from Michael Russo of the Star Tribune,

Before every game, more than a dozen Wild players, most young, some old(er), find a dark spot in the bottom of any arena for a game of soccer hackysack.

As the ball bobs off heads, feet and knees and arena pillars, piping and parapets, loud, laughing teammates are wearing T-shirts that say, “I’M COMMITTED” on the front and “OUR TIME IS NOW!” on the back.
There’s no doubt the Wild’s best chance of delivering the Stanley Cup to the “State of Hockey” in the organization's 16 years is now and begins Wednesday night against St. Louis Blues.

The Wild, as deep as it has ever been, had its best regular season in franchise history and scored more goal than every team in the West. It was only 6½ weeks ago that General Manager Chuck Fletcher put all his “chips in the middle of the table for this year” and freighted a haul of draft picks to Arizona for Martin Hanzal because “we are taking a swing” for the Cup.

Three players who don’t take part in the soccer warmup are elder statesmen Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. They have other means of prepping for games.

But the slogan, “Time is Now,” arguably best describes the Wild’s captain and his two lieutenants.

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