"Coach Todd Richards plans to go with his "A" team when the Wild open their exhibition season at 7 tonight at Xcel Energy Center. Regulars Mikko Koivu, Andrew Brunette, Niklas Backstrom, Matt Cullen, Guillaume Latendresse, Martin Havlat, Brent Burns, Cal Clutterbuck and others will play against the St. Louis Blues. "It's a different approach than what we had last year," Richards said, remembering that he shuffled numerous young, untried players into his lineup during exhibition games. "We're really looking at these next four games — we play four games in five nights — at trying to get everything to fit." Minnesota travels to St. Louis for its second game Friday night, then plays host to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night and travels to Montreal to play the Canadiens on Sunday night. Several top-line players are likely to miss the games in St. Louis and Montreal, but Richards said the team will be set next week. "You want certain guys in the lineup because they need to play," he said, "but really, when we play the last two games against Columbus, we'll have our team for sure." The Blue Jackets will play host to the Wild on Tuesday, then play at the Xcel Energy Center on Thursday in the Wild's final game before Minnesota departs for Finland, where it will play one more exhibition before opening the season with games against the Carolina Hurricanes on Oct. 7-8. " http://www.twincities.com/wild/ci_16136844?nclick_check=1
