Good Saturday morning to you.

Just a couple random thoughts on the Wild:

1. I went down to the Octagon camp yesterday and the first thing I noticed was a much slimmer-looking Guillaume Latendresse. In fact, he skated over to the glass to motion that he was skinnier. Or, he could have been motioning that I was skinnier, come to think of it. Well, one of the two. Nevertheless, I took the opportunity to catch up with Latendresse after the skate, and that article can be found at this link. In that link, you can also see the forward lines coach Mike Yeo plans to initially start with in training camp.

Also, here's a little video of Mike Yeo and myself at the Star Tribune booth at the State Fair yesterday. In the video, Yeo talks lines, which young kids have a chance to make the team and the importance of reading the newspaper.

2. Players report to training camp for physicals, photos and ph-itness testing Sept. 16. First day on the ice is two weeks from today -- Sept. 17. On Sept. 17 and Sept. 18, the Wild will open camp with scrimmages. Those two scrimmages from 10-11 a.m. at Xcel Energy Center will be free and open to the public, so plan now.

3. Wild players are slowly trickling into town. Eric Nystrom got here this week. Devin Setoguchi was planning to arrive yesterday. Dany Heatley will arrive in a few days. Mikko Koivu is on his way to New York to do a national NHL media circuit, so you should see some national stories with Koivu as a subject next week. Over at the Octagon camp yesterday were guys like shaggy-haired Nick Schultz (Schultz and Brent Burns still have a bet going on that dates back to last year's second half to see who can go the longest without a haircut), Cal Clutterbuck, Mike Lundin, Clayton Stoner, a jacked-up Casey Wellman, Brad Staubitz and Josh Harding.

4. If you want instantaneous Wild news this season, follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/russostrib. More and more Wild players and prospects are showing up on Twitter. Here's a list: @dsetoguchi10, @enystrom23, @kylemedvec, @kassassination, @juicerfalk, @dkuemps35, @zackphillips7, @davejmcintyre, @mlucia1993.

Also, tremendous follow is Wild equipment manager Tony DaCosta at @styleswild. He's been posting awesome behind the scenes pictures of getting ready for training camp.

Also, finally, after years of secretly being on Twitter, Brent Burns is public and an absolute must follow. He's at @burnzie88. He's also guest blogging for the Gongshow web site, and his first entry can be read here. I talked to Andrew Brunette yesterday, told him about Burns' blog and his only reaction was, "Scary. He's the last person who should be blogging."

Also, Owen Nolan is on Twitter at @owennolan11. Lots of great NHL follows on Twitter, but those are two ex-Wild players I thought of off the top of my cloudy head.

OK, things will be ramping up here soon. You'll be reading more from the Mike Yeo sitdown in the coming days in articles.

As for now, have a great holiday weekend.