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Professional beer league hockey? Welcome to Minnesota

Devin Setoguchi, Mikko Koivu

Minnesota Wild’s Devin Setoguchi (10) is congratulated on his goal by teammate Mikko Koivu (9), of Finland, during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

AP

With players locked out of team training facilities, finding ice time to work out is proving tricky. In Minnesota, they’ve got almost too many players that want in on the action.

Michael Russo of the Star-Tribune reports there are so many players working out together at St. Louis Park Center in Minnesota, they’re about to do their own version of beer league hockey.

[Today], refs will be hired so there are more structured scrimmages. Brodziak did say there are almost too many guys, it’s hard to get reps and that the Wild guys may eventually go on their own and rent their own ice.

Russo listed off 36 players getting together there by his count, 21 of which are members of the Wild including Niklas Backstrom, Mikko Koivu, and Zach Parise.

Meanwhile, guys like Dustin Byfuglien, Keith Ballard, Kyle Okposo, and Paul Martin are among the other pros there. Wonder if Ballard gets scratched from pick-up games too?

In their video to the fans the players talked about growing up playing hockey on ponds. Teaming up together to pay for ice time at a local rink has some of that throwback flavor, too.

Now the real question: Who picks up the beer?