Now we know the WILD of it...

after the 5th loss in preseason, after they cleared waivers, the Wild have re-assigned old favorites Robbie Earl, Petr Kalus, Warren Peters and Jon DiSalvatore to Houston.

While Justin Falk is having some good game(s):

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/photos?gameId=300928029&photoId=854963#

So, we shall have pretty much the same team on ice down here, as last year.

Unless....

Definitely NOT here will be: Irmen, Smith, Hilbert, Testwuide, Milroy, Lanon, Gunderson and Brust.

With Rodgers, Sifers and Zingoni, plus several NEW faces, etc. still on the camp list,

the battle for spots on this season's Aeros roster will be intense.

Thursday at 10 AM is one more training session at Slice,

 and  Friday at 7 PM is the 1. pre- season game vs Rampage

(now boasting the 2 Matts (:-) as in Beaudoin and Climie).

Been  told a few, a very few seats still available - NEW this year are assigned seating & parking passes.

When it comes to Anton Khudobin there seems to be no rush for a decision, since Backstrom, not Khudobin, played in the third against the Columbus Blue Jackets, widely conceived as "C" team.

So, AK warmed the bench again, and we all know from past experiences THAT a 'benched

 Anton is a 'rusty' Anton, alas. He is still slated to go to Finland BUT...what happens after that?

Something really bugs me about this, not that I am a died-in-the-wool baseball fan, but...

During a  recent game the attendance in the stands was about 12,500 while a  tweet posted during, or just after, the game, by Rays' Pitcher was followed by almost that same number, 12,100, .. a sign of the times?  Why bother to build arenas - with taxpayers money no less - when they stand mostly empty? Just have VIRTUAL games via the net.... LOL.

T'is will be the seasons for couch potatoes!

And more in that vein: California university slashes funding for sports, or so I hear! Eliminated are Baseball, women's LaCrosse, women's and men's gymnastics, men's rugby becomes strictly a varsity sport... this measure is thought to SAVE 4 Million.

But that's not all, academic funds are slashed as well.

California once more leading the pack in 'innovations'... will the rest of the states follow soon?