Darcy Kuemper will be the Wild's opening night starter against Nathan MacKinnon, Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog, Jarome Iginla and the rest of the defending Central Division champion Colorado Avalanche.

Afternoon from Xcel Energy Center. If you want to talk Wild with me, please join my live chat on www.startribune.com/wild on Thursday at 2 p.m. I'll also be on KFAN at 3:30 p.m. and on Fox Sports North at 7:40 p.m.

Remember, the 8 p.m. game is on NBC Sports Network, but Fox Sports North will have an hour pregame show.

Over on the startribune.com/wild page, you can find my NHL preview, a story on Matt Cooke facing the Avs for the first time since his knee-on-knee hit on Colorado defenseman Tyson Barrie in last year's playoffs and story on how Kyle Brodziak will try his best to tune out trade rumors this season and improve offensively.

In Thursday's Star Tribune, our Wild preview, which includes a big piece on Mikael Granlund, Charlie Coyle, Jonas Brodin, Erik Haula and Nino Niederreiter, my 4 keys to this season, a notebook on Kuemper starting, a Jim Souhan column and a whole lot more.

Kuemper gets the start. Last year's Game 3, 4, and 6 winner (three goals allowed) against Colorado went 2-0 in the preseason in three appearances with a 2.20 goals-against average and .915 save percentage.

Niklas Backstrom went 1-1 in three games with a 2.42 goals-against average and .908 save percentage.

Coach Mike Yeo said it's "to be determined" whether Backstrom starts Saturday's game at Colorado, "but we don't want him sitting around for a long time. Based on his history in that building, based on the fact that we play two games and don't play for a week after that, I would say in a perfect world, that's what we would do. But we don't always operate that way either."

That means if Kuemper is dynamite in the opener, he'd probably come back with Kuemper. But he also doesn't want Backstrom getting stale and, as I think I mentioned on the blog the other day, Backstrom is 11-3-1 all-time at the Pepsi Center with a 2.04 goals-against average and .937 save percentage. That's his most wins in any rink.

Backstrom is 24-7-3 all-time vs. the Avs with a 2.25 goals-against average and .924 save percentage.

"We should feel comfortable with either guy in the net," Yeo said.

Thomas Vanek and Ryan Carter are the only players set to make their Wild debuts Thursday. No player is making his NHL debut.

The lines tomorrow appear to be:

Fwds

Parise-Granlund-Pominville

Cooke-Koivu-Vanek

Niederreiter-Haula-Coyle

Zucker-Brodziak-Carter

Stu Bickel and Justin Fontaine will be scratched. Fontaine (glute) has practiced all week but missed much of camp.

D

Suter-Brodin

Scandella-Spurgeon

Dumba-Folin

Keith Ballard didn't practice today after taking a shot to the chest yesterday. He was walking gingerly off the ice today, but Yeo expects him to skate in the morning. Still, Ballard and Nate Prosser won't play.

On Matt Dumba and Christian Folin, two rookies, playing together, Yeo said Ryan Suter will see shifts with both those players, as well as Jonas Brodin.

But, Yeo said, "I'm not afraid of putting those guys out there right now. I don't expect them to play perfect games, and we shouldn't panic if they make one or two mistakes. We have to give them a chance to develop and to grow. We have confidence that they're going to play a solid, reliable game, but I also don't expect it to be perfect."

On finally starting the season, Yeo said, "This time of the year is always the same thing; just can't wait to get going. You're always excited for camp to start and then a week into it you can't wait for camp to end and to get going. As much as anything else, I'm just excited about our team. … We hopefully come into this season with a little bit of swagger, a little bit of attitude. Recognize how hard it is, but we should also be confident."