This is the Jeff Merrick Show on the Sports Net Radio Network.

I've got a friend of mine that hates when I refer to the Dallas Minnesota match-ups as the norm green

cup. Ouch! But tonight we'll see the Dallas Stars face off against the

Minnesota Wild. Joining me now to talk about all things Minnesota's our good friend Mike Russo from the

athletic. All right today Mike? I'm doing great how you're doing Jeff? I'm doing well and

I'm gonna I'll say something just sort of betray my bias here to to begin the

conversation. I really like

the Minnesota Wild. I like the idea of what Bill Guerin is trying to do here. I

love the marriage of skill and toughness. I look at the Minnesota wild and I say to myself that's the

blueprint for what the Philadelphia Flyers are trying to do every time I hear someone from Philadelphia,

and it's most notably John Tortorella,

talk about what they're trying to do

and bring back old orange and new school skill

with old school toughness and these types of things,

I say, what he's saying is we would like what Minnesota

has and what Minnesota is trying to build here so what I'll start the conversation

off with is I really like what Bill Guerin is trying to do. I love it. I really want it to be successful

because I want more hockey like that. But there seems to be a problem. What is in your estimation the problem here?

Yeah, to say the least there's a problem.

I mean, right now they're not playing the way

that Bill Garin built them for playlight, right?

And that is a team that goes to the net and plays in hard areas and and things like that.

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