Wild game wrap up: Preseaon woes

Zucker's injury explains why he appeared to be having a rough game in the first. He wasn't strong on the puck, and it seemed like every time he was behind the net one of the Columbus players had him face first on the ice. Luckily the Wild are still have almost 3 weeks of training camp left, so Zucker should be able to make a return to the ice even if the pull is more serious than originally thought.

To be fair, the Blue Jackets did an excellent job of covering him, and doing their best to ensure that he had zero room to move once he had the puck. However, in the 3^rd Coyle managed to pull off a few moves that were somewhat reminiscent of THE SHIFT.

Kyle Brodziak was also somewhat disappointing last night. He looked great to start with, but for the last half of the game he really looked like he did last season. Which is really not good for him, or the team.

There were a lot of positives last night however. The Wild had a lot of really good chances that given a bit more time to practice most likely would have turned into a few more goals. It's really important for people to remember that this was the first pre-season game, and that the team has only been practicing for a total of 5 days prior to yesterday.

Granlund looks completely different than he did last season. Instead of a somewhat meek and slow, hesitant player on the ice who routinely gets thrown to the ice and losses his stick, Granlund is quicker, stronger, and managed to only drop his stick a few times last night.

Neiderreiter was probably the best forward on the ice. He was always battling, always throwing pucks towards the net, trying to break up plays, and just buzzing on the ice last night. He is going to be a force to be reckoned with on this team, no question about it.

He certainly made a few mistakes, but he didn't look out of place in his first somewhat professional game. The Wild will definitely use the "free" nine game clause with him again this season, but it wouldn't be surprising to see him actually playing in those games. He was the best defenseman on the ice last night, and is working his way in to being one of the best defenders in camp. The 55/2 pairing was excellent last night.

The Wild ended the night with 21 shots on goal. Scandella and Dumba topped the time in minuets with over 22and a half each. Coyle topped the forwards with 21:38 and Granlund rounded out the over 20 minutes club with 20:11.

The Wild are on a mandatory off day per the CBA today, but will jump back into practice tomorrow morning before heading to Winnipeg for tomorrow night. We'll have coverage of the practice tomorrow on twitter and another game thread tomorrow night. Rumor has it that a Canadian station will be having video coverage of the game tomorrow, so there may be a feed sneaking around the internet for it. Otherwise, make sure to tune into Wild.com or KFAN for the audio.