Afternoon.
For the first time since April, there will be a hockey game at Xcel Energy Center tonight when Todd Richards and the Columbus Blue Jackets come to town.
Richards is now an assistant with Jax, who will usher in their hopeful new era with the Rick Nash-Jeff Carter-Vinny Prospal line.
Likewise, Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi are excited to wear Wild uniforms for the first time tonight on their new line with Mikko Koivu.
The game will be streamed on wild.com and foxsportsnorth.com, you can listen on KFAN and of course, I'll have updates on twitter.com/russostrib.
The rest of the lineup:
Darroll Powe-Kyle Brodziak-Cal Clutterbuck
Brett Bulmer-Zack Phillips-Kris Foucault
Chad Rau-David McIntyre-Brad Staubitz
The defensemen will be:
Greg Zanon-Marek Zidlicky
Marco Scandella-Nate Prosser
Chay Genoway-Kris Fredheim
Goalies will be Josh Harding and Darcy Kuemper.
On Saturday, the Wild will play a 2 p.m. CT game at Pittsburgh. That game can be seen on NHL Network, can be heard on KFAN and you can get updates on twitter.com/russostrib.
I've got a partial lineup:
Guillaume Latendresse-Matt Cullen-Pierre-Marc Bouchard
Colton Gillies-Eric Nystrom-Jarod Palmer
Jeff Taffe-Warren Peters-Jed Ortmeyer
Jon DiSalvatore-David McIntyre-XXXXX
The 12th forward will be Carson McMillan, Brad Staubitz or Brett Bulmer
The defensemen will be:
Clayton Stoner-Jared Spurgeon
Justin Falk-Jordan Hendry
Jeff Penner-XXXX
The sixth defenseman will be Kris Fredheim or Marco Scandella
The goalies will be Niklas Backstrom and Dennis Endras.
Couple other notes:
--Taylor Peters' amateur tryout has ended. He was released and sent back to WHL Portland this morning. The Wild may have interest still in signing him.
--Casey Wellman (back) was due to practice today.
Talk to you after the game and later on Twitter.