Just kidding, sort of. Reports from camp are that Voros (acquired from New Jersey last season) is throwing his weight around with near-reckless abandon in Wild camp - and it's paying off. First, he's getting under the skin of everyone else (drawing the ire of the Carneys, Burnses and Veilleuxes of the world in the process) and getting noticed by the coaches (I'm sure Dominic Moore can tell you just how difficult that can be to accomplish). But he's also providing a value that all of us who follow the Wild will tell you was sorely lacking from the team last season: grit.
Funny word, grit, in hockey parlance. It's essentially a catch-all for players who maybe aren't the most skilled so they run around bugging everyone else, trying to piss people off and get the more-skilled members of the opposition off their game.
Mr. Boogaard notwithstanding, the Wild don't have a guy like this. And yet Wild fans' bloodpressures will spike as soon as I type the words: "Matt" and "Cooke" or "Jarkko" and "Ruutu".
So Voros is out there banging on established veterans, yelling to everyone that the King, in fact, does not have any clothes on. I say that kind of irreverence is NEEDED on this team.
All things being equal, I doubt we'll see Voros on the team when they break camp, especially if a Sheppard or Irmen (or Moore) can incorporate a little of that into their game. And we still have a glut of fourth-liners, not enough of whom appear able to competently push the third liners.
But I applaud him for doing what he needs to do to get noticed, and poking the sleeping bear in the process.
NiNY
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