Calm...before the Storm

(Updated 6:30 PM Monday, June 21)

Like the eerie, foreboding quiet usually associated with that time, prior to a tornado or severe thunderstorm marching thru your neighborhood and taking the electricity with it, this weekend is the calm before a storm of Wild-related events this coming two weeks.

The assault on good taste (yeah, it's JMO, so deal with it) begins on Monday morning when some poor Twin Cities area family gets invaded by various Wild 'personalities' (read: Kevin Falness, Dave Lee & the WCCO Radio Morning Show) as the Wells Fargo Wild Road Tour starts in some poor kid's suburban backyard. Not to mention the fact that all the Wild Road Tour participants will be marching thru the poor kids' yard, scaring the hell out of the dog, and eating the family out of house and home. (And that's just the Infiniti Broadcasting people, not the players or staff. Just the radio heads.)

The link to the official lineup (dates, cities, etc.) can be found here: http://wild.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=62222

Then, on Tuesday, the NHL schedule for 2010-11 is released (11 AM Central Time, now confirmed) so we all will know how tough a road it actually will be for the Wild next season, game by game.

Wednesday is the NHL Awards show in Las Vegas (6:30PM CT, Versus).

Thursday is the end of the Road Tour, the Wild Summer Bash, held this year at "Huge-dale" (a.k.a. the Mall of America) instead of at Rice Park like in previous seasons.

Friday (evening) and Saturday (all day), the NHL Entry Draft at LA's STAPLES Center. The Wild have 4 picks in the first 70 positions, anthithetical when you consider that for years, the Wild were expected to trade their draft picks away for next to nothing, under the Risebrough regime. Let's all see how good the remodelled scouting staff is after one full season together.

That brings us up to the final event. The one we've all been waiting for. Players, fans, coaches, front offices. July 1st.

Free agency day.

Enjoy your Wild week!

--WRT