NHL season begins this evening

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The 2011-12 NHL regular season commences Thursday night with three contests, including the Boston Bruins starting defense of their Stanley Cup title when they host the Philadelphia Flyers.

Boston won a road Game Seven against Vancouver last spring to pick up its first Cup since the Bobby Orr-led Bruins won it all in 1972. Along the way, the Bruins also swept Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference semifinals, erasing the memory of an historic collapse against the Flyers in the 2010 playoffs.

Montreal takes on Toronto and Pittsburgh will play Vancouver in the other two games slated for tonight. The Penguins will be without Sidney Crosby, a former Shattuck-St. Mary's prep player in Faribault.

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The Minnesota Wild did not have an on-ice workout yesterday, instead first-year head coach Mike Yeo put his team through off-ice individual workouts. The team returned to the Twin Cities after two days of practices in Duluth. Forward Matt Cullen says the time in Duluth was valuable to really focus in on the instruction from the coaching staff and also served as a bit of a bonding trip for the team. The team will have an on-ice workout later this morning in St. Paul. Minnesota opens the regular season on Saturday night at home against Columbus in a 7 p.m. game.

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The Minnesota Wild assigned goalie Matt Hackett to Houston yesterday, meaning Josh Harding's injury is not as severe as first feared. The final 23-man roster was turned in yesterday and included Harding's name. Harding suffered an ankle injury over the weekend and Hackett was brought up for practice reinforcement. Cody Almond, Matt Kassian, and Mike Lundin will begin the year on Injured Reserve.

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