Lighthouse: Week of May 3

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In just a few short hours, Team USA will open up its World Championship schedule in front of what is expected to be a world record crowd for a hockey game. An attendance of 76,152 is expected inside Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen as Assistant Coach Todd Richards and the U.S. open up against the host country, Germany at 1:15 PM. You can watch the game here.

The previous world record crowd watched Michigan State battle Michigan at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing in an outdoor game in 2001.

Here you see Richards at yesterday's practice, going over some drills with the Americans:

Also, for you Tweeters out there, we're asking you to send one question for a Minnesota Wild player of your choice by 5:00 PM today. We'll pick the best one, get the answer from said player and then tweet it out to the world. It's just that simple. Remember, the more unique question, the better.

Click here to tweet your question.

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It's never too early to start thinking about the NHL Draft...in 2011! It was less than a month ago that the announcement was made about the Draft being awarded to St. Paul. Even though there is more than a year on the calendar before the best hockey prospects in the world descend on the Twin Cities, the graphics folks have already churned out the logo for the event.

For those of you who live out of state, we here in Paul Bunyan's home state love us some trees, and some lakes. This logo has both, with pine trees surrounding a lake with what appears to be a brilliant sunrise coming up over the horizon. The primary color is the forest green seen in the Wild's third jerseys.

While we're on the subject of drafts, Wild.com will soon be launching its 2010 Draft page to get everyone geeked for next month's ninth overall selection, and more. Stay tuned for that.