The early season 4 day break is a good thing for the Wild, as they have gotten off to a bit of a rocky start to their season dropping their first two games. Minnesota has given up 4 third period goals already in the two games, which is cause for concern with a team that is built on solid team defense and structure.
The practice time should be just what the doctor ordered to get the team back into focus and get them playing their structured game, rather than the run and gun that we have witnessed all too often through the first two contests.
The injury to Mikael Granlund is a bit worse than first thought and it appears that he will be out longer than first anticipated.
Zach Parise is back on the ice and looks to make his season debut on Thursday night. The interesting news Parise is the injury may not have been his back at all. The good news seems to be that Zach feels that he "is out of the woods" in terms of his latest setback. That is encouraging as we all know Parise is a leader on this team and a catalyst on the ice.
The lines will be juggled with the injury situation, and in practice Parise was skating on the fourth line with Cullen and Winnik, while Koivu and Zucker had Niederreiter in Granlunds place.
The Blackhawks will, of course, be a good test in the early season for the Wild having started the year off 3-0-1 with some very impressive wins over defending Stanley Cup champion, Pittsburgh (10-1), Eastern Conference power, Columbus (5-1), and Montreal (3-1), while dropping an OT contest in Toronto on Monday (4-3).
We all know what the Hawks have done to the Wild over the last several seasons and in order for Minnesota to take the next step they must conquer their arch nemesis from Chicago.
The structure may have been absent for much of the first two Wild games, but the defense has been subpar as well. That is typically a strength and with the top four dmen the Wild have they need to be much better.
The fact that Suter is still being asked to log the big minutes on a nightly basis especially this early in the season is definitely cause for concern. Spurgeon, Brodin, and Dumba really need to elevate their game to ease the workload of Suter. That said Boudreau may want to look tocut down on Suter's minutes by limiting his powerplay time, an area that Dumba and Mike Reilly excel.
It is early still and no time to panic, but points are not easy to come by in the NHL these days, so no time waste in making the necessary adjustments. _