Wild makes best of a 'different' setting in empty Rogers Place

Crowds for exhibition games can sometimes be sparse and a little quiet. But the bubbles in Edmonton and Toronto have brought things to a whole new level this week in terms of quiet barns.

In front of a few dozen media, executives and scratched players, the Wild dropped the puck in its only tune up of the exhibition season Wednesday afternoon at Rogers Place.

But it's not a standard regular season game that will kickoff on Sunday night when the games matter for real ... it's the most consequential games of the season.

Minnesota dropped the game 3-2 to Colorado, which will begin round robin play against St. Louis, Vegas and Dallas in a few days, but it wasn't the final result that was the story afterward.

The Wild's power play went 1-for-8, and will need some sharpening before Sunday's Game 1 against the Vancouver Canucks.

Coach Dean Evason will need to name a starting goaltender between Alex Stalock and Devan Dubnyk. Stalock started Wednesday and allowed three goals on 17 shots, while Dubnyk played the second half of the game and stopped all 12 shots he saw.

The Wild, by all accounts, came out of the game without any major injuries.

All of that is fine and dandy, and critically important to the Wild's near future.

But finding a way to ramp up its energy in an empty building was a new experience for athletes trained to perform in front of loud, boisterous crowds that number in the tens of thousands ... not the dozens.

"Actually, I didn't think it took very long," said Wild forward Eric Staal. "To be honest, I thought it was pretty competitive early. It's been a long for two weeks battling each other in practice and all that kind of stuff. So I think it was just fun to play against somebody else and compete doing what we love to do.

"I thought it ramped up pretty early. The execution level needs to improve, but I think that's pretty natural for most teams and guys. We'll just keep building and just take steps day by day."

Staal scored the Wild's second goal of the afternoon, a puck luck beneficiary after Carson Soucy's pass from the point deflected up and hit Staal in the Wild crest on the front of his jersey. When it landed on the ice, it was right on the blade of his stick, and the veteran swept it between Philipp Grubauer and the left post, tying the game at 2-2.

Fans watching on TV heard the roar of the crowd and the familiar sounds of the Xcel Energy Center goal horn and Joe Satriani's "Crowd Chant," but the guys in the arena heard nothing but stick taps from the bench.

"I mean it is a little different," Stalock said. "There's not a huge roar when the puck goes in either way, and obviously that's a difference."

Stalock joked afterward that the already reticent Rogers Place got even quieter when the puck went behind him and into the net. It certainly will make a goaltender feel even more lonely in moments like that. But it's just something they will have to adjust to.

The things the NHL has done to help add some atmosphere to the arena have helped.

Instead of the cardboard cutouts fans have seen at empty baseball stadiums over the past week, the NHL covered the empty seats and constructed giant stages with large screens to add some ambiance and make the cavernous arenas seem, at least a little more intimate.

Still, it's impossible to create the kind of atmosphere normally seen during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

"It feels similar to an outdoor game, nothing close to the glass or any of that," Stalock said. "It is a little different feeling, when there's a goal scored, there's not a horn, not a crowd, it's just dead quiet, a few stick taps and a cheer. It takes some getting used to."

One thing that helped the Wild acclimate on Wednesday was its opponent.

Colorado is perhaps Minnesota's biggest rival and there was no love lost between the clubs. Even in an exhibition, the two teams combined for 18 penalties. At one point, Matt Dumba and Gabriel Landeskog were each assessed minors for some post-whistle pushing and shoving, and maybe a few jabs to boot.

"I think [the intensity] comes naturally with our rivalry against these guys," Dumba said. "I think everyone knows the importance of this game and to really just bring that energy to this so we're ready come the qualifiers. For me, it's heat of the moment still and it was just part of the game."

While the Wild and Canucks don't have a similar rivalry, at least in more recent years, it will be critical that Minnesota finds that same kind of energy early against Vancouver.

Empty arena or not, goal horns or not, atmosphere or not, the Wild can't afford to come out flat against the young and speedy Canucks.

If Wednesday's game is any indication, the Wild seems up to the task.

"Definitely right away, it was a little bit different, but it was also fun to just compete again," Staal said. "I thought both teams were competitive, were physical at times and got the emotions again into the game. That's why we all love this game and that was there.

"It's going to be different ... those chances, those looks offensively, usually you can hear the crowd of however many or that 'ooh' or 'ahh' and it's not there. But when you're in the heat of it, we'll just play and compete and try and accumulate the wins."

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