There was very little to nit-pick about the Wild’s season debut, as they handled the Blues in both ends of the ice, and skated out of St. Louis on Thursday with a convincing 5-0 win.

But improving health on defense allowed coach John Hynes to make one notable change in the lineup for the home opener, with veteran Jonas Brodin replacing work-in-progress David Jiricek on the blue line.

Brodin, 32, missed the season opener following offseason surgery for an upper body ailment but is back in action sooner than expected. Hynes admits they didn’t anticipate Brodin would be available in October.

“I’m really excited. It’s been a good rehab over the summer, and I’ve been working hard and I feel ready to play now,” said Brodin, who has been skating with the team in practice while wearing a bright gold jersey to indicate limited contact.

After missing 32 regular season games last season, Brodin returned for all six playoff games and skated for Team Sweden in May at the World Championships.

“I felt good in the World Championships, and then something happened in one of those games there,” Brodin said. “It’s good to get it fixed so I’m 100 percent this year.”

Jiricek, the former first-round draft pick acquired by the Wild in a trade last season, had some visible struggles in St. Louis.

Minnesota survived a bad first period turnover, when Jiricek’s attempted touch pass went right to the stick of dangerous Blues forward Robert Thomas, forcing Filip Gustavsson’s point-blank save. In the second period, he took the Wild’s first penalty after getting caught for an extended stretch in the defensive zone.

The Wild coach said they will continue to work with Jiricek on his skating and on his decision-making.

“He continues to be a work in progress,” Hynes said of Jiricek. “The thing I like about it is there’s some mistakes, it’s nice when you can make a mistake and it doesn’t wind up in the back of the net. But I do see some of the things that we’re talking about with him about, that there’s progress there.”

With the Wild currently carrying eight defensemen on the roster, the coach anticipates healthy competition for the final game-night spots.

“It’s going to be competitive to get in. We feel like we’ve got eight guys that can play,” Hynes said.

Haight welcomed

Wild rookie forward Hunter Haight had his girlfriend and his parents, who live near London, Ontario, make it to St. Louis to see the 21-year-old’s solo lap around Enterprise Center prior to the season opener.

“That’s something you dream of as a kid, and have it happen in real life,” Haight said.

While all of it was a thrill, Haight admits one of the more special moments came from a foe in the faceoff circle when he matched up versus Blues veteran center Brayden Schenn in the first period.

“It was actually really classy from Schenn,” Haight recalled. “In my first faceoff against him, he just welcomed me to the league and asked who was there. It was a class act from him, and that was really cool for me.”

Without Nico Sturm, the faceoff specialist acquired by the Wild over the summer and now out of the lineup indefinitely, the Wild are looking to other sources to win draws. Haight won five of the eight faceoffs he took in the debut.

“As a centerman, you’ve got to win draws if you want to stick,” Haight said. “That’s something that’s super crucial to my game, and that will certainly help me out.”

Haight made his home debut on Saturday, centering the team’s fourth line.

Related Articles

Young leadership group vital as Wild mix newbies into key roles

Four must-try new foods at Wild games this season

Wild deliver Hartman attack to Blues in opener

St. Louis means excitement and also painful memories for Zeev Buium

Vladimir Tarasenko finds opportunity in his welcome to the Wild

The Gophers men’s basketball team renewed the maroon and gold scrimmage on Saturday at Williams Arena.

For new head coach Niko Medved, the focus was not on learning new things about his squad, but more about re-establishing fans’ connection to its hoops team. After the one-hour sessions, there was a meet-and-greet for players and fans.

“If one of these guys makes a connection with a new young Gopher fan, that can last for the rest of your life,” Medved told reporters. “That happened to us in Colorado (State). It might be an organic connection that happens right here with a family and a young kid that gets to meet a player and come watch them. (They might say:) “Mom and dad, I want to keep going to the Gopher games.”

More than 1,000 fans turned out to The Barn for the first such scrimmage since 2018, back when Richard Pitino was head coach.

Here are five takeaways:

Initial scorers

Guard Chansey Willis, a transfer from Western Michigan, and forward Cade Tyson, a transfer from North Carolina, showed some scoring touch in the two eight-minute “games.”

Willis, who is listed at 6 feet 2, was able to finish at the rim and from 3-point range. One of the biggest highlights was his steal, a reverse lay-up in transition, plus a foul.

“Chansey can get in the lane, Isaac (Asuma) can get in the lane,” Medved said. “We do have some guys with some quickness who can create, and we’ve seen that from (Chansey) every day. He is going to be a player, I think, Gopher fans will like.”

Tyson had a finish amid traffic in the paint and a trey with Jaylen Crocker-Johnson’s hand in his face.

Tyson also got a chunk of his points at the free-throw line, which was an area where the Gophers struggled mightily during the Ben Johnson era.

Winning buckets

Center Robert Vaihola, a transfer from San Jose State, and forward Bobby Durkin, a transfer from Davidson, each made scrimmage-sealing buckets at the end of the two sessions.

The 6-foot-8 Vaihola got an offensive rebound and finished through contact from Tyson. Vaihola averaged 7.5 rebounds per game last season.

“Rebounding always translates,” Medved said. “Having played against him in the Mountain West, he was one of the best offensive rebounders.”

Durkin hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key in the second segment. The 6-7 product out of the Chicago area averaged 35.5% from deep last season in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

High standard

Multiple Gophers players at the U’s media day Friday talked about Medved’s attention to detail on the practice court. That was apparent in a few areas on the offensive end Saturday, primarily in firm screens, crisp cuts and near-constant ball movement.

Annual thing

Medved started holding preseason scrimmages tied to homecoming football games when he was the head coach at Furman from 2013-17 and continued it through his seven-year tenure at Colorado State that ended last season.

Medved likes a game-like scene when the lights are on, pregame music is playing and fans are watching.

This sort of thing might be looked at helpful after both the maroon and gold sides didn’t score for the opening three minutes.

Up next

The Gophers will take the next step with their first exhibition game against North Dakota State coming to the Barn for a 7 p.m. tipoff on Thursday. North Dakota will visit Oct. 25 for the second and final exhibition.

No students were spotted at The Barn on Saturday. “They are too busy having fun down the road,” Medved said with a laugh, referencing homecoming parties on fraternity row along University Avenue.

Students will be able to get in free for the exhibition games. The season opener is Nov. 3, when Gardner-Webb comes to the Barn.

Gophers men’s basketball coach Niko Medved talks to media members during the last day of summer practice for the team at the Cunningham Basketball Performance Center at the University’s Athletes Village in Minneapolis on Thursday, July 31, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Related Articles

A few things to expect from Gophers men’s basketball under Niko Medved

Gophers men’s basketball picked to finish 16th in Big Ten

Gophers men’s basketball looks to add to strong recruiting class

Q&A: Gophers AD Mark Coyle on budget deficit, revenue sharing and Big Ten expansion

Gophers men’s basketball lands bruising big man recruit from California

The Gophers’ secondary continues to be the position group most-affected by injuries this season.

The U posted key cornerback Mike Gerald and safety Aidan Gousby as out on the unavailability report posted two hours before the homecoming game against Purdue at Huntington Bank Stadium.

Safety Garrison Monroe, who missed the last two games, was not listed on the report, setting up his return to play against the Boilermakers.

The U will also be without cornerback Naiim Parish, defensive lineman Theo Randle and Mo Omonode, offensive lineman DJ Shipp, receiver Cristian Driver and running back Cristian Driver.

Related Articles

Gophers football: Growing student section brings ‘juice’ to home games

Gophers football vs. Purdue: Keys to game, how to watch, who has edge

Gophers football: Big Midwest schools want Shakopee’s Blake Betton

Gophers’ offensive line issues tied to Ohio State in more ways than one

Gophers must regroup after getting ‘butt kicked’ at Ohio State

If the cult techno sci-fi films “Tron” (1982) and “Tron: Legacy” (2010) are about humans going into “the grid” of the digital world, then the newest installment in this franchise, “Tron: Ares,” is about the digital world invading our own. Allegorically, this feels right for our particular moment, the film depicting AI super soldiers wreaking a path of destruction through human cities, but despite the ethical questions the film presents, it still can’t shake the franchise’s enduring techno-optimism (or inevitability), even as it encourages getting “offline.”

This iteration of “Tron” is helmed by Norwegian director Joachim Rønning, with a screenplay by Jesse Wigutow. The Flynn men, Kevin (Jeff Bridges) and his son Sam (Garrett Hedlund, who starred in “Legacy”) are now out of the picture, and two warring tech companies are locked in an arms race for the future of artificial intelligence. The Kim sisters have taken over the Flynns’ company, ENCOM, while bratty upstart Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) runs Dillinger Systems under the watchful, but ultimately powerless, eye of his mother (Gillian Anderson).

While Eve Kim (Greta Lee) searches for a message from her late sister, an AI optimist who believed in the tech’s possibility to improve human life, Julian Dillinger is 3D-printing digital tanks and “expendable” super soldiers off his grid for investor presentations. Too bad their real-world lifespan is only 29 minutes. When he gets wind that Eve has located a “permanence code” thanks to her sister’s message, Julian sends his two best soldiers, Ares (Jared Leto) and Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith) to retrieve the code by any means necessary.

A scene from Disney’s “Tron: Ares.” (Disney Enterprises, Inc./TNS)

If the appeal of “Tron” was its groundbreaking computer-generated imagery and forward-thinking concept, then the appeal of “Legacy” was its sleek sci-fi design and digital disco score by Daft Punk, offering more of a vibes-based experience than absorbing narrative. “Ares” tackles more story, but the style is borrowed from “Legacy,” just in new colorways — Dillinger’s digital squadron is cloaked in menacing red neon — and Nine Inch Nails offers up a crunchy, industrial, sexy soundtrack for the action.

But the story itself is bitten from a tale over 200 years old, one that now seems a part of our primordial DNA, or at least the DNA of the stories we tell ourselves over and over again. That is, of course, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” If the themes of creating a monster that starts to think on its own weren’t clear enough, the book is directly referenced when Ares, stalking Eve, catches a glimpse of her reading it in a social media video. As he quickly processes the book’s content, a few lines make an impression. Ares is already starting to question things, like Julian’s words about his soldiers being “expendable,” and the deletion of a fellow “program” during a hacking mission in the ENCOM grid (cleverly visualized like breaking and entering). Combined with a new sensation, a “feeling” when he experiences rain, and learning about “Frankenstein,” his system is primed to go rogue.

Typically in sci-fi, artificial intelligence gaining sentience means bad things for human beings. But as Eve posits in a televised interview, “what if its major malfunction is benevolence?” Optimistic, as always. What “Tron: Ares” suggests is that independent thinking can result in benevolence and empathy. It’s following the directive, by any means necessary, that results in death and destruction.

With his searching, but empty blue eyes, Leto is physically perfect for playing a questioning AI, and Lee brings her steely presence to bear on Eve, Peters the appropriately slimy essence to Julian. Turner-Smith demonstrates her “Terminator” bona fides as well. But the problem with “Ares” is the script, which spells out everything for us. There’s no subtext, room for interpretation or ambiguity, especially as it plays out like the scene of Frankenstein’s monster discovering a daisy. Wouldn’t it be more fun if we could uncover these themes on our own, without being prompted?

Rønning, who helmed a later “Pirates of the Caribbean” film and “Young Woman and the Sea,” provides serviceable direction of the material, without offering much innovation. The film loses fidelity toward the end, as it becomes a crashy, pixelated monster movie, as the real world has no capability for hosting the sleek, bloodless appeal of the grid.

Ultimately, “Tron: Ares” grapples with questions that plague us all, like how nefarious self-sentient artificial intelligence might be. It lands on the diplomatic argument that AI is only as good as the person wielding it, but doesn’t offer answers on how to ensure that (aside from a big old battle). But furthermore, it can’t answer the question of any AI evangelist: why try to make AI more human when we can just be human ourselves?

Perhaps that’s too much to ask of a sci-fi movie that should be more about style than substance. All “Tron: Ares” needed to be was a vibe, but it delivers existential questions that are pre-chewed pablum, rather than searching moral quandaries.

‘Tron Ares’

2.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG-13 (for violence/action)

Running time: 1:59

How to watch: In theaters Oct. 10

Related Articles

Winter Carnival: Candidates sought for 2026 Aurora, Queen of the Snows

‘House of David’ star Michael Iskander says season two resonates beyond the religious

No chair turns for Stillwater singer on ‘The Voice,’ but coaches are encouraging

Woodbury Central Park to reopen this month in phases

Taylor Swift’s ‘The Official Release Party of a Show Girl’ debuts at No. 1 with $33 million