ST. PAUL, Minnesota -- Sixty-plus players -- some hopeful, some holdovers -- with the Minnesota Wild were fixated Wednesday morning on television screens in their dressing room, anxiously watching reports on the aftermath of Tuesday's terrorist attacks on the East Coast.

Then the coaches turned off the TVs. Time to hit the ice for the first day of training camp.

Not out of irreverence or insensitivity. But because of the calendar.

"We felt we had to get going," said coach Jacques Lemaire. "The season's getting close."

Indeed. Only a handful of days of practice before the Wild enter their second season of existence. The NHL canceled all of Saturday's preseason games, including the Minnesota Wild's matchup against the Flames at Calgary.

"It's tough, but once we were on the ice it was business as it should be," said center Wes Walz, whose 18 goals tied for the team lead last year. "There are jobs to be won. Only three days to prove yourself. I hope the guys on the bubble aren't distracted."

Walz isn't one of those. Neither are centers Jim Dowd and Darby Hendrickson, left wings Andrew Brunette and Antti Laaksonen, goalies Manny Fernandez and Jamie McLennan or defensemen Filip Kuba and Lubomir Sekeras. Those players who will be counted on to carry the Wild beyond their inaugural-season success.

But those on the bubble face even more pressure to perform well during tryouts because of a two-week Olympic break in this year's schedule that forces a shorter-than-usual training camp for all teams.

Players like right wing Steve Aronson, a Minnetonka native and former University of St. Thomas star who played last year for the Wild's minor league affiliate in Cleveland. Or right wing Kyle Wanvig and left wing Stephane Veilleux, both drafted in June.

"For a team still in its infancy stage, competition is key," said general manager Doug Risebrough. "It's clear that players have to give us their best early. We have tough decisions to make."

Risebrough, Lemaire and the rest of the coaching and scouting staff must narrow the roster to 23 by the time the season opener rolls around. The Wild play at the San Jose Sharks on Oct. 6.

"My biggest concern is to give a fair try to the players that will need it," Lemaire said. "On the other hand, I want to make sure I get ice time for the regular players, or they won't be in shape when the regular season starts."

Fernandez, who went 19-17-4 last year with a .920 save percentage good for sixth in the league, knows the team has to have realistic expectations for only its second season. Yet he doesn't want to see players showing any satisfaction from last year's 68 standings points -- well above average for an expansion team but still the second-lowest total in the Western Conference last season.

"It's going to be a little different for everybody," Fernandez said. "We know what we're capable of. Last year, we didn't know where we were heading. We worked at it pretty good, and it turned out better than we thought.

"We can't sell ourselves short."

Wild players felt their first practice was a solid start to their second season, but it was also therapeutic. As soon workouts were over, minds surely shifted away from hockey.

"My family's right there," said Dowd, a native of Brick, N.J.

Lemaire was asked how the first workout went.

"Practice was OK," he said.

Not much more could've been expected than that.