stfrank
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A little blurb from Russo:
Mike Reilly benched; Nate Prosser bound for waivers
Sources say St. Louis Blues defenseman Nate Prosser will be placed on waivers Thursday or Friday, and one wonders if the Wild will put in a claim for the Elk River native to bring him back to Minnesota for a third stint.
Prosser, 31, has only played one game for the Blues this season after 282 for the Wild the previous eight seasons. The Wild coincidentally play in St. Louis on Saturday.
This would not be a topic if the Wild weren’t having such issues with third-pair defensemen Kyle Quincey, Mike Reilly and Gustav Olofsson.
All three have struggled at times, and Boudreau has essentially rotated the three as a nightly healthy scratch. Wednesday was Quincey’s turn two games after he took a bad penalty in Washington and one game after Olofsson had two shots go off of him and into his own net.
Wednesday, Reilly struggled mightily.
He took two penalties, turned the puck over for a goal, had major puck-handling problems on one late second-period power play and played a big part in the Sabres’ third goal.
He didn’t play a single shift in the third period.
“Well, he earned it,” Boudreau said of Reilly’s benching. “Look it, he sat out two of the last three games, so he’s probably a little nervous, takes a couple penalties, and once you get out there — I’ve been there, you’re afraid to touch the puck. (Assistant coach) Bob (Woods) said, ‘Should we keep playing him?’ And I said, ‘Listen, we’re going to play to win tonight. This is a winnable game, play to win and we’ll worry about that the next night.’
“So, I was the one that said, ‘Just play to win.’ If we had to play two defensemen, we would have. I thought this was an important game for us to win considering how many games we have against the Central Division coming up (four of the next five) and how many teams that are playing and going to gain points tonight. We don’t want to get too far behind the loop.”
Boudreau said the play of Reilly and Olofsson is “an issue, but they’re young. You’ve got to keep throwing them into the fire. It’s the only way they get better. If you completely sit them all the time, then they’re going to be like that every game. Sometimes you just have to take your lumps and keep playing them.”
But a perplexing thing is the Wild signed the left-shot Quincey to play the right side.
For some reason, it’s the young left-shot Reilly and Olofsson being forced to play their off side every night.
So, it would not be surprising if the Wild look to bring in a right-shot defenseman, whether it’s Prosser or somebody else at some point.
Reilly has another eight games before he’ll need waivers to get to American Hockey League Iowa.
Do we really want Prosser back......??
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