from Michael Russo of Russo's Rants,

Wild assistant coach Darryl Sydor, who pleaded guilty to second degree driving while impaired last month, took the ice for his first practice of the season Tuesday at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis.

Coach Mike Yeo and Sydor met last week at a coffee shop to formulate a plan for Sydor’s return to the team.

Initially, Sydor will ease into things. He won’t be on the bench during games and won’t travel. Yeo said there is no timeline as to when Sydor will get back to his regular, full-time duties, but this was the first step and Yeo anticipates Sydor will begin to travel soon.

This morning, after practice, Sydor talked publicly for the first time since his Aug. 20 arrest for drunken driving with one of his children in the car. His eyes welled throughout the press scrum, and the bottom-line message was that Sydor has been portrayed a certain way and he wants to prove that the incident does not define him. He called it a huge mistake and says his mission now is to help others with the same disease.

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