Less ill: Monday notes

So 12-7-2 on the ice at Wonderland today. Pierre-Marc Bouchard got a maintenance day, Scott Pellerin said. John Persson remained out with that lower-body issue from Friday night. Riley Wetmore’s been riding the bike and is at least making progress; “hopefully he’s back sooner than later.”

And Johan Sundstrom was on the ice before the team this morning. He’s feeling better from whatever the illness was that zonked him a week and a half before Christmas, and that was his first twirl. We’ll see how things go with him the rest of the week.

Nothing yet from the AHL about Justin Johnson, who was assessed his fifth instigator of the year on Saturday. Asked him for his take on that fight with Zack Stortini, which happened during a stoppage. “It’s a matter of things happening sometimes,” Johnson said. “That (fight), there’s probably no good reason except we’re in the same spot on the rink. He’s looking at me; I’m looking at him. It happens. I think there’s a lot of pride in dropping the gloves. No one wants to give an inch out there.” If he’d gone at it with somebody else, he could understand. “That guy (Stortini) is leading the league in penalty minutes and fighting majors,” Johnson said. “It’s not like it’s a top-six forward or a top-four defenseman. There was a good 5-6 foot distance between us when we started throwing punches. Hopefully the league will review it and make the right call.”

Nino Niederreiter and Tobias Stephan on the Swiss Olympic roster.

Dallas Eakins dropped an 8 a.m. practice on the Oilers today. Dan Marshall did it in Bridgeport on Dec. 27, 2006, if the time sounds familiar.

Can a dude in an Anders Nilsson sweater catch a puck while holding a baby? Yes. (Think Dennis McEwen went on to talk about how it used to be a beer, now it’s a baby… I don’t know. Forget I brought it up.)

I don’t remember ever hearing this story. (Hat tip: Aaron Sims.) more on it here.

And Phil Giubileo is set to call the radio play-by-play tonight at Nassau Coliseum. (Believe you can get the stream here.) Kyle Okposo could be playing, too. They both have something going on off the ice that could change the night around. All the best to both of them.

Michael Fornabaio