It’s Saturday, and officially, the Wild’s season begins. With that bit of excitement, I immediately think of that classic sports song that has been part of National Football League lore in what seems forever, is now gone. Even though Hank Williams, Jr. has recently been exiled from Monday Night Football, I still think of “Are you ready for some football” however in my case, it’s “are you ready for some hockey.” With the depressing end to the Wild’s season and the horrific off-season for the hockey world, I most definitely am ready for hockey.
For long-time readers of The State of Hockey News, I realize that you may be expecting some stats for tonight’s game preview. However, as we all know, pre-season stats mean nothing, and with all the off-season changes Chuck Fletcher made, looking at last year’s numbers won’t help much either. One can only hope that tonight’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets will actually give me some positive numbers to work with.
As a Wild fan, I’m already feeling better heading into the regular season. Compared to last season, when we didn’t win any games in pre-season, we’re already starting out better. Oh we’ve had much better pre-season results in years past, but I’ll take this season’s three pre-season wins over none any day of the week.
While I am feeling “better” about this season, I won’t sugar coat it. Even with all the upgrades to the roster and coaching staff, it is still going to be an uphill battle. When a team makes as many changes as the Wild did this off-season, you have to figure out how all the personalities are going to work together. Wild fans everywhere are hoping that Dany Heatley becomes the player he can be (and many know can be) in his new environment in St. Paul. One can only hope he fully embraces the change instead of clinging to his former teammate, Devin Setoguchi. Yes, it’s comforting to know that the two work well together, but they also have to work well together with the rest of their teammates. New Wild head coach, Mike Yeo already appears to be a vast improvement over Todd Richards (who happens to be an assistant coach for the Blue Jackets). We’ve seen his fire on the bench last year with the Houston Aeros (AHL) and during this summer’s documentary, Becoming Wild. If Yeo can figure out how to get the team to perform, this could be a better season than many thought. Playoffs are of course still a question mark, but I think if I see a consistent effort throughout the season, it would be better than last year’s push and then downfall that fell short.
The other questions for the Wild will be defense and goaltending. I’ll admit, I’m afraid the Brent Burns trade at the 2011 NHL Entry Draft leaves a big hole on our blueline. The Wild now have veteran NHL defensemen in Nick Schultz, Greg Zanon, and Marek Zidlicky. Minnesota will be relying on players who have been in the Wild’s system to fill in the holes. Thankfully, Jared Spurgeon and Clayton Stoner spent enough time in St. Paul last season to makes things not quite so painful. I’m also concerned about goaltending. Niklas Backstrom has had his moments of brilliancy, yet at the same time, those moments that make you just shake your head and cringe. But then most goaltenders have those moments. What’s more concerning about the goaltending situation is in the role of backup. Last season, we lost Josh Harding to a knee injury in a pre-season game against St. Louis. Already, he’s suffered injuries in the pre-season yet again. This year, he’s dealing with an ankle injury (that he got during a team building function in Wisconsin during training camp). He’s expected to sit on the bench tonight, so one has to hope that Backstrom is ready to be the number one goalie that he’s supposed to be.
So here we go. I’m ready for hockey. I’m quite positive the fans are ready for hockey. I just hope the players on the bench are ready for some hockey. Because if they’re not ready, this could make for another long season.
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