Good late afternoon on the eve of the opening of the 2010 training camp. Finally, right?
It's been a long offseason, even by Russo long offseason standards. Two weeks from today, the Wild hosts Columbus in an exhibition game, and then hits the friendly sky just about midnight for Helsinki, Finland -- home of one Niklas Backstrom.
Actually, Iceland for refueling, but eventually Helsinki. Bax has agreed to put up the team at his house. And cook dinner every night.
Training camp essentially opens Friday with fitness testing and physicals, but really it starts Saturday because that's when the boots are laced up. Remember, open, free scrimmage from 10-noon at Xcel Energy Center on Sunday.
In Friday's editions, please check out the Matt Cullen feature. The new Wild centerman graciously allowed myself and photographer Carlos Gonzalez to trail him around Moorhead/Fargo a few weeks ago, so there'll be a story in Friday's paper and a cool photo gallery with Cullen's voiceover on startribune.com Friday. I'll also probably post a "Cullen Extra" blog tonight or tomorrow morning.
I wrote about this last night, but the Wild has officially increased its roster from 35 to 51 with 16 promotions from the Traverse City championship rookie squad. Four are tryouts -- Jared Spurgeon, Colton Jobke, Josh Caron and Brandon Buck.
The roster's really 50 because injured James Sheppard is still included.
Here's the updated roster:
