If you’ve been a long-time reader of The State of Hockey News, you may be saying to yourself, “where are the stats?” Well, I’m not about to use pre-season stats, because as we all know, pre-season means absolutely nothing. Plus, do we really want to re-hash the abomination that was the Wild’s pre-season? I know I don’t. Besides, I have a feeling there wasn’t enough scoring for me to really come up with five players to categorize as the “Top 5 Scorers.” I’m just afraid that if we have a repeat of last year’s regular season or this year’s pre-season, it’s going to take me a while to come up with stats. Don’t worry my friends, the stat chart will eventually make its return. Like the old saying goes, good things come to those who wait.
I’m sure many of you already have your DVR’s or VCR’s set to record the game. I’ve had our DVR set for a week, as I like many of you, will be at work at the time of the 11:00am puck drop. The one thing I am counting my lucky stars for, is the fact that the two games against the Hurricanes in Finland are being shown on VS as opposed to Fox Sports Net North. For you Dish Network subscribers who haven’t heard, Dish and Fox Sports Net are in a contract battle, and we the subscribers are being punished for their disagreement. Some markets will be able to watch their regional FSN channel, but they are few and far between and FS-North, home of the Minnesota Wild, is not one of the “safe” channels.
If you’ve been trying to keep up with Wild news, and it isn’t always easy or convenient with the Wild in Finland, you will have noticed that the roster appears to have finally taken shape. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, it seems that both Casey Wellman and Justin Falk have made this year’s roster. Of course we all know that a roster in any sport is not written in stone. Injuries and illness can strike at any time, and Wild fans have seen this time and time again. In fact, we’ve already seen the injury bug strike, and that wasn’t even in regular season play. As of now, Marek Zidlicky is questionable for the first game of the season, while Guillaume Latendresse is listed as probable. Serious injuries to Josh Harding already forced Wild management to wade into the free agent waters and acquire Jose Theodore. People attending the two games in Helsinki will not see Theodore, as he will wait to join the Wild until they return to St. Paul. Manning the crease will obviously be Helsinki-native Niklas Backstrom and Anton Khudobin. Joining them for one night will be German netminder, Dennis Endras. According to Michael Russo of the Star Tribune, Endras looked good in practices. One can only hope, that the acquisition of Theodore lights a forest fire under Backstrom and Khudobin.
As I’ve already mentioned, the Wild absolutely cannot start out the regular season like they did last season. Had the Wild started out better, they very well could have made the playoffs. While the break that happens around the All-Star Game (or the Olympic Games during Olymic years) can often be as detrimental to a team, there seems to be little that can happen to overcome a bad start. While the Wild spent a majority of the early part of last season on the road, that was still no excuse for a poor start. Especially since they didn’t play what could be classified as inspired play at home either. There are fans who believe that if the Wild start out like they did last season (especially considering this season’s poor pre-season) that head coach Todd Richards could be looking for a new job early in the season. His might have been safe under former General Manager Doug Risebrough, but I highly doubt that Chuck Fletcher would be so forgiving.
If there’s one small benefit to starting the game in Finland, is that we won’t be staying up late to watch the game. Nothing worse than starting out the season on the West Coast and having to wait until 9:00pm for the game to start in Minnesota. Like I said, it’s just a small benefit. I know I’ve been finding it hard to get excited for the start of the season. Yes, it was a long off-season for Wild fans, but I have a feeling that many of us feel like the regular season doesn’t start until next Thursday when the Oilers come to St. Paul. Eventually, things will get back to normal. And like I said at the beginning, good things come to those who wait.
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