Where's Teppo

That's what the media was asking Thursday morning at the Pepsi Center. Based on Darcy Regier's comments during the Lightning game, we expected to see Teppo Numminen on the ice with his teammates. Turns out, everybody was a day early. Numminen, coming back from heart surgery, was doing his off-ice conditioning tests. That's similar to what all the players do on the first day of training camp, to guage what kind of shape they're in. According to Lindy Ruff, Numminen will do on-ice testing Friday morning. If he passes, he'll join his teammates for the gameday skate. Ruff would not provide any timetable on Numminen's ability to play in a game.
Other practice notes: Jason Pominville skipped the workout. He took a shot to the foot against Tampa, and was given the day off. He's expected to play vs. Toronto Friday. Injured defenseman Jaro Spacek, Dmitri Kalinin and Nathan Paetsch all skated before the full team workout. Lindy says they're progressing.