After Sunday's 1-0 victory over the Dallas Stars, I turned on other hockey games just to wind down. I caught the end of Vancouver-Edmonton which went to a shootout and then tuned into Phoenix-Chicago, a run and gun affair. Clearly, the Phoenix-Chicago game was tons of fun to watch as a hockey fan in general and fan of neither team specifically. And it was tons different than what we had just witnessed at the Xcel Energy Center last night. Needless to say, the Wild-Stars game was fairly boring, with little excitement to bring fans out of their seats which, in turn, led to the fans resorting to the wave in the third period just to stretch their legs and stay in game-day condition for any other goals that may be scored (there were none). Nonetheless, the Wild skated away with another BIG win in this condensed and compressed season. Two points for the win is literally almost like four points in this shortened season. And a loss is literally almost like suffering two defeats for the price of one.

Interestingly, the Stars had played Phoenix the night before in yet another run and gun affair for the Coyotes. Apparently, they have a flare for firewagon hockey. Perhaps the Stars were overestimating the addition of Zach Parise who, from my perspective, is giving the same or similar effort as what I witnessed from him in last year's playoffs. Many on Twitter who were very familiar with Zach from his days with New Jersey were commenting back on Minnesota fans/media tweets that were in awe of the effort he put in the first two nights. Apparently, this is what you get every night from young Mr. Parise. And, if his two powerplay assists weren't good enough for you to sit up and take notice the night before, he announced his arrival at the end of another powerplay by scoring the Wild's lone goal in the first period of last nights game. He and Bouchard were working the point positions from the blue line and the puck went from Parise on the right to Bouchard in the center who then moved to the left and gave the puck back to Zach who unleashed a slap shot from near the point and caught the young, rookie goalie (who was otherwise very solid last night) moving laterally and beat him for the lone goal against the team from the lone star state. With two assists in game one and the lone goal in game two plus the great effort shown both nights, the team and it's fans can rest easy on the huge money spent to procure Mr. Parise. The investment is already paying off dividends.

After that, it was a typical Wild, defensive lockdown, grind-it-out sort of win. Not to say that the Wild didn't try to make it exciting at the end by giving the puck to Ray Whitney while the Stars were short handed, but Harding (who was solid positionally all night) closed the door on that attempt to preserve his shutout in his first game of the season. Clearly, Harding's M.S. diagnosis is not affecting him at this time and may not ever affect his playing ability. But it's a great story nonetheless. Also, with Backstrom's contract expiring at the end of the year and with the depth at goalie the Wild have in their system, Backstrom may not be back with the Wild next year and that would leave Josh Harding as the heir apparent who would have to take over the reins next year. However, from my perspective atop the Xcel Energy Center (and I know this season is very young), it appears that Harding may well take over the reins a year in advance. I was far more impressed with Harding in the Red-White scrimmage last Wednesday and after seeing each play a full regulation game, Backstrom was all over the place positionally and Harding was the one who was quiet in his movement and where he needed to be with the least amount of energy expended. Perhaps some of this can be put on the shoulders of the defense playing ahead of the goalies. Perhaps some of this can be explained by the fact that coming out of a lockout is much different for goalies than it is for players who get to skate together all of the time. But, for my money, Harding is so far the better goalie this season and that may bode well for Wild fans as we move through this season and into the next few seasons.

So there you have it. My takes from last nights win and the young season so far for your undefeated Wild. Another fair matchup coming for the Wild on Tuesday when the Nashville Predators come to town to face their former teammate, Ryan Suter. Perhaps this will be the game where you notice Suter for more than his and Spurgeon's puck moving abilities or the couple of penalties he has taken so far this year. It seems so far this young season that each game is an opportunity for a different player to announce his arrival to the team of 18,000.

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