WILD HOCKEY!

[OnAFly]

Finally, the real season is upon us. Here are the lines for the opener tomorrow.

Lines for tomorrow:

Setoguchi-Koivu-Heatley

Latendresse-Cullen-Bouchard

Clutterbuck-Brodziak-Bulmer

Gillies-Powe-Johnson (Kassian)

Scandella-Schultz

Zanon-Zidlicky

Stoner-Spurgeon

Backstrom

Is it Saturday yet?

[Bran32]

I wonder why Yeo switched Powe for Bulmer?? Either way I can't wait!! GO WILD!!!!!!

[LundProAngler]

I really hope they make the playoffs this year.

Regular season is great and all but come playoff time it gets really exciting!

GO WILD!!!!!!

[RK]

Bran32 - Re: Bulmer, according to Yeo/Fletcher, they want to see if Bulmer can handle the minutes/responsibility of playing at this level, and he probably wouldn't get a realistic look on the 4th line...plus they needed a 4th centerman with Nystrom waived, and Powe can play wing or center.

I think it's a 9 game audition on the 3rd line for Bulmer. If he can play and be effective, he'll stay, if not, probably back to Juniors. If he shows up like he did in the pre-season though, I bet he sticks.

Top to bottom, this is the best our forward cadre has ever looked. 2 legit scoring lines, maybe one of the better checking lines in the league, and a 4th line with some muscle that can still take regular shifts. With Powe, Clutterbuck, Bulmer and Kassian, you have 4 guys who really get under people's skin for some reason...

Excited about the season for sure.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[Jarrod32]

I've said it in other discussions and on my Facebook page, I think that line of Latendresse-Cullen-Bouchard is gonna be a good one.

Excited for the season indeed...starts tomorrow...

[OnAFly]

Bulmer will definitely be gone before game 10...unless he really, really impresses Yeo. Over 10 games, and he'll need waivers to get back down.

I'm excited for the season, but don't know how our D corps will be. They'll be depending on Schutz and Zids to eat up extra minutes. Hopefully we don't have an injury bug run through our D.

[10,000 Casts]

Excited to see Powe and Clutterbuck combine for 600 checks!!! I hope Bouchard makes Cullen better this year and Lats is back in his 09 form and that #2 line will score alot of goals. Kassian is going to be awesome this year, he has a target on his head and he will be willing to drop the gloves and unlike Boogard, other players aren't afraid of him so should make for some exciting games!

My prediction is the Wild sneak into the playoffs.

[lovetoicefish]

Beautiful 1st goal of the regular season!!!!!!!!

[Bran32]

Great first period!!! Get to see the local boy get the first goal of the year!!

[10,000 Casts]

Wild look awesome right now, if they stay healthy, they will score alot of goals.

We may have just lost Bouchard for a few games with that slash..

[OnAFly]

I only got to listen to the game, but it sounded like they played Yeo's system pretty well at times. I was real happy we didn't take the second period off like we've done before. That stuff gets frustrating.

Looking forward to watching the next one

[Bear55]

I missed the game but sure glad to see the wild put up a W and get a couple of goals out of our former sharks.

[solbes]

Glad to see the win. I watched maybe 1/4 of the game as I was mainly watching the Dogs collapse against ND. The top line looked great from what I saw.

I did see the double minor penalty on Bouchard. Yes the guys face looked pretty beat up, but if you watched the replay it looked like Bouchards stick got raised by the other guy into his own face. The penalty was probably fair, but the 2 game suspension is a joke. Shanahan needs to chill out.

[OnAFly]

Yeah, I agree. It was a 4 minute penalty call. No suspension needed. There's going to be a lot of suspensions this season if this becomes standard.

I love at the end of Shanny's video, "Bouchard will now be considered a repeat offender."

Yeah, better get the reckless Bouchard off the ice. He's a real danger to those around him. What a joke!

[Bear55]

Wild dump an afternoon game to the Isles 2-1. Sounds like a terrible first period dug a hole they couldn't climb out of.

[OnAFly]

I watched the first period over lunch. They looked slow. They had a couple good chances off the bat, but NYI got a nice deflection 10 ft out from Backs off a defenceman. Their second goal was blown coverage in the slot. Wide open shot pass to the forward sitting off to the side. Hopefully tomorrow is a better start.

[schmitty3]

They out played them the last two periods for sure, but that first period did them in. Give credit to the Islanders goalie though he came up big on a lot of great oppurtunities. With that said though you can't go 0-7 on the power play. They did hold the Islanders to just 14 shots, but only got 20 thereselves. All in all though they had the chances to win the game and IMO outplayed the Islanders for most of the game. Gotta come back tomorrow night and get a good road W from the struggling Senators.

[Bear55]

0-7 on the PP is pretty telling, you have to burry those chances if you want to win. Tonights game should be very interesting, Heatley returning to Ottawa should make for a "fun" atmosphere.

[scsavre]

Sounds like they missed buch on the pp. That is pretty gloomy tho. Sunds like the pp's just took away out momentum

[solbes]

Pretty much outplayed for long stretches of that game. They looked tired at the end of the 2nd and through much of the 3rd. A little flury of offense at the end of regulation, but couldn't get the bounce.

It's been a long time since I've seen a shootout look so one sided.

[spearchucker]

It's been a long time since I've seen a shootout look so one sided.

Backstrom doesn't do well in shootouts for some reason.

[Bear55]

No kidding, he is terrible at shootouts.

[OnAFly]

He's a sieve in the SO. Always has been (except a few in '09 for some reason).

We took it to the Sens in the 1st and snoozed in the 2nd. Yeo needs to address this. It's what we did last year too.

The third we could have ended it but Gillies passes the puck while skating across an open net. I think if Kassian would have gone after and fought Neil to start out the 3rd, Neil doesn't have near the effect he had. We basically let him run around all night going after Heater. Apparently the Wild were ok with that. The enforcer in this case was necessary but went unused. It contributed to the loss in my opinion.

[schmitty3]

Watching the game last night really made me miss Boogaard. You got a guy like Boogey out there and Neil doesn't have that kind of effect on a game. If he does he is getting KO'd. We really needed Kassian or Stoner to step up and do something. Can't let a guy run around like that making big hits every time he's on the ice.

Backstrom was good at the shootouts in 09 cause they said he worked all offseason with somebody can't think of his name. Guess he didn't do much this offseason on them. That was awful, those weren't even that good of moves, one forehand backhand, then two five holes.

[spearchucker]

The D also let Backstrom get run over without any answer for it either.