DENVER — In his first 48 hours as a member of the Minnesota Wild, defenseman Jeff Petry got a taste of the excitement and the reality of life with his latest NHL employer.

The excitement comes via his move from Florida, which is likely to be a spectator when the playoffs start next month. Minnesota, meanwhile, is all but a lock for the postseason and has designs on much more than just a playoff spot.

The reality came Friday night in Las Vegas, where Petry watched much of the Wild’s 4-2 win over the Golden Knights from the T-Mobile Arena press box. He’s one of the odd men out on a team that, when fully healthy, will have some tough choices to make about who makes the line chart on any given night.

Meeting with the Minnesota media for the first time on Friday afternoon, Petry acknowledged that reality.

“They’ve obviously put themselves in a good position with the crew that they have,” Petry said, acknowledging that the Wild were upfront about his role when they called to welcome him to Minnesota. “Whether that’s me stepping in, playing a handful here and there, whatever the situation is, that’s something that I’m fully ready to be with. (I’m) just excited to be a part of this and help the team in any way that I can.”

It is said that nobody in the NHL is fully healthy at this point in an 82-game season and, indeed, the Wild traveled to Nevada and Colorado without veteran forwards Marcus Johansson and Marcus Foligno. Those absences, and the departure of fourth-liner Vinnie Hinostroza in a trade to Florida, made it easy for Wild coach John Hynes to slot in new players Bobby Brink, Robby Fabbi and Michael McCarron versus Vegas.

One game into the new-look roster, Hynes already had to make the call to sit Petry, a veteran with more than 1,000 NHL games on his resume, and he knows he may have to do the same with McCarron, Nick Foligno or other pre-trade members of the roster down the final stretch of the regular season.

“It’s gonna happen,” Hynes said before the Vegas game. “It’s just being direct and honest. When you get in a situation like we’re in, where we’ve added players at the deadline, which the team deserved, then we want to give ourselves the best chance to have a strong last 20 games and get our game going and be ready for the playoffs.”

Some nights that might mean veterans like Johansson, Marcus Foligno, Ryan Hartman or others sitting when they’re otherwise good to go. Much like the friendly and respectful competition for playing time that drives goalie tandems, Hynes sees healthy rivalries on his new roster as players work to get noticed and find a spot in the game-night lineup.

McCarron was the most noticeable contributor right away, netting a goal and an assist while using his 6-foot-6 frame along the walls to be a disruptor — his primary job. Although when Brink was run from behind into the boards in the second period, Brock Faber took it upon himself to drop the gloves with the Vegas offender, earning a fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct.

In that action alone, from one of the Wild’s most skilled defensemen, McCarron saw an example of the roster he has joined, and the every night work that will be expected to guarantee playing time now and in the playoffs.

“It just shows everybody has each other’s back. Everybody trusts each other,” McCarron said. “It’s awesome to see Faber do that.”

Faber, for his part, was happy to play enforcer even for just a minute or so. But he didn’t like the aftermath.

“That was a long time in the box,” he said. “I don’t like doing that.”

But as the fully loaded Wild barrel headlong toward the playoffs, being an observer instead of a doer sometimes is one of the realities of this roster.

Related Articles

New additions look like aces as Wild win in Vegas

Bill Guerin says Wild ‘checked a lot of boxes’ at NHL trade deadline

Wild pull off trade with Blackhawks to reunite Foligno brothers in Minnesota

Wild bring Bobby Brink home to Minnesota in trade deadline deal

Wild trade for veteran defenseman Petry from Florida Panthers

That old saw about all that’s old being new again might be currently meeting its most extreme example on the stage of Minneapolis’ Children’s Theatre Company.

For there’s nothing much older than dinosaurs, the beasts that roamed the Earth and flew above it as late as 66 million years ago before an enormous asteroid blasted into the Earth, the resulting cataclysm wiping out the lot of them, according to the most commonly held scientific theory.

Lizzie Burder, left, as Miranda, with puppeteers in “Dinosaur World Live,” a touring production from England’s Nicoll Entertainment that runs at Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis through April 5, 2026. It features a young paleontologist exploring the world of dinosaurs, which are portrayed with life-size puppetry. (Glen Stubbe / Children’s Theatre Company)

But those ancient animals are making a comeback courtesy of an English theater company called Nicoll Entertainment. It created “Dinosaur World Live” in 2017, and it became popular enough to secure a spot in London’s West End (their Broadway) for a theatrical run that ended up earning the production an Olivier Award (their Tonys) in 2024. That staging is now out on the road, stopping in most towns for a single night. But Children’s Theatre Company has invited the Englanders to stay for a month.

Based upon opening night, I can tell you that – if you know a dinosaur-obsessed child aged in the single digits – they might find this 50-minute spectacle fascinating. Just don’t expect the experience to be particularly educational, for any information the host imparts about the animals is pretty consistently drowned out by screaming children.

Speaking of old, puppetry has been around for about 3,000 years. So you could call “Dinosaur World Live” the meeting of a very old art form with some very ancient animals – or at least how they’re theorized to have looked and behaved, according to paleontologists.

Is there a plot to this theater piece? Well, sort of. Your host, Miranda, offers a back story to the project that involves her family of scientists being shipwrecked on an island off South America upon which many of the dinosaurs somehow survived to the present day.

But, from there, this basically becomes a fantastical large-scale take on a bird show at the zoo, Miranda introducing you to each of the beasts with whom she’s developed a relationship, from a hawk-sized microraptor named Orlando to a giraffatitan named Gertrude too large to fit onstage.

As your host, Lizzie Burder makes for very enjoyable company, deftly mixing child-like enthusiasm with just enough frantic dread to convince you that this whole operation could turn dangerous at any moment. And she’s great with kids, which is important, in that she plucks at least four volunteers from the audience at each performance to come up onstage and aid in soothing addled animals.

Puppeteer Georgia Wall, left, and Lizzie Burder as Miranda in “Dinosaur World Live.” (Glen Stubbe / Children’s Theatre Company)

A team of five puppeteers helps bring designer Max Humphries’ imaginative creations to life, and they are indeed impressive, their human operators at least partially visible and wholly audible. So young audience members will never be able to totally suspend their disbelief.

Yes, it’s a puppet show, albeit perhaps the largest scale one you’ll ever encounter. While most offerings in that art form start with a story and then tell it via puppetry, “Dinosaur World Live” feels far more like the puppets came first and writer-director Derek Bond threw together something like a story to justify showing them off.

So there’s no story arc and not much to learn here, but the oohs and aahs of awestruck kids might be enough to keep the adults in attendance engaged.

‘Dinosaur World Live’

When: Through April 5

Where: Children’s Theatre Company, 2400 Third Ave. S., Minneapolis

Tickets: $109-$25, available at 612-874-0400 or childrenstheatre.org

Capsule: It’s all about the eye-popping puppets.

Related Articles

Theater review: Ordway hosts a weird and wonderful ‘Kimberly Akimbo’

Review: With new director, Chanhassen Dinner Theatres’ ‘Guys and Dolls’ shines

Theater review: Stirring ‘Les Miserables’ resonates with resolve and sadness

Theater review: Latte Da shifts to classic drama for an involving ‘Glass Menagerie’

Theater review: Guthrie’s ‘Macbeth’ an impeccably executed examination of evil

Investigators are looking for a hit-and-run driver who struck and killed a woman in Eagan early Saturday and fled the scene, according to a press release from Eagan Police Chief Salim Omari.

The chief gave the following details about the fatality:

Shortly before 2 a.m., Eagan police and the Minnesota State Patrol responded to reports of a pedestrian and vehicle accident at the intersection of Cliff and Nicols roads. When they arrived, they found a 40-year-old woman unconscious and not breathing. She was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The driver who struck her had fled the scene by the time authorities arrived.

Investigators believe the hit-and-run driver may have been driving a white 2021 or 2022 Honda HRV or Honda Civic. The vehicle most likely has significant damage to the front passenger side.

Police ask anyone with information to call 651-675-5700.

Related Articles

Man accused of tricking hundreds of teens into sending him pornographic images is brought to US

Forest Lake: Scammers sending emails impersonating city planning zoning staff

‘She lied to me,’ mom says at sentencing of Blaine child care worker in abuse case

St. Cloud autism center owner pleads guilty in $6 million fraud scheme

Fired Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore reaches plea deal to resolve home invasion case

It’s actually hard to believe the Vikings finished last season with a 9-8 record considering the quarterback play they got from J.J. McCarthy, Carson Wentz and Max Brosmer.

The offense was a disaster pretty much whenever it took the field. The defense was forced to do almost all the heavy lifting. Most of the wins the Vikings notched felt like they came in spite of whoever was playing quarterback.

As the Vikings reflected on everything that went wrong at quarterback — which included letting Sam Darnold walk in free agency, then having him go on to win a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks — they publicly acknowledged they need more from the position.

Though they still haven’t given up on McCarthy so early in his career, the Vikings clearly want to light a fire under him. That explains why they have been linked to virtually every quarterback imaginable over the past few weeks.

There are a number of different routes the Vikings could choose to go down when free agency begins next week. They could target a known commodity that would step in as unquestioned starter, a veteran presence that would open the door for a legitimate competition, or a reclamation project that would offer little resistance.

Not that it should really even be much of a discussion.

If the Vikings want to compete, Kyler Murray is the obvious choice.

It has been reported that the former No. 1 overall pick will be released by the Arizona Cardinals next week. They will be on the hook for paying $36.8 million in guaranteed money for the divorce to be finalized. The offset language in the contract means Murray will almost certainly play on the league minimum wherever he decides to sign next.

That could open the door for the Vikings. There’s reportedly mutual interest. Some insiders believe the marriage is a foregone conclusion.

Never mind that Murray has failed to reach his full potential at this point in his career. He has a singular skill set that allows him to impact the game with his arm and his legs despite his undersized 5-foot-10, 210-pound frame.

That alone should make Murray the top priority for the Vikings. He’s the most talented quarterback they currently have at their disposal. It’s not particularly close.

The other quarterbacks that could possibly be had include Geno Smith, Daniel Jones, Kirk Cousins and Aaron Rodgers, among a handful of others. None of them can touch Murray’s theoretical ceiling.

The basic stats speak themselves, even when taking into account some of Murray’s recent struggles that led to him being benched. He has completed 67.1% of his passes for 20,460 yards and 121 touchdowns in his career, while also rushing for 3,193 yards and 32 touchdowns.

It’s not hard to imagine Murray developing an instant connection getting to throw the ball to Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. It’s also not hard to imagine Murray helping improve the ground game with his feel as a scrambler.

There have been various stretches during which Murray has been a top 10 quarterback. His lack of consistency has prevented him from sustaining that success. That’s something the Vikings will have to navigate if they end up signing him.

The juice is still worth the squeeze for the Vikings in this circumstance. It’s not often that somebody with the ability to be a top 10 quarterback makes it to the open market.

Who cares that Murray might not be a perfect fit?

There isn’t going to be somebody who checks every box for the Vikings. They wouldn’t be available if that were the case. There’s a reason some of the fantasy trades for the likes of Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson and Justin Herbert aren’t on the table.

There’s going to be a ton of pressure on Kevin O’Connell to get the Vikings back to the playoffs next season after miscalculating how ready McCarthy was to contribute at the highest level.

The best way to start the process of righting that wrong would be signing the most talented quarterback out there.

Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray (1) runs from Minnesota Vikings linebacker Jonathan Greenard (58) during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn)

Related Articles

Vikings center Ryan Kelly announces his retirement

Vikings seem destined to add a quarterback. Some intel from the NFL Combine

How did the Vikings grade out in the annual NFLPA report cards?

Here’s how the Vikings can create more than $40 million in cap space

Who’s calling the shots for the Vikings in the short term?