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The 2010-11 NHL season came to a disappointing end for the Minnesota Wild, as a collapse down the stretch sent the Wild from the middle of the Western Conference to standing on the outside looking in. That was enough to send head coach Todd Richards packing, and he was replaced with Mike Yeo. Yeo led the Wild's AHL affiliate, the Houston Aeros, to the AHL Finals last season, and that impressed Wild management enough to give him the job with the big club.
The Wild will have a new look on the ice, too, having swung a couple of trades with the San Jose Sharks during the off-season to attempt to bring some spark to their offense. Those trades brought in wingers Devin Setoguchi and Dany Heatley, and they're expected to make up the Wild's first line that will be centered by team captain Mikko Koivu. Setoguchi is a 24-year old that accounted for 41 points for the Sharks last year, while the veteran Heatley accounted for 64 points, including 26 goals.
Minnesota will start the season at home against the Columbus Blue Jackets, who finished the 2010-11 season in 13th place in the 15-team Western Conference (the Wild finished 12th). They're led by left winger Rick Nash, who scored 32 goals for the team last season. This game will actually be the second of the year for the Blue Jackets, who will open the season at home on Friday night against the Nashville Predators.
The puck drops at the XCel Energy Center at 7:00 PM on Saturday night, and there are still some tickets available, if the good folks at Ticketmaster are to be believed. If you are not going to be able to make it to the arena on Saturday night, you can check the game out on television on Fox Sports North. Check your local listings to see where FSN is located on your dial.
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Wild Triumph Over Blue Jackets In Season Opener, 4-2
During the 2011 off-season, the Minnesota Wild swung two separate trades with the San Jose Sharks, netting them Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi in hopes that it could potentially make their offense more explosive. The pair wasted little time in justifying those hopes, as they both had points on Saturday night in Minnesota's 4-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2011-12 season opener at the XCel Energy Center.
Matt Cullen put the Wild on the board quickly in this one, notching a goal at the 1:10 mark of the first period on a goal assisted by Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Guillaume Latendresse to make the score 1-0. The goal was the fastest first goal of a season in Wild history, topping the previous speed record of Marc Chouinard in 2005.
At the 16:20 mark of the first period, defenseman Marco Scandella scored his first career NHL goal, a power play tally to extend the Minnesota lead to 1-0, with goalie Niklas Backstrom and Jared Spurgeon getting assists on the goal.
The Wild got another power play goal halfway through the second period, as Heatley got one past Columbus goalie Steve Mason to make the score 3-0, with the assists going to Bouchard and Marek Zidlicky. Columbus answered back on a goal by Derek Dorsett at the 17:53 mark of the period to cut the Minnesota advantage to 3-1, but Setoguchi answered back less than a minute later with his first goal in a Wild uniform to make the score 4-1. That was enough to get the Blue Jackets to pull Mason from goal, as he was replaced by Curtis Sanford at the start of the third period.
Maxim Mayorov got a goal with a little more than three minutes remaining in regulation, but it was too little, too late for the Blue Jackets as the Wild skated off with a 4-2 victory.
Minnesota went 2-for-4 on the power play on the evening, while not allowing Columbus to tally a goal in six opportunities with the man advantage. In addition, the goals by Heatley, Setoguchi, and Scandella marked the first time in the 11-year history of the Wild that three players scored their first goals in a Wild uniform in the same game.
The three stars for this one were
* - Backstrom, 29 saves and a .935 save percentage
** - Heatley, 1 goal and 1 assist
*** - Cullen, 1 goal
Minnesota will take to the road for their next couple of games, as they'll head east to take on the New York Islanders and the Ottawa Senators later this week. We will have all the coverage of those games for you right here at SB Nation Minnesota.
Oct 09 10:56a by Christopher Gates