Wild notes: Early schedule 'makes no sense'

Zach Parise looked at the Wild schedule a few weeks ago, was reminded that it played two games in the season's first nine days and said, "It makes no sense."

"It's like you're all of a sudden behind. You can go 2-0 and be in 12th place," Parise said, laughing. "I don't like that."

The schedule is the schedule though, all teams play 82 games eventually and the Wild will just have to deal with a bizarre schedule to start (after its home-and-home with Colorado on Thursday and Saturday, Minnesota doesn't play again until next Friday in Anaheim) and an especially difficult one.

Ten of the Wild's first 11 games come against teams that made the playoffs last season.

"You can't look past these points right now," Parise said. "With the way it's stacked up, you fall behind early, it's tough to get back in. It seems like the teams you're chasing never lose a game, so we want to get started in the right direction and get some good habits early and play well and win some games right away."

In Mike Yeo's first three seasons as Wild coach, the Wild got off to 3-3-3, 6-6-2 and 3-3-3 starts, respectively. Twenty games into last season, Yeo said he already decided that he would organize this training camp differently with the intent of getting off to a faster start.

Early in camp, Wild players were split into three groups so players would get more reps. Most regulars played at least four of the six exhibition games.

"It's good to jump right into the tough competition," forward Charlie Coyle said. "I like that we'll face all these teams now and see what everyone has to bring this year."

The announcements came in succession July 1, but as the Wild agreed to a three-year, $19.5 million deal with Thomas Vanek, Jarome Iginla agreed to a three-year, $16 million deal with Colorado.

The Wild showed great interest in Iginla, the career leading scorer against Minnesota, before choosing Vanek. The Wild was hesitant to give Iginla, 37, a third year.

"I was definitely considering it," Iginla said of signing with the Wild. "A good team, a good hockey city that keeps adding guys and is very competitive. They obviously ended up getting Vanek, but there were discussions."

Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom likes the new referee helmet cam being used in telecasts:

Speaking of Backstrom, Yeo said he wouldn't "lose any sleep" over deciding to start youngster Darcy Kuemper over the vet in Thursday's opener.

"[Kuemper] had a good camp, but it wasn't an easy decision because of the way that Backy performed in training camp," Yeo said.

Given Kuemper's playoff history at home (three goals in three games) against Colorado, Yeo said, "[Starting him] felt like the right call to make."

Cody Almond has returning to Geneva, Switzerland, in his back pocket, but the center who didn't make the Wild this week plans to give AHL Iowa a try first.

General Manager Chuck Fletcher has gotten calls from a few NHL teams looking to trade a player for Almond. However, the Wild prefers a draft pick rather than taking a contract back.

"My response is you should probably cheer for us because if the Wild wins a Cup, you're not going to be invited to any Cup parties," Johnson kidded. "That switches their opinion pretty quick."