MINNEAPOLIS — Not that he was anxious or anything, but the Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold said he had started monitoring the weather about a month ago for his team’s Stadium Series outdoor game with the Chicago Blackhawks. Starting a week before the game, he checked the forecast twice a day.
When Leipold arrived at TCF Bank Stadium early Sunday afternoon, he found conditions close to perfect: 36 degrees, overcast skies and a mild breeze out of the west. Still, as Leipold entertained guests in his suite an hour before the opening face-off, the magnitude of the day — the Wild’s long-awaited audition for a future N.