Minnesota Wild Starts Season With Media Day
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- If you are wondering if summer is over, the Minnesota Wild reported for training camp on Thursday.
As Mike Max tells us, the pieces are the same and the questions are obvious.
Lights, action, you know the drill. Media day starts the season and an always abbreviated training camp in the NHL. The Wild's first preseason game is on Monday.
"It's the same thing in college. When I played in college you weren't allowed to have the coaches out there. So it was a quick turnaround, a few days and then right into game action," Christian Folin said. "I'm looking forward to it and I'm really excited for the season to start."
What's different than the start of last season: Devan Dubnyk is here. He has a new contract and a hope his second half carries over into this season.
"That's the plan, yeah. I think at the end of last year we were able to really understand how good of a team we are and how good of a team we can be," Dubnyk said. "There's no reason to not play that way for the entire season."
But what Thursday, media day, is all about is when the lights go bright come next spring, do the Wild have enough, have they improved enough, will they be good enough to go further than they did a year ago?
That means one thing in these parts: They have to be better than their rivals, who happen to be the Stanley Cup champions: Yes, the Chicago Blackhawks.
"We've got to find a way to beat Chicago in the playoffs. I mean it's a bad answer, but it really is the answer if you find a way," Jason Pominville said. You're probably going to have to see them again. They're probably going to be one of the best teams in our division again."
