The Wild's schedule is expected to be released Sunday afternoon, but I have heard a few details through the grapevine -- one that is expected to be announced later Saturday.
The Wild will open the season Oct. 9 with a home-and-home against the Colorado Avalanche, the Central Division champs the Wild defeated in seven games in the first round a few months back.
The Wild's supposed to continue to Anaheim and Cup champion Los Angeles after playing in Denver, but unless the Wild managed to get the NHL to squeeze another game in there, the Wild, last I heard, had five or six days off before playing its third game of the season in Anaheim.
Some other tidbits: The Kings come to Minnesota the first time Nov. 26. The Wild has a home-and-home with Winnipeg in December, plays in Columbus on New Year's Eve and closes the season with three games on the road in a bit of a meat grinder at Chicago, Nashville and St. Louis. That follows consecutive home games against the Rangers, Detroit and Winnipeg.
As I mentioned last week, no outdoor game this season. It was supposed to be in February against Dallas at Target Field.
According to an NHL source, the Wild is at the "top of the list" for a stadium-series game and was scheduled to have a game this year. What held it up was timing and logistics, the source said. The Wild wants to make this a huge event by having outdoor high school and college games accompanying the stadium series game.
The problem, I'm told, is the league wants the game to be here in February and for this upcoming season, the colleges had their schedules already booked and couldn't just insert an outdoor game into their schedules right before their playoffs. In addition, February is getting awfully close to Twins season and could cause havoc on Target Field's ... field.
The league source said, "At the end of the day, both of us determined that next year would be better. It's going to happen next year."
