Band of Brothers

Last night, Wild and Canadiens fans were treated to the first face-off between Mikko and Saku Koivu with both brothers wearing the C for their teams. Frequent shots of Mom and Pop Koivu in the stands, cheering, cringing, looking away during the rough stuff... nice little drama.

Tonight, Aeros fans may be treated to another brother vs. brother match-up as the Providence Bruins come to town and Nolan and Peter Schaefer potentially go head to head. Peter was with the Boston Bruins last season but was waived during training camp and sent down to Providence (where, coincidentally, younger brother Nolan went to Providence College).

It's not a guaranteed match-up though, as the elder Schaefer has only played one game with Providence after sustaining a hip injury, but is expected to return tonight. And with two solid Aeros goalies in Schaefer and Barry Brust, it's never a guarantee which goalie the coaching staff will start, but there's no reason not to start Schaefer, so I would expect them to.

ETA: The game notes confirm that both Schaefers will be playing tonight.

Brotherly Love - Aeros’ goaltender Nolan Schaefer and Bruins’ left wing Peter Schaefer will play against each other for the first time when the teams take to the ice tonight. Peter is 30 months older than Nolan and has played in a total of 556 games in the NHL with Vancouver, Ottawa and Boston. He is in his 12th season professionally. Nolan is in his sixth pro season with seven games of NHL experience with the San Jose Sharks in 2005-06.

Here's Joe O'Donnell with an interview with the Schaefer Bros.

As a side note, word is John Scott may be back this weekend, though I haven't seen anything come across the transactions saying he's been released to Houston. And center Justin Taylor, who was with the team on a try-out, was released a couple of days ago.