Wild outmatched in St. Louis, but Yeo learned a lot; Fletcher on the Prosser pickup

Here's your stream of consciousness blog following tonight's slugfest exhibition game between the St. Louis and the "Minnesota Wild."

I put that in quotes because the game featured minor-leaguers, roster hopefuls and a smattering of regulars like Nino Niederreiter, Charlie Coyle, Kyle Brodziak, Erik Haula and Keith Ballard.

-- Blues won 4-1. Outshot the Wild 37-15. Nik Backstrom, behind a severely overmatched team, was solid with 33 saves. The Blues buzzed for 60 minutes basically, and at a minimum, Backstrom got a workout.

"He was great all night," said coach Mike Yeo.

Not an easy game for Backstrom. The Wild arrived at the rink about 5:30 p.m. after taking a similar re-route into St. Louis that I mentioned I took on my flight. Not easy to skate in Minnesota, fly to a city and arrive that late, especially when you're a goalie with pregame routines as well-documented as Backstrom.

"It's a pretty good team," Backstrom said. "They played with a great lineup. It was a challenge for us. We battled hard. It was a long, tough day for us. It was tough for us to prepare the right way for this game, so we hung in there."

On his game (the game was 1-1 despite the Wild being outshot 23-10 after 2 and spending almost every second of the second period in the defensive zone: "You want to win, even if it's preseason. You want to win. You want to get better. It's still a process for me to try to improve everyday, get heading in the right direction. Tomorrow's a new day. I'll try to work on my game a bit better tomorrow."

"Wakeup call, but I'm still here," he said.

-- Gongshow tonight. Ninety-two combined penalty minutes in the game, with Joel Rechlicz, called up for this game, compiling 25 of the Wild's 50 PIM's.

Just a nasty game right from the outset. It started early when Paul Bissonnette nearly ran Matt Dumba into East St. Louis. Luckily, Dumba saw it coming and dodged the charge. Seconds later, Ryan Reaves almost took Joel Rechlicz's head off at center ice.

Rechlicz was slow to get up, finally did, saw Reaves coming and tried to slash him. When Reaves skated in on the forecheck, Rechlicz turned and made a beeline for the Wild end and jumped Reaves, a sign of things to come.

Rechlicz got four minutes, Reaves two.

In the second, after a Blues icing, Mike Yeo threw his fourth line on the ice for an offensive-zone draw. There was a quick stoppage, so when Yeo only changed his D, Ken Hitchcock threw his fourth line on the ice.

That was an indication that we would see the long anticipated Rechlicz-Reaves bout, and it was a nasty smackdown with big bombs thrown. Later, Justin Falk fought BizNasty. After the ensuing faceoff, Rechlicz and Reaves, who running around aimlessly all night, got into it again. Referee Francis Charron gave Rechlicz two for unsportsmanlike conduct and a 10-minute misconduct for inciting.

In the third, more rough stuff. Patrik Berglund got away with cross-checking Nino Niederreiter right in front of the ref. Reaves pushed Jon Blum onto Backstrom. No call. Late, Keith Ballard hauled down Alex Steen. Steen slashed Ballard, and Ballard retaliated with a slash to the gut. Kevin Shattenkirk sprinted in from the blue line and jumped Ballard with 4:07 left.

Ballard got 2 for holding, 2 for slashing and a 5 for fighting. Shattenkirk got two for ROUGHING, five for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct. I put that in caps because the rough is hysterical. If that was a 2-5-10 for instigating (like it should have been), Shatternkirk could have gotten a possible suspension and Hitchcock a fine because it happened with 4:07 left (less than five minutes left in a game). But the refs gave them a break.

Then, in the final moments, Yeo and Hitchcock put their fourth lines on the ice. Rechlicz and Reaves predictably were running around at the buzzer and a huge scrum erupted.

I asked Yeo what he learned tonight:

"I expected a physical game," Yeo said. "We've been in this building enough times that we've seen a few of these games. You know what, our guys didn't back down tonight, that's for sure. We learned who's ready to come and play in a game like this, and that's what you need to see. We're going to play in a lot of tough buildings and we've got to be ready to execute when you know that the other team might come and finish a check. We saw guys that were ready and willing to do that and get in there for their teammates.

"I think we got what we needed from this game from an evaluation standpoint."

Yeo said he liked the way Ballard battled for his teammates and thought Charlie Coyle was a "big, strong horse. I think he needed that." I agree Coyle played a gutsy game, but this morning, Yeo said he wanted Coyle to make plays and I didn't see much of that.

I liked Nino Niederreiter's game.

Of Zucker, Yeo said, "There was good moments. I would say overall I would rate his game as good, definitely better than average."

"We were all coming in here with the mindset to battle," Zucker said. "We know it's a hard building to play in. On paper, it was a little bit of a mismatch with their lineup and ours, but we just wanted to come in and battle, and I thought we did that."

On his camp: "I think I've come in and done what I wanted to do. Tried playing hard. We'll just see what happens."

I personally don't see how he doesn't deserve to make the team. With the Wild's top-9, he offers more to the fourth line than any other roster hopeful I have seen in camp. He has worked to get better defensively. He has tried to play physical. He brings speed, which can bring momentum. And he has embraced the penalty kill role and done it well.

-- I liked Christian Folin's game a lot. Four shots, solid defensively. He's just smart and keeps things simple, and gives Minnesota a big body.

I admit. With Nate Prosser in the fold now, I have no clue what's going to happen. My gut still is Dumba starts down. This is about development and the need for a 20-year-old to develop the proper way.

But, let's just say six defensemen that stay now are obviously Ryan Suter, Jonas Brodin, Jared Spurgeon, Marco Scandella, Ballard and Prosser. Do you keep seven or eight?

If it's eight, and Folin and Dumba both make it, that means Ballard and Prosser are seven and eight. If the Wild wants Ballard to start the season inside the top-6 and Prosser is here, that leaves room for only one of Folin or Dumba.

A lot will depend on whether the Wild feels it needs Dumba to now play that second PP-unit pointman role. If not, maybe he starts in Iowa.

I really like Folin's game. His game seems more NHL ready. He has a big shot. He's poised, offers a big shot in front of the net and can play the PK.

OK, now I'm really confused. I had a better feeling of what was going to happen before Prosser was in the mix. Now, I just don't know.

Up front, again, I think Zucker makes it. With Justin Fontaine hurt, there's two spots if Zucker makes it. Michael Keranen, Cody Almond (one-way, can go back to Europe if he clears waivers), Brett Sutter, Stephane Veilleux and again maybe they look at Bickel as the extra.

-- OK, onto Prosser. I chatted with Chuck Fletcher before the game and his reasoning for taking Prosser off waivers was pretty much what I spelled out earlier. The coaches know and trust his game, he's a good character guy who fits well in the Wild room and he provides veteran depth. Last year, he proved valuable when the Wild lost Keith Ballard, Clayton Stoner, Jared Spurgeon and Marco Scandella to injuries at different times.

Ballard is oft-injured and already experienced abdominal soreness in camp, so Fletcher thought he would get some insurance, saying that Prosser is the type of player who wouldn't have been available a month from now. Blues writers say Prosser outplayed Petteri Lindbohm in camp, but Lindbohm has the hammer to return to Finland if he doesn't make the team. It's kinda like Almond, who can return to Switzerland, or Keranen, who can return to Finland.

If Keranen doesn't make the team, by the way, the Wild seen to think he'll try Iowa initially. I just don't think he's ready. He's skilled and smart, but his strength is a real issue, and if there's no room on the power play, can he play a momentum-turning fourth-line role?

So sounds like he's here, which either hurts Bickel or means Dumba or Folin will initially start in Iowa. Again, they're only both playing if they're both inside the top-6. The Wild's not keeping one if they're going to be an oft-healthy scratch.

The Wild may make some cuts Friday, so perhaps we'll get a better indication. Yeo also said a couple of these guys the Wild may want to make another evaluation on could play in Saturday's exhibition finale.

Fletcher also said the Prosser move wasn't a precursor to another move. In other words, some have speculated Ballard's about to be moved and that's why he got Prosser. Fletcher said this isn't the precursor to anything, that it was honestly just an insurance move and you can never have too many NHL defensemen.

He said it's no secret that back in July he said at some point he wanted to add another NHL defenseman and that it's much easier to do that now than a month from now.

He also reminded that whatever the opening-night roster ends up being, "Whatever we start with first game is going to change repeatedly. It'll be very fluid all season long due to poor performance, injuries or adjustments the coaches want to make. We're going to need a lot of defensemen."

So Fletcher basically is saying don't freak out if the opening night lineup is not exactly what you envision because in his eyes, he's coming up with lineups from game to game.

Anyway, that's it for me. Hopefully I didn't confuse you more than you already were. I have to get back to the hotel now because I'm planning a little 3-4 a.m. WAKEUP!!! (yikes) so I can try to bang out my Sunday piece before my a.m. flight.

I'll be at practice Friday working ahead of some stuff for next week's preview section, but I'll tweet and blog when there are some cuts. Kent Youngblood is technically doing the daily coverage though Friday.