Catching Up

So I was out of town for the weekend, thus, slow blog.

The Wild beat the 'Hawks on Friday 5-4 on Mikko Koivu's hat-trick-clinching OT winner. Mikko had a huge jump in his overall game last season, and if he can even come close to replicating that kind of improvement this season, he could be an All-Star. (How cool would it be to have both Koivu brothers at the ASG?)

Three more cuts (Voros, Payer, Adrian Foster) and general satisfaction at the play of the defense.

The Wild are in Grand Forks tonight, as the visiting team, playing the "home" Buffalo Sabres at the Ralph. Regardless of what you think of old man Englestad (or his family) as a human being, from what I've heard there can be no debating that his generosity allowed the university to build one heckuva facility.

The Wild's first round draft pick this year, Colton Gillies, will be making the trip and presumably playing. The Wild are trying to give him as thorough an experience as possible with the big club before sending him back to junior.

Also making the trip:

Forwards
Brian Rolston, Eric Belanger, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Pavol Demitra, Dominic Moore, Petr Kalus, Stephane Veilleux, Benoit Pouliot, Mark Parrish, Colton Gillies, James Sheppard, Matt Foy, Branko Radivojevic

Defense
Nick Schultz, John Scott, Keith Carney, Erik Reitz, Kurtis Foster, Kim Johnsson, Shawn Belle

Goalies
Josh Harding, Niklas Backstrom

No video (online or otherwise) it seems, radio on 830wcco.com.

NiNY