Bickel, Zucker to play right wing tonight at Pittsburgh

Afternoon from Pittsburgh, where the Wild plays the Penguins tonight at 6 CT in an exhibition extravaganza at the sparkling building across the street from the now-parking lot that used to be the Igloo.

THERE IS NO TV TONIGHT, so stop asking. You can listen on KFAN or the @russostrib Twitter Network.

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If you missed today's big story, it's Zach Parise talking about the need for teams to try to dump the dump-and-chase. Great quotes in here.

In tomorrow's paper, I'll be writing about the separation of Parise and Mikko Koivu in training camp and how it's proof of just how much deeper the Wild is getting. Prior to Mikael Granlund's breakout last season when Koivu was injured, there was never a thought in coach Mike Yeo's head to split Parise and Koivu.

Tonight's Wild lines:

Zach Parise-Mikael Granlund-Jason Pominville

Matt Cooke-Erik Haula-Jason Zucker

Brett Sutter-Cody Almond-Stu Bickel

D pairs: Uhhhhhh, I've got to be honest. I didn't grab em because I was in the Pens room getting coach Mike Johnston on his former player, Matt Dumba. That video will be tomorrow's award-winning Wild Minute video on startribune.com/wild. But the D's in the lineup tonight are Marco Scandella, Jonas Brodin, Jared Spurgeon, Dumba, Christian Folin and Keith Ballard.

Forwards Michael Keranen and Joel Rechlicz are on the trip but expected to be scratched.

The power-play units in today's morning skate:

I assumed Yeo planned to scratch one forward and one defenseman on yesterday's blog, but reporters should never assume anything, so my bad.

Yeo is actually going to give Bickel, a defenseman, a look at right wing tonight. I think I mentioned this when I wrote about Bickel in that ex-Gophers feature over the weekend, but what may give him an inside track toward making the team is the Wild can keep him as a seventh defenseman but it would also give Yeo an extra physical option at forward.

He's versatile. He played defense as a kid, played forward throughout high school, moved back to D in junior and played what he guesstimated was 20 to 25 games at wing with the Rangers over a span of two years.

Also tonight, Zucker will skate as a right wing. The left-shot speedster said he loves playing right wing entering the zone because he's on his forehand and thus can shoot and make plays easier. Where it's a big adjustment, Zucker said, is leaving the zone and that's what he worked on a lot in the morning skate.

What else?

In fact, I covered a 21-year-old Adam Lowry play for Winnipeg the other night -- Dave Lowry's boy.

Other former Panthers' kids from their Cup Finals-run team playing today? Tom Fitzgerald and Gord Murphy. And of course, I remember Dave Gagner's kid, Sam, running around there, too.

There's your first 10 #flareference's of the season.

I have no point to any of that.

What does Yeo want to see tonight?

That's it for now.