Wild Home Opener happens on biggest Minnesota Sports Weekend

The MN Wild Home Opener is always a crazy game, fans who have been marking off days on their calendars waiting come out in droves to see their team for the first time. All Wild fans are geared up to watch a game and then make sideline predictions of what the season is going to be like.

What makes this season's October 6th Wild home opener even more chaotic is the fact that not only are the Wild starting their season but the Minnesota Golden Gophers are playing the Wisconsin Badgers at TCF Stadium on Oct 3rd, the Vikings are playing the Packers at home on Oct 5th and the Twins are playing thier last game ever at the Metrodome on Oct 4th... it could possibly be the biggest 4 days of sports of the year for Minnesota Sports.

What does it really mean? You better buy your MN Wild Tickets early because with this many sports fans in town the game is going to sell out for sure!

Wild sign new cetner Kyle Brodziak to a 3 year contract

MN Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher announced today that the Wild have signed center Kyle Brodziak to a 3 year contract. Kyle Broadziak joins the MN Wild roster from the Edmonton Oilers where he had 27 points including 3 extremely impressive game winning goals, a plus-4 rating, 21 penalty minutes in 79 games in the 2008-2009 schedule. In the 2007-2008 season, Kyle Broadziak posted 14 goals and 17 assists in 80 games.

Wild fans are hopeful that Kyle Broadziak will continue to post points and ratings like this in the upcoming MN Wild 2009 schedule.

2009-2010 MN Wild Schedule set

The Minnesota Wild and the NHL released the schedule for the 2009-2010 season. The Wild will be playing 82 games, 41 home and 41 away. The Wild season will start on Saturday, October 3rd against the Blue Jackets and the home opener will be Tuesday, October 6th against the Anaheim Ducks.

The Minnesota Wild Schedule is set up so that the team will play each member of the Northwest Division six times (three home, three away), the Pacific Division four times, the Central Division four times. There will also be 18 games against the Eastern Conference.

There will be a break in the NHL season February 15-28 for the Olympics in Vancouver. All NHL regular season play will be put on hold so that players can participate in the 2010 Winter Games.

Regular Season Single Tickets will go on sale September 12, but there is a guarantee that many games will sell out, so Buy MN Wild tickets early!

Which Wild roster members will be up to the task of fast-paced hockey?

From day one, Minnesota Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher has said that he wants to change the way the Wild play hockey. Fletcher wants to see a fast-paced game that revolves around strong puck handlers and fast skating. Which is why the Wild were courting Saku Koivu to fill the second line center position. Saku Koivu, however signed with the Anaheim Ducks and Fletcher said the Wild will not be perusing any more free agents.

So now the question becomes what will the Minnesota Wild offensive lines look like, one sports critic reported that it is likely Fletcher will go with Mikko Koivu centering Martin Havlat and Andrew Brunette on the first line and James Sheppard centering Owen Nolan and Pierre-Marc Bouchard on the second line. Last season Koivu and Burnette played very well together last season and hopefully adding Havlat to the mix will only amplify this powerhouse line.

Nothing will be decided until the Wild start skating late this summer but no matter who Fletcher decides to play it is clear that come this fall Wild hockey is going to be very different, and this is one Wild Fan that doesn't intend to miss a moment of the action.

Goodbye Gaborik

It is official, Marian Gaborik is no longer a Wild player. Yesterday, July 1st, his contract with the Wild ended and he entered into Free Agent Status. He wasn't free for long though, Gaborik signed a 5-year $7.5 million dollar contract with the New York Rangers, eating up all of the cap space that had been rumored was being saved for Scott Gomez.

The Rangers are hoping that the former Wild Star, who scored 42 goals for the Minnesota Wild, will be worth the investment. When he is healthy Gaborik is considered to be one of the most elite skaters in the NHL, WHEN he is healthy. Many Gaborik-haters are saying that he is hurt more often than he is healthy and his reign on the Top 10 players in hockey list is over. I have to say that I am on the fence, at one point Gabby was the Golden Boy of the MN Wild and we all loved him, but lately his bad attitude and his hip-health have turned him into the older brother that everyone can't wait to leave for college and not come back. So while I am sad to see the last original Wild member skate to a different pond, I do have to say that this could be exactly what the Wild need to have a transition season.

Goodbye Gaborik!