Here we go, Wilderness! Wild hockey is back, and not just meaningless, sometimes-painful-to-watch, please-God-don’t-get-injured preseason hockey, but actual, honest-to-goodness, standings-points-at-stake, regular season… HOCKEY! YES!
Minnesota is coming off another solid regular season, as Bruce Boudreau guided his squad to 101 points in a stacked Central Division, only to see it quickly fold in the playoffs, sans Ryan Suter and—to a lesser extent—Zach Parise. But both of the team’s $98-million men are back in the lineup, with Parise reportedly fully healthy (knock on wood!) out of Training Camp for the first time in what seems like forever, and Suter having looked good—but still apparently recovering from his severe ankle injury—in his only preseason game a week ago.