‘Pretty average’ day

David Ullstrom went back up to join the Big Club, leaving 11 healthy forwards here for this morning’s practice, the same who dressed last night. They expect to know more about John Persson (that lingering upper-body injury, hoping rest will help it) and Kirill Kabanov (sick but recovering) tomorrow, Scott Pellerin said, before Yet Another Big Weekend. Jon Landry also got a maintenance day off of skates.

Meanwhile, Chad Costello had some strong words about his time here. (I don’t say this often: You’ll want to watch the video.) He told the Coloradoan he thought he was “fooled around with, a bit, in (his) mind,” benched in favor of “some pretty average players.” Those words had made their way around here.

“I’m very disappointed in the comments by Chad Costello,” Pellerin said. “I thought I treated him fairly, gave him an opportunity to play power play, top-six and all different situations. To any player on my team, you have to earn your place. He did put up points, but it’s not all about points. It’s about playing hockey the right way, competing the right way, competing for pucks, playing on the defensive side of the puck, to be a good pro.”

Costello was 3-9-12 here, including 0-5-5 on the power play, and a minus-2 in 21 games with those “five shifts a night.”

Michael Fornabaio