Happy Thursday. It’s the day of the week that often holds the most promise. It’s not the dreaded Monday nor is the almost ambivalent Hump-Day. Thursdays I have usually found to be one of my more productive work days, simply because I want to power ahead to the weekend. However today, I’m taking the day off for a little art and culture in St. Paul. Everyone needs to take a random day off during the week from time to time. So while you’re in the middle of the second period, I will just be taking my seats to hear the beautiful music of Giacomo Puccini in his European, nineteenth-century interpretation of the American wild west. Not sure which will be wilder, the opera or the NHL Western Conference this season.
Yet for the Minnesota Wild, Thursday is not a day off for them. They are in the steel city of Pittsburgh for the second pre-season game of the season. I’m still getting used to the hockey season starting again. While I have enjoyed the off-season essentially not thinking much about hockey, pretty much every player in the league was still working on their game. Well pretty much every player except Ilya Bryzgalov. Speaking of the often-colorful goaltender, he is only scheduled to play one period tonight as opposed the period and half on Monday. The other two periods will be handled by Darcy Kuemper. I will be interested to hear how Kuemper looks, because I was quite surprised and happy with how good Niklas Backstrom played on Monday. I’m still not comfortable with the goaltending situation. This problem was made even bigger with Josh Harding breaking his foot before training camp started. The old adage tells us that hindsight is 20/20. With that in mind, I bet the Wild are kicking themselves for trading Anton Khudobin for pretty much nothing to Boston. Khudobin will most likely be the starting goaltender in Carolina this season. Heck, our current goaltender merry-go-round makes the rotation between Manny Fernandez and Dwayne Roloson look sane, even though it drove many fans crazy at the time.
Comparing the players that traveled to Pittsburgh with the players that went to Winnipeg is night and day. In fact, tonight’s group of players looks a lot more like what many of expect to see once the regular season starts. However, head coach Mike Yeo did say he planned on playing his veteran players earlier and more regularly during the pre-season so that the team is ready come opening night. It looks like that “earlier” has come with tonight’s game. While I don’t lines as of yet (knowing my luck, they’ll be posted about 10 minutes after I publish this), I do know who has gone to Pittburgh:
Defensemen: Keith Ballard, Stu Bickel, Christian Folin, Marco Scandella, Jonas Brodin, Jared Spurgeon, and Matt Dumba
Forwards: Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise, Cody Almond, Justin Fontaine, Jason Zucker, Matt Cooke, Thomas Vanek, Brett Sutter, Joel Rechlicz, Jason Pominville, Michael Keranen, Erik Haula, and Mikael Granlund
One forward and one defenseman will be scratched from those lists. I’m not sure who I want to see play tonight, but based on how he played on Monday night, I know I hope that Christian Folin remains in the lineup tonight. He was much hyped when the Wild added him to the organization, but based on what I saw on Monday (in the 11pm replay of the game on NHL Network), he looks ready the NHL. Yes, it was one game but it was a good game for him. And like I said on Monday night, I think the Folin’s presence will be a good influence on Jonas Brodin who struggled this past season. Competition usually forces us to improve ourselves.
While I have no idea what we’ll see, okay hear, from tonight’s game, I hope that the drama is solely with me at the Ordway tonight. Melodramatics belong on the stage, not on the ice. So here’s to a better showing tonight. And as this picture says…. 
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