Heckuva fun preseason finale here tonight in the City of Brotherly Love, but I’m counting down the seconds now to Opening Night Saturday. Finally.

Here’s one big reason why I miss covering the East. Few greater hockey writers than CSNPhilly.com’s Tim Panaccio, the former Philly Inquirer writer. The guy’s just hilarious and a close friend. As we get in the press elevator, he puts his hand on my shoulder and says, “There’s nothing more reprehensible than a shootout in the preseason.”

I’m still howling. You’ve got to know Panotch to really find it funny. Just a proud Italian, but aren’t we all?

Wild rallied from a 2-0 deficit tonight to win. It was a blah game, as Cal Clutterbuck likes to say, until he shoved Mike Richards by the Flyers bench in the second. Richards lost his mind and cross-checked Clutterbuck in the face. Somehow it was only a roughing minor, but the comeback was on after Marty Havlat cut it to 2-1 on the subsequent power play.

The Flyers spent the rest of the night trying to separate Clutterbuck’s limbs, and there was an especially funny jawing match in the penalty boxes between Clutterbuck and Daniel Carcillo.

Afterward, Wild coach Todd Richards — no relation to Mike Richards — raved and raved after Clutterbuck. He called his energy a momentum-shifter, said he’s been one of the better players positionally on the defensive end of the puck and loves the offense he’s bringing.

After Brent Burns’ tying goal in the second, Mike Richards made it 3-2 immediately to open the third. But Pierre-Marc Bouchard set Clutterbuck up beautifully on a power play for the tying goal. Then, with 4:40 left and the Wild on a terrific forecheck, Burns stole a puck at the blue line and in one motion dumped it behind the net. With Sheppard pressuring, Ryan Parent put the puck in the crease and Sheppard whacked at it for the 4-3 lead.

Real quick, if you read my play by play, remember I said it was weird how the Wild had three centers — Koivu, Sheppard and Belanger — on the ice for Burns’ goal? Turns out, the Wild had four players on the ice, so Sheppard had half his body over the wall anyway, so he just decided to keep going. It was a mixup, he said, but hey, it worked. He set up Burns after Mikko Koivu’s tremendous backcheck in the D-zone to save a sure Flyers goal.

Still Danny Briere tied it at 4 with 3:03 left on a Nik Backstrom gaffe. Want to know what happened, check out the play by play in the blog post below.

Koivu was a force tonight. That upper-body strength he added this summer was evident. He was just throwing bodies to the ice on the forecheck and knocking guys off pucks.

Also in the third, Mike Richards caught Eric Belanger with his head down and just clocked him. Belanger looked dazed and afterward said, “I don’t feel right.” We’ll see how he’s doing Wednesday.

The Wild has a ton of depth on its third and fourth lines, which intrigues Richards. The Wild showed how it can be an offensive force if it plays Richards’ system well. They did a lot of good things tonight, but there were still lots of problems. They were a mess in their D zone for much of the night and better shore some things up before the season starts.

Also, their D really struggled. Kim Johnsson and Nick Schultz had tough nights.

I thouht Greg Zanon was great. Burns had some moments defensively, but the guy was an offensive stud. You can tell Brunette and Sykora hadn’t played in awhile. Miettinen’s been great the last two games. Sheppard had a very good night. I like Shane Hnidy’s game. Only blemish was what I think was a miscommunication with Backstrom in the second goal. Bouchard was up and down, and faceoffs continue to be a problem there.

That’s really it. Early flight.

Quick story: Typical, but I’ve been working on a shootout story and how many great shooters the Wild have suddenly. But at the last second today, I decided to write a new notebook and hold the shootout story for Wednesday’s paper because I was worried that if just by chance this game went to a shootout and the Wild went 0 for 3, I’d look like a fool. Fittingly, it went to a shootout and they went 3 for 4. Goals by Koivu, Havlat, Miettinen.

So, that story will appear some time in the next few days. Rachel Blount on the squad Wednesday. I am going to work on my preview stories and stuff. Good night.

Wednesday morning: Forgot, I did ask Richards about the power-play point men and he said he will put the best personnel on the ice for the PP and that includes forwards at the point. Sykora was on the PP the rest of the game, so there could have been an equipment issue earlier in the game.

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