Today is the official start of Minnesota Wild Training Camp! This is the official start of hockey season for me. Many of the Wild players have been practicing for weeks now either on their own at Twin Cities ice arenas or at prospect camps, but today is the first day they get to hear the drill sergeant orders of Coach Jacques Lemaire and his commanding voice is definitely the official authority of starting the Minnesota hockey season!
55 Wild Players took the ice this morning at the Xcel Energy Center. To see the complete players list click here. Coach Lemaire hopes to whittle the list down quickly and be in the mid-30s within 10 days. Today players were divided into three teams. Two teams will scrimmage each other and the third will spend their time practicing. There is plenty of young talent waiting to make it big in the NHL and Lemaire is known for giving the starting roles to the best players not necessarily the player who held the spot last year so it should be an interesting three weeks. Last years Wild team was strong losing in the playoffs to the eventual Stanley Cup winners the Mighty Ducks.
The Wild will face the Detroit Red Wings(Winging it in Motown)in a pre-season game scheduled for Tuesday at the "X" – it will be this MN Wild Freak’s first look at the raw talent. Let’s go Wild!