Bruce Boudreau looking for better play, 60-minute effort in home opener

After a tough, tough practice yesterday, coach Bruce Boudreau kept most his players off the ice this morning in preparation for tonight's home opener against the rival Winnipeg Jets (6 p.m. start).

It'll be interesting to watch Boudreau in the early part of the season gauge the personality of his new team. In the past couple years, the Wild, especially in the first half, typically proved to be a team that had to get on the ice in the morning to play well.

So I'm curious to see how the Wild plays tonight against a Jets team that is bound to push early.

"It's really all on feel," Boudreau said. "Yesterday was a day where I thought they needed to be pushed. Every team is different, but you sort of read a lot of the body language and what went on the previous night. So it was one of the tougher practices we'll have."

The Jets beat Carolina, 5-4, in overtime to start the season Thursday. They became the third team in NHL history to win their first game of the season by overcoming a three-goal deficit in the third period, and the second to do so in as many years. In 2015-16, the Wild also erased a 4-1 deficit in the third period to win their opener at COL. The only other to do so: the Whalers, who rallied from a 5-2 deficit in the third period to defeat the Flames 6-5 in their first contest of the 1986-87 campaign.

Devan Dubnyk vs. Michael Hutchinson tonight.

Boudreau joked the one positive from St. Louis was the Wild only lost by a goal. Later, he said, look, it's not that his team stunk and that there were little positives like the penalty kill and things like that, but "it wasn't a 60-minute positive thing. … We just want to be better."

Folin, who says he's in the best shape of his life and wants to prove this season he's a "top-4" defenseman, will likely skate with countryman Jonas Brodin. The Wild wants Folin to use his size more and play physically, and that's what he tried to do throughout training camp.

Boudreau said Folin has to as one of the Wild's few bigger bodies. They're not looking for him to fight, but they want him to hit and use his frame in front of the net and along the boards in the D zone.

The Jets are loaded up front, although Bryan Little's injury will hurt.

But Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele are becoming world class and now the Jets introduce youngsters Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor. Laine will play with Wheeler and Scheifele tonight.

"We've played Connor twice," said Boudreau. "You can't give him an inch. He knows how to put the puck in the net. He's a natural at that. Laine, you see the shot he had [to score on in the season-opening win vs. Carolina]. I think he was rope-a-doping in preseason and now he's ready to play like a lot of guys. You just can't let him shoot. He's got a world-class shot."

"I think both [teams] realize that they have to beat each other if they want to make the playoffs," Boudreau said. "Out of the five games we play, every game's going to be a must game against these guys."

Asked if he was alluding to the potential that these teams could be fighting for one spot, Boudreau said, "That's what you guys feel. We might be fighting for first."