Just two more days until players "officially" report for training camp.
Today, the Wild held its annual corporate golf event. On Wednesday, there will be one final informal captains' skate before players report Thursday for physicals, photos and media day.
Players take the ice for the first time with coaches on Friday morning. A reminder: On Saturday at 9 a.m., single-game tickets (excluding the outdoor game) go on sale at Xcel Energy Center. Tickets will be available at all other outlets at noon.
Also, the Wild will hold a practice and scrimmage Saturday that is free and open to the public. Gate 1 doors open at 9 a.m.
There's not much going on to write about today. My golf invitation was lost in the mail.
There will be plenty of articles to come as camp begins, and today I wrote a notebook that led with Zach Parise and Ryan Suter working Monday with Hall of Famer Adam Oates.
I received some Twitter questions asking what the Wild coaches felt about that, so I figured I should clarify one thing: This was not some sort of slap to the face of the coaching staff.
All summer long, Parise does individual work with people he respects and this was just the last one by somebody he considers a smart hockey guy who is great at teaching. Parise works with many people during the offseason, and this one, I just happened to be in the building, saw it going on and talked to Parise about it afterward.
Oates worked with them on individual skills like net-front, where to position pucks on screens, how to protect the puck coming around the net and one-timers. He worked with Suter on walking the blue line, being in good position for one-timers and faking shots and setting up others, like Parise, for one-timers from the circle.
They also discussed power-play philosophy and stuff like that.
I found it fascinating and fun to watch, and like I wrote in the notebook, most interesting to me was watching Suter one-time puck after puck with passes from the opposite half wall the Wild typically sets up from. It just made me wonder if this is something the Wild may try in camp because it may better utilize Suter's one-timer. I've asked Yeo and GM Chuck Fletcher in the past couple weeks about this setup, and both have told me it's a possibility.
But Parise and Suter weren't divising any power-play schemes or setups or anything like that with Oates.
They were simply working on their game as camp approaches Thursday.
That's it from me. The 35-player training camp roster will increase Wednesday with players promoted from the prospect tournament in Traverse City. Talk to you Wednesday.
