Minnesota Wild @ Philadelphia Flyers: Game Recap

To me, the most impressive sign of the preseason has to be the play of James Sheppard. He's better on the faceoff, seems more poised than he has in the past, and is clearly building upon a positive streak from the end of last season. He's ready to take more of a role on the team, and is still very, very young. The kid is showing signs that he's ready to be the #2 centerman on the team, but will likely not take that spot until later in the season. Tonight, on an evening where many guys were -2 or worse, Sheppard not only played the offensive game with a goal and an assist, but also played the defensive game, and is definitely learning from watching Mikko Koivu.

Oh, and if anyone is paying attention to who the igniter on this team is, Russo nailed it again.

The Wild clearly need to shore up the defensive side of the game. Yes, Philadelphia will be a good offensive teams, and clearly isn't opposed to peppering the goaltender with shots from anywhere inside the blue line, but this isn't a Jacques Lemaire team anymore, and it's clear. During the preseason, Minnesota has allowed more quality shots than I have seem them allow in this kind of stretch in a very long time. Granted, much of that has to do with learning a new system and concentrating on the two-man forecheck and skating the puck out of the zone, but they need to do a better job with learning when to take a chance and when to play within the system.

This is going to be a season of ups and downs, but if they can play more games like tonight and fewer like the games at Columbus and at Chicago, things will be looking up toward the end of the season.

So, who leads the team? Well, according to Russo

Questions to Answer