Wild assistant coach Scott Stevens, a legendary blue liner known for his big hits and willingness to go toe-to-toe with anyone on the ice, smiled when Matt Dumba slammed Charlie Coyle into the boards Friday morning as the team opened training camp at the Xcel Energy Center. That smile grew as the jostling continued. Related Articles Bob Nevin, won 2 Stanley Cups with Maple Leafs and played 2 seasons with North Stars, dies at 82

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That’s exactly the way Stevens wants his defensemen to play — night in and night out.

“He and Charlie Coyle battled hard yesterday, pushing each other to be better players,” Stevens said. “You like that competitive spirit, especially early on setting the tone.”

Stevens was a tone-setter himself in his heyday. You messed with one of his teammates? Your head best be on a swivel.

That, however, is a mentality Wild blue liners seem to lack from time to time. While guys aren’t afraid to go out and hit people, most of the back line is known more for offensive prowess rather than defensive grittiness.

Ryan Suter is a playmaker from red line to red line. Jared Spurgeon is ultra-creative with the puck. Jonas Brodin can singlehandedly ignite an attack going the other way. Dumba has his wicked hot slap shot. The list goes on.

There isn’t much brute force in that group, though Stevens said that isn’t necessarily a problem.

“We want to use our speed and our puck-moving ability to our advantage,” he said. “You play to strengths … and our strengths, I believe, is we’ve got smart guys, quick guys, guys that are committed to working. … I know a lot of teams would like to have that because it’s so important to have the D get involved and jump in the play. It helps us stay in the offense and break pucks out clean to the forwards.”

Still, Stevens knows it’s also important to win those one-on-one battles.

“It’s not about flow up and down,” he said. “It’s about winning the board battles, clearing the far net box. Those little things are what makes a team win and what makes a good team. … Those are the things that we’ve got to be committed to, paying the price along the boards and winning the battles.”

That isn’t lost on Dumba.

“If we go in there (halfway), we aren’t going to come away with the puck,” he said. “If we go in there full bore, we’re going to be going the other way. That’s our mentality back here. We don’t take anything too lightly in our zone.”

After learning systems in the defensive zone on Friday, much of Saturday focused on work in the neutral zone. Spurgeon said coach Bruce Boudreau’s systems differ from those of previous coach Mike Yeo.

Stevens is the messenger in conveying those systems to the blue liners. He spent time in the morning session Saturday talking alongside Spurgeon and Brodin, making a point to skate over to other players between reps. He gave similar instruction to Dumba, Marco Scandella and Mike Reilly, among others, in the afternoon session.

“It’s a new voice, new things, new ways to play the game,” Spurgeon said. “Whenever a team gets a new coach coming in, it’s going to be something different. We are asking lots of questions, and he’s making it pretty easy with the explanations he’s giving. It’ll take a bit of time to learn everything, but that’s why we’re practicing right now.”

“He is one of the all-time greats,” Scandella said of Stevens. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. Anytime that he talks, I’m going to be listening.”

Stevens said his conversations with players on the ice have been pretty back-and-forth, noting, “If I see something I can help them with, I’ll definitely point it out.”

“He’s been really active,” Brodin said. “He’s talking to everyone. If we don’t something wrong he lets us know right away. If we do something good he lets us know.”

Boudreau said he’s happy with the way the group has responded to Stevens.

“They are listening to him,” he said. “If they continue to do that, they’ll be successful. They are good players. I think the strength of our team is the depth of our defensemen.”

Stevens said he’s happy with the way the team has grasped Boudreau’s concepts, adding that the overall system is fairly similar to what players are used to.

“There a couple little tweaks here and there where Bruce might ask a guy to be three feet one way,” he said. “There’s a reason why, and I think the guys understand that. When we ask them to do something and we show them why and how it works, I think they believe in it. The Minnesota Wild do a lot of good things. Bruce isn’t reinventing the wheel. He brings a few things that I think are very creative, and I think can help us in different areas to be a better team.”