Gameday: Minnesota Wild vs Columbus Blue Jackets, 10/3/09

Quick Hits: Plenty of interest surrounds this game other than it being the first game of the year for each team. When these two teams met during the pre-season in Columbus, Eric Belanger's hit on Jason Chimera frustrated many Columbus players, including Chimera himself.

Does Columbus retaliate during tonight's contest?

How will the new-look Wild fare in their first game with new coach Todd Richards?

Does Todd Richards get his first career win as head coach?

w00t! First REAL gameday of the season!

I'll update the Wild rosters once Russo posts them... (although they'll probably be similar to what they had in Philly)

Wild 3
BJs 2

Koivu, Havlat, and Mittens a goal each

Solo stats (career):

Niklas Bäckström is 5-1-0 against CBJ in his career with a GAA of 2.03 and SV% of 0.927
Josh Harding is 1-1-0 against CBJ in his career with a GAA of 3.52 and SV% of .883
Pierre-Marc Bouchard has 19-points (6-goals, 13-assists) in 21 career games against CBJ.
Andrew Brunette has 26-points (4-goals, 22-assists) in 30 career games against CBJ.
Marty Havlát has 22-points (8-goals, 14-assists) in 20 career games against CBJ.
Mikko Koivu has 9-points (3-goals, 6-assists) in 12 career games against CBJ.
Owen Nolan has 17-points (6-goals, 11-assists) in 20 career games against CBJ.
Marek Židlický has 30-points (6-goals, 24-assists) in 32 career games against CBJ.

Rick Nash has 11-points (6-goals, 5-assists) in 20 career games against MIN.
Kristian Huselius has 14-points (5-goals, 9-assists) in 27 career games against MIN.
R.J. Umberger has 0-points (0-goals, 0-assists) in 6 career games against MIN.
Nikita Filatov has 3-points (3-goals, 0-assists) in 1 career game against MIN.
Steve Mason is 1-1-0 against MIN in his career with a GAA of 2.94 and SV% of .888
Matthieu Garon is 5-3-0 against MIN in his career with a GAA of 2.73 and SV% of .908

Other stats (last season):
Wild went 14-3-1 when Koivu scored a goal, and 12-3-1 when he notched two or more points.
Wild went 15-5-2 when Brunette scored a goal.
Wild was 16-5-3 when Miettinen was +1 or better, and 8-3-2 when he scored a goal.
Wild was 18-1-1 when Belanger played to a plus-rating, and went 9-3-0 when Belanger scored a goal.
Wild is 32-4-2 when Bouchard scores a goal dating to 12/23/06 and 14-1-0 all-time when he scores three or more points.
Wild is 23-8-4 all-time when Burns scores a goal.
Wild was 16-2-1 when Zidlicky skated to +1 or better.

I don't know why, but Jackets don't really turn me on.

Almost gametime!

So far Butch is awful, just got a penalty, he's been missing hits and i swear i saw him afraid to enter the zone on his own, man he's not even 2nd line material.

Bruno Koivu and Havlat have been kicking ass, so has Burns and Shepp has looked good so far.

Nothin Nothin after 1.

Intense game...chances both ways.

Anyone know an internet video feed that's working?

And the first goal we give up is a shortie... ouch!

yeah that was bad turnover, Nash almost had another one.

one of the worst PPs ive ever seen

Wish the atdhe.net feed was working...

We're getting a decent amount of shots tonight, already have 21 for the game... are they quality shots or low percentage ones?

1-0 BJ's after two...

the only real chances i've seen have been on the Koivu line, there is still some hesitation to attack tho, i've seen a number of time when only 1 fore checker goes in.

I tuned after the first so I didn't see about half of those shots. It seemed like there were a few decent opportunities during that man advantage... then shorty.

Ok guys, final period, time to start the season...

anybody just see koivu's stick handling before that whistle? ridiculous.

Let's go Bee Jays *clap clap clapclapclap*

(Yea, I'm a VERY bitter hockey fan today)

Ok, let's have a GOOD PP this time!

c'mon PP.

Bruno! What a move!