Koskinen closer

One nice thing at practice as the snow blew around outside: One big goalie occasionally taking pucks.

Mikko Koskinen doesn’t have a timetable, but he has the pads on again.

“I’m doing butterflies, 50 or 60 a day,” Koskinen said. “There’s no pain. We don’t want to take a risk, it’s been so long with the injury. There’s no hurry.”

Koskinen — coming up on four months after right-hip surgery — wasn’t going into the butterfly to face rushes, but he was standing in, moving on his feet around the crease as players did drills around the net.

The next little while, he expected, would be a day-to-day thing, and Jack Capuano agreed that there’s no set timetable right now. But it seems as if Koskinen is happy with his progress.

“I don’t know when I can play,” he said. “I feel like I can play right now.”

Well, it won’t be tomorrow, for sure. Was certain to be a long trip to Hershey. The Bears, coming home from Toronto last night, needed a couple of more hours than usual.

(A friend invited me to join a group on Facebook that lambastes people in the northeast who complain about the snow. He obviously didn’t read yesterday’s post.)

One funny part of the 1992-93 Binghamton records I didn’t know: Those Rangers set AHL records with 57 wins and 124 points (57-13-10), but only three years earlier, the Binghamton Whalers set AHL records for the fewest games won, 11, and the most games lost, 60.

The Baby Name Wizard blog takes a look at all those Ryans on the Olympic team, which of course plays at 3 p.m. (Chs. 4, 30, believe it or not). Interesting note therein: There are only two William/Bills/Billys/Willies in the NHL. One popped to mind right away. Couldn’t remember the other. Bad. (Berg, Muckalt, Tibbetts, Lindsay, McCreary et al don’t count.)

And speaking of Facebook, I try to avoid the whole trendy “(blank) week on Facebook” thing, but I’m tempted to do this week’s bit about posting your favorite line from your favorite movie. One problem is picking one. Could use about 20. How about: “Lookit, I thought I was supposed to be getting a change of scenery, and so far I’ve been in a train and a room, and a car and a room, and a room and a room.” Yeah, good start.

Michael Fornabaio