No excuses.
That was Bruce Boudreau’s message for the injury-ravaged Wild on Saturday morning in advance of their home opener against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Gone from the lineup: Minnesota’s first, fourth, fifth and eighth leading scorers from last season in Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter and Zach Parise and newcomer Marcus Foligno.
Into the lineup: Luke Kunin, Landon Ferraro, Zack Mitchell and Christoph Bertschy.
Kunin will be making his NHL debut, while the latter three have combined for 94 NHL games and six goals and six assists. All six of those goals, five of the assists and 75 of the games belong to Ferraro, who hasn’t played an NHL game since April 9, 2016, with the Boston Bruins.