Short takes
Got an enforcer
Wild coach Bruce Boudreau rehashed the screaming match he had with former Colorado coach Patrick Roy on opening night in 2013. At the end of a blowout loss for the Ducks, Roy began barking at Anaheim's Corey Perry. When Boudreau came to his defense, Roy started yapping at Boudreau and nearly toppled the glass partition.
"I was scared stiff, man," Boudreau said. "I had no clue what was going on. If you ever YouTube that, Corey Perry is squirting a water bottle on him the whole time, just egging him on, squirting it, squirting it, so he snapped. All I saw was the white in his eyes."
Boudreau added with a laugh, "That's why we hired Scott Stevens [as a Wild assistant]. Anybody comes after us, [I'm] just throwing him in the way."
Is it in the water?
Seeing youngsters Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine and Jack Eichel soar into the NHL at an elite level has St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock's curiosity kicking in.
"Part of me is wondering what's going on that's allowing kids to play like this," Hitchcock said. "How are these kids being taught so they look so comfortable on the ice? They're not overwhelmed by anything, they look equal to players or sometimes a step ahead. Something's going on in the teaching that's really good.
"I think we need to look to see what the coaches are doing to help these kids be so advanced. There's nothing they're not ready for. It's not just athletic ability. I believe it's in the teaching."
