UPDATE: There is no television coverage for Thursday night's game in St. Louis, but don't fret. You likely wouldn't recognize most of the guys playing anyway.

Coach Mike Yeo today opted to keep most of the familiar faces in Minnesota. Instead, here are the lines and defensive pairings against the Blues (note, Niklas Backstrom and Matt Hackett will play in net)

FORWARDS

Kris Foucault-Zack Phillips-Brett Bulmer

Jeff Taffe-Warren Peters-Jed Ortmeyer

Colton Gilles-Eric Nystrom-Brad Staubitz

Jarod Palmer-Taylor Peters-Carson McMillan

DEFENSE

Marco Scandella-Nate Prosser

Justin Falk-Jordan Hendry

Tyler Cuma-Chay Genoway

Jeff Penner and David McIntyre will be brought along as extras.

Obscure as this lineup is, Thursday's game could actually go a long way in deciding the final roster. Cody Almond and Casey Wellman remain injured, as does Mike Lundin. A lot of guys who will see ice time Thursday are among the candidates to be a surprise on the opening-night roster. Yeo said these next three games (played on consecutive days), will be huge for the team. Don't be surprised to see some big cuts Sunday.

And speaking of cuts ....

The Wild cut to 47 players this morning.

Winger Joel Broda, Justin Fontaine and Mike Kramer along with defensemen Sam Lofquist and Kyle Medvec were reassigned to Houston of the AHL. Fontaine played for Minnesota-Duluth's national champions last season, and Lofquist is an ex-Gopher.

Four players were sent back to their junior teams.

Center Tyler Graovac was assigned to Ottawa of the OHL, defenseman Colton Jobke was returned to Kelowna of the WHL, defenseman Josh Caron was sent to Kamloops of the WHL and winger Carter Sandlak is headed for Belleville of the OHL.