Another Wild season is right around the corner and we saw the first glimps of the team last night in Colorado for the first pre-season tilt.

The Willd won 4-3 behind a 40 save effort from Jesper Wallstedt. A strong performance from Sammy Walker with two goals and 2023 second round pick Riley Heidt dishing out the primary assists on both. Neither team dressed any of their top players in this one.

We can look at this Wild team and say not much has changed from the group that we witnessed leaving the XCEL Energy Center Ice following their 6-game opening series loss to Dallas. That was to be expected as the cap issue limited much movement other than Matt Dumba's exit.

But is there room for optimism coming into this season, given the history of first round exits looming?

The answer is yes, and that is mainly due to the fact that Kirill Kaprizov is one of the league's top talents and Matt Boldy made great strides in establishing himself in year two of his young career.

Let's start with Kirill, because everythign centers around #97. He has come to camp with a fire that is even more visible than what we have witnessed in the past. He is ready to put what the team has learned over the course of his short career here in Minnesota to work in improving the outcome next Spring.

Kaprizov was so visibly different in his opening press conference spaeking mostly in English, and when he stumbled on a work or two he leaned on his interpreter to help him out. What was clear though was that he wanted to be able to speak for himself and the will to learn is so evident when you can see and hear Kirill speak.

He has a burning desire to win and that in itself pushes this tight knit group...

Join the Discussion: » 3 Comments » Post New Comment

» Walker Up, Goligoski On LTIR

» Wild Look To Tighten Up The D Zone

» New Season Of Hope For Wild

» Kirill Gets The "A"

» Zuccarello Extended For 2 Years