wireless signal. I couldn’t even get internet pages to load, let alone have anything cycle properly. All of a sudden I had a ton of work pile up and, well, here I am. I should have just gone right up to the pressbox. But I was afraid I would miss something downstairs.

However - as sports-types like to say: No excuses.

Anyway, the Wild today didn’t have too taxing of a practice. Mikko Koivu and Stephane Veilleux did not even take the ice, and another handful were only out there for 20 minutes or so.

A TV crew showed up and had a bunch of questions for Clutterbuck following last night’s two-goal effort. He was getting some gentle ribbing from teammates about all the attention. By the way, if you ever see Erik Reitz out and about, ask him to do his sportscaster impression. It’s quite good.

Speaking of Clutterbuck, he and I now have two things in common: I, too, have two career goals. Of course, mine came at the Bantam level

I stuck around at the X all day because I was waiting to talk with Stars’ personnel about Mark Parrish after their practice - which was late. By all accounts, the Bloomington native is fitting in nicely. He’s been playing on a line with Mike Modano, who had some kind words.

Also, I found out that Parrish and fellow Stars forward Toby Petersen go way back. Like, to squirt-level hockey. They also both played at Bloomington Jefferson. The Stars/Wild connections seem to never end.

Again - sorry this is so late. Stars and Wild tomorrow night at the X. Russo’s back on beginning with tomorrow’s morning skates.