Except it's not so Wild right now since we have lost three in a row to division rivals. Ooops. They really need to stop that if they want to make the playoffs. Kind of like the Twins absolutely sucked against division rivals this past season and therefore didn't make it. In order to stay on top of the division, it is necessary to grind the division into pulp and make them feel bad themselves. Clearly that is a lesson that still needs to be learned in Minnesota.
Last night's loss to Colorado disappointed me. Sure we may have been without our number one goalie, and Gaborik and his "special friend", but that doesn't mean our entire team should fall apart. In fact, the Wild had been doing quite well scoring without the help of Demitra and Gaborik. Harding is a competent goalie on his way to proving he can be a number one.
Whatever, we lost 3-1 to Joe Sakic and Ryan Smyth. Smyth had a goal and an assist, and Sakic had a pair of assists. Wolski added an insurance goal late in the game, and my fantasy team did well overall because of this. I had 7-8 players playing in that game. 7 normally, 8 if you count Backstrom who didn't actually play.
On a side note, I hear Grapes called Jagr out for whining about missing Nylander. If anyone finds the video clip of that, I'd be much obliged. Maybe I'll check and see if Antti over on the Wild.com boards has it up.
Also, go Oilers! Yay for beating the Ducks in a SO and making Giguere sulk. He's quite the poor sport about losing. It makes me giggle. Props to Gagner and Hemsky for getting goals in the SO.
Tomorrow night we play the Pens at 6 PM CST and 4 PM Pacific time. It's on VS, which is a channel the school actually gets, so I'll be watching the game on TV with Dillon, who is a Pens fan. He doesn't get as mean as I do about the other teams when we are playing them, so it will be interesting to see how shocked he gets. Something may be up about the game at some point over at No Pun Intended (see sidebar) from the Pens perspective. The Pens recently lost to both the Leafs and Habs, so they might be irritated about that, but the Wild have just lost three in a row to division rivals, so they had better be pissed about that. May the most pissed off team win!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
Whatever it was, I'm sorry
Clearly the citizens of Minnesota have done something to make Alberta's Hockey Gods angry, and angry in a high scoring, soul crushing kind of a way.
First there was Calgary. It all started off so well. We got three goals in the first period, and everything was all hunky dory. Not so much for the Rockies, but I was ok with that as long as the Wild were winning against the Shames so handily. In the second period it all went to hell. The Flames had tied the game by the end of the period, and they added two more in the third to beat the Wild 5-3. It was our first loss in regulation. It sucked, but I figured we'd shake it off and come back and win the next night. I also thought the Rockies would do the same...maybe that was my mistake. Too much optimism.
Last night the Wild faced off against Jarret Stoll, er the Oilers. (Stoll is a center, thus takes faceoffs and lots of them this season...get it? Bad hockey humor, I know.) I had 5 bajillion things to do last night, so I checked in by text mostly. I was less than pleased to find out we were starting off by being down by 2, but yet again I figured they could come back and win it. We'd been there before. Yeah, not so much. It ended up going into a SO, and obviously we ended up losing to Edmonton 5-4. The Rockies also lost...again, and my geology prof is predicting their doom. I haven't given up on them, I believe they can come back and win, and they are in their home field tonight, so that will hopefully help them out somehow.
Brighter notes:
The lecture I went to last night about El Nino, the Andes, and early civilizations in the Americas was extremely interesting and well-presented.
Brent Burns has signed a four-year extension with the Wild.
Mark Parrish had two goals in as many games.
Wes Walz got his first goal of the season.
My fantasy team was awesome. Hemsky (2), Butch, and Rolston all being on my team. Oh and Toskala manged not to suck too horribly while watching his team hand the Pens a nice 5-2 loss.
I got a box full of goodies from the homeland!
I'm getting to watch all of these baseball games without hassle
There is a Wild game on actual TV next week that I can watch!
I saw a great concert last night of a campus accapella group, Headband. They're really good, and I'm happy to say that the replacements for the outgoing seniors are filling their shoes well. There are also two good groups down at the U of O, one male and one female.
The Wild were the last team in the league to lose in regulation!
Less bright notes:
We lost two games to division rivals
The lecture I had to attend today was nowhere near interesting or well-presented. In fact, it was an hour of death. Stupid world geography class.
The Rockies are down by 2.
My room is a mess and I have two exams next week that are going to kill me...(the room being a mess is a good indicator of how stressed and busy I am at the moment)
I just read about how much it's going to cost to keep all the Twin's good players.
Moral of the story: the sports gods are mad at me and annihilating my teams, and they are in league with the school gods and nerve damage gods to annihilate my free time, shoulder/wrist, and sanity.
First there was Calgary. It all started off so well. We got three goals in the first period, and everything was all hunky dory. Not so much for the Rockies, but I was ok with that as long as the Wild were winning against the Shames so handily. In the second period it all went to hell. The Flames had tied the game by the end of the period, and they added two more in the third to beat the Wild 5-3. It was our first loss in regulation. It sucked, but I figured we'd shake it off and come back and win the next night. I also thought the Rockies would do the same...maybe that was my mistake. Too much optimism.
Last night the Wild faced off against Jarret Stoll, er the Oilers. (Stoll is a center, thus takes faceoffs and lots of them this season...get it? Bad hockey humor, I know.) I had 5 bajillion things to do last night, so I checked in by text mostly. I was less than pleased to find out we were starting off by being down by 2, but yet again I figured they could come back and win it. We'd been there before. Yeah, not so much. It ended up going into a SO, and obviously we ended up losing to Edmonton 5-4. The Rockies also lost...again, and my geology prof is predicting their doom. I haven't given up on them, I believe they can come back and win, and they are in their home field tonight, so that will hopefully help them out somehow.
Brighter notes:
The lecture I went to last night about El Nino, the Andes, and early civilizations in the Americas was extremely interesting and well-presented.
Brent Burns has signed a four-year extension with the Wild.
Mark Parrish had two goals in as many games.
Wes Walz got his first goal of the season.
My fantasy team was awesome. Hemsky (2), Butch, and Rolston all being on my team. Oh and Toskala manged not to suck too horribly while watching his team hand the Pens a nice 5-2 loss.
I got a box full of goodies from the homeland!
I'm getting to watch all of these baseball games without hassle
There is a Wild game on actual TV next week that I can watch!
I saw a great concert last night of a campus accapella group, Headband. They're really good, and I'm happy to say that the replacements for the outgoing seniors are filling their shoes well. There are also two good groups down at the U of O, one male and one female.
The Wild were the last team in the league to lose in regulation!
Less bright notes:
We lost two games to division rivals
The lecture I had to attend today was nowhere near interesting or well-presented. In fact, it was an hour of death. Stupid world geography class.
The Rockies are down by 2.
My room is a mess and I have two exams next week that are going to kill me...(the room being a mess is a good indicator of how stressed and busy I am at the moment)
I just read about how much it's going to cost to keep all the Twin's good players.
Moral of the story: the sports gods are mad at me and annihilating my teams, and they are in league with the school gods and nerve damage gods to annihilate my free time, shoulder/wrist, and sanity.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Before the fun begins
I just want to declare this before the World Series begins. I am cheering for the Colorado Rockies. No BoSox allowed in my world. I've never been a BoSox fan in any way shape or form, and moving out west where most of my friends are cheering for the Rockies hasn't helped that.
Everytime my team gets kicked out of the playoffs in any sport (or chokes doesn't make the playoffs at all...*coughTwinscough*), I always swear I will no longer care what happens, but I ALWAYS pick a team to cheer for, learn everything I can about them, and jump on their bandwagon. If that team loses, I pick again. This year's chosen WS team was the Cubs, but we all know what happened there. I then picked the Rockies, and success! Apparently I suck at staying indifferent.
I would like to thank the BoSox for throwing the Tribe unceremoniously out, though. That's what they get for kicking the crap out of us most of the season!
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Catching up on the last week
It's mid-term time at Willamette, so I've been extremely swamped lately.
Last week we played Anaheim and won 2-0, extending our winning streak longer than any other team in the league. (I don't know if it was longer in terms of games, but longer in terms of time.) Josh Harding turned a few heads by proving to Anaheim that he exists, and that he's good. Not so surprising now that I picked him for my team, is it?
Then we played the LA Kings on Tuesday, and we lost 4-3, in a shoot out. How stupid is that? Whatever, we came back to win yesterday against the St. Louis Blues. Wild's record is now 6-1, and they play division rival Colorado tonight (finally, some teams in our division). Technically the game is on right now...but I'm studying for my world geography exam and writing a French essay, so I probably won't be turning the game on for a bit yet.
He's still amazing and godly even while playing my team, I'm just not supposed to admit to that fact. I'm pretty sure he won all those trophys by owning my team.
Joe Sakic is in town padding his stats some more, and in one of my fantasy leagues, I have seven players involved in the Wild/Avs game. Sakic is on my team, but I'd like him to not dominate my team like he usually does, because the Avs are right behind us in the division. The big question of the night is, will Andrew Brunette be able to trick Wes Walz into giving him the puck twice? It worked before, but Walz might be a bit more wary this time of the crafty Brunette.
In other bad news, the Wild are going to Calgary on Wednesday to face Jerome Iginla and those other guys. Iginla is second behind Sakic in points scored against the Wild. Good times. Phaneuf should prepare to get owned by Boogaard again if he decides to try anything stupid, and I look forward to Warrener having something entertaining to say. I will also be grilling Courtney to see if her loyalties lie with Minnesota, or Matthew Lombardi, although it's possible that I don't want to know the answer to that.
For those of you that do not read Hot Oil or No Pun Intended regularly, you should check out the Oilers website(and you should also start reading those blogs! Hot Oil is having a Hot-off right now!)...they have the new pictures up. This year is the year of smiling it looks like. Staios is smiling like someone farted, and Jarret Stoll is proving that he still has some teeth left. There are also some awful ones, but I'll let you find that out for yourself.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
And the survey says...yes
The Wild can win on the road. An exciting 3-2 road win over the Coyotes has extended the win streak to 4. *knock on wood* I actually got to watch the game tonight, and I sent a very detailed game recap to the people paying for me to watch the game, but since I'm sure those details would kill all of you with boredom, I'll just do a brief recap here.
I had four games up, so randomly I'll mention other games, too.
First Period:
Gaborik got a goal, and then two Coyotes got goals too. Not ok.
I watched Behind the Mask, and Kelly Hrudey was freaking out a little bit. He talked about the young Oilers a little bit, praising their hockey smarts. He and Scott Oake then moved on to the subject of the recent suspensions, and Tootoo came up. Hrudey says that Tootoo is a disgrace to the game, and he feels that Tootoo should not be allowed back on the ice again. He hopes that someday he gets forced out of the game, because he believes that many of his hits are dirty with intent to injure. He was very worked up about this, and even went all Don Cherry on Scott Oake.
Second Period:
Pretty boring period overall. A couple of penalties and a lot of turnovers. The Wild were very much out-skated.
I got bored during intermission, so I flipped to the Avs game and listened to the announcers talk about how amazing and godly Joe Sakic is. Congrats to him on his 15th career hat trick. It's nice to see Sakic getting a bajillion goals on someone else's team for a change. (Ok, so with 614 goals, clearly we are not the only team he has beaten up on over time, but he has the most goals against the Wild of anyone in the NHL.) Avs beat the crap out of Columbus. I tried to watch the Oilers game for a bit, but that didn't go too well for me. Sharks lost 2-1 to Boston. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to that game.
Third Period:
The second half of the third period is when things started to get good. The Wild lost control of their tight dicipline a little bit, but Mikko Koivu bailed us out by getting a shorthanded goal. Gaborik, yeah Gaborik was in the box for roughing of all things. Clearly he and Hemsky need to learn that they are not tough enough to get into a fight without getting killed. Teammates came and saved him from certain death. Then Belanger got a goal on a nice rebound. Auld went to his right, puck came out to his left and Belanger jammed it in. Couple more penalties at the end of the game, and JL looked pissed about that. Shane Doan completely blindsided Brent Burns who dropped the gloves, but managed not to get a penalty.
Overall the Wild were outworked, and they didn't deserve this win, but obviously I'm glad they won. The dicipline started to slip later in the game, and a couple of players *coughGaborik&Fostercough* took some stupid penalties. Foster really needs to stop shoving people into the goalie. Specifically his own goalie.
Up Next: Anaheim tomorrow at 7 CST and 5 Pacific time
Ridiculously speedy Scott Niedermayer won't be there, as well as the Finnish Flash. Penner is up in Edmonton having good hockey sense with Gagner and Cogliano. Other than that the team has remained largely the same, so we'll see what happens.
Finny and Cassie will be representing for the Ducks over at Girl With A Puck and Anaheim Duck Fan respectively. (See sidebar for links)
I had four games up, so randomly I'll mention other games, too.
First Period:
Gaborik got a goal, and then two Coyotes got goals too. Not ok.
I watched Behind the Mask, and Kelly Hrudey was freaking out a little bit. He talked about the young Oilers a little bit, praising their hockey smarts. He and Scott Oake then moved on to the subject of the recent suspensions, and Tootoo came up. Hrudey says that Tootoo is a disgrace to the game, and he feels that Tootoo should not be allowed back on the ice again. He hopes that someday he gets forced out of the game, because he believes that many of his hits are dirty with intent to injure. He was very worked up about this, and even went all Don Cherry on Scott Oake.
Second Period:
Pretty boring period overall. A couple of penalties and a lot of turnovers. The Wild were very much out-skated.
I got bored during intermission, so I flipped to the Avs game and listened to the announcers talk about how amazing and godly Joe Sakic is. Congrats to him on his 15th career hat trick. It's nice to see Sakic getting a bajillion goals on someone else's team for a change. (Ok, so with 614 goals, clearly we are not the only team he has beaten up on over time, but he has the most goals against the Wild of anyone in the NHL.) Avs beat the crap out of Columbus. I tried to watch the Oilers game for a bit, but that didn't go too well for me. Sharks lost 2-1 to Boston. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to that game.
Third Period:
The second half of the third period is when things started to get good. The Wild lost control of their tight dicipline a little bit, but Mikko Koivu bailed us out by getting a shorthanded goal. Gaborik, yeah Gaborik was in the box for roughing of all things. Clearly he and Hemsky need to learn that they are not tough enough to get into a fight without getting killed. Teammates came and saved him from certain death. Then Belanger got a goal on a nice rebound. Auld went to his right, puck came out to his left and Belanger jammed it in. Couple more penalties at the end of the game, and JL looked pissed about that. Shane Doan completely blindsided Brent Burns who dropped the gloves, but managed not to get a penalty.
Overall the Wild were outworked, and they didn't deserve this win, but obviously I'm glad they won. The dicipline started to slip later in the game, and a couple of players *coughGaborik&Fostercough* took some stupid penalties. Foster really needs to stop shoving people into the goalie. Specifically his own goalie.
Up Next: Anaheim tomorrow at 7 CST and 5 Pacific time
Ridiculously speedy Scott Niedermayer won't be there, as well as the Finnish Flash. Penner is up in Edmonton having good hockey sense with Gagner and Cogliano. Other than that the team has remained largely the same, so we'll see what happens.
Finny and Cassie will be representing for the Ducks over at Girl With A Puck and Anaheim Duck Fan respectively. (See sidebar for links)
Thursday, October 11, 2007
I know it's too early but....
I'm stoked anyway! 3-0!
Backstrom was AWESOME even though Jarret Stoll was trying to kill him, posting his second shutout in three games. Mike W, over at Covered in Oil, said the Wild played "a tactically brilliant game in the neutral zone", and MacT was slightly cranky (either about the game or the questions the press was asking, maybe both) after the game last night. He has a right to be since we have beaten the Oilers 13 of the last 16 times that we have played them. Boogaard didn't play very much last night, so that should make MacT a little bit happier.
Steph has promised to forgive the Wild beating the Oilers if the Wings won, and fortunately for me, the Wings did win. Thanks guys, also thank you for beating a division rival. That's always helpful.
Up Next: Pheonix on the road. Now it's time for the Wild to show that they can win on the road. The head coach of the St. Louis Blues, Andy Murray, claims not to swear. I don't think that is a claim that Coach Gretzky can truthfully make at this time. Watching Pheonix games always makes me miss smiling Wayne Gretzky. I have to say though, if I were icing Shane Doan + the AHL, I'd be cranky too.
Tracy at True Coyote Love, and Monique over at Hip Shot Blog will have the Coyote's take on things.
I get to use the online Centre Ice package this weekend, so I get to watch this game, and the next game vs. Anaheim if I'm lucky. I'll actually have a real post-game write up! Whoo! Yay road trip!
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Whoo! 2-0!
I hope the Wild can keep this up like they did last season *knock on wood*. They pulled off an awesome come-from-behind win, the kind we could only dream of in seasons past. Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Brent Burns, and Eric Belanger all scored with Brian Rolston picking up three assists. Coach Lemaire should be much more pleased with this game than the last. Sounds like the boys gave a much better effort.
Wes Walz got injured in practice, so Sheppard was given a chance. I have said I don't like him, but I'm hoping he will prove me wrong and make me like him. I didn't like Burns for ages, but I'm starting to come around and decide that he might be as awful as I previously thought he was. Being put on defence for good has really helped.
The next game is against the Oilers. They had a great 5-3 win over the Flyers last night, so it looks like they have made great strides towards reversing their fortunes. Former Oilers captain and current Flyers captain Jason Smith was given a nice pre-game ceremony to commemorate his many seasons with the Oilers. I've heard good things about Sheldon Souray thus far this year, and I'm stoked about Gagner and Cogliano. These kids have been great so far. Captain Moreau has a foot thing going on, so we might not see him on Wednesday.
Tuesday night the Wild have a number of player appearances happening. Wild.com has more on that. My bro has a Court of Honor that night, so it looks like I won't be getting Mark Parrish's autograph after all.
Wes Walz got injured in practice, so Sheppard was given a chance. I have said I don't like him, but I'm hoping he will prove me wrong and make me like him. I didn't like Burns for ages, but I'm starting to come around and decide that he might be as awful as I previously thought he was. Being put on defence for good has really helped.
The next game is against the Oilers. They had a great 5-3 win over the Flyers last night, so it looks like they have made great strides towards reversing their fortunes. Former Oilers captain and current Flyers captain Jason Smith was given a nice pre-game ceremony to commemorate his many seasons with the Oilers. I've heard good things about Sheldon Souray thus far this year, and I'm stoked about Gagner and Cogliano. These kids have been great so far. Captain Moreau has a foot thing going on, so we might not see him on Wednesday.
Tuesday night the Wild have a number of player appearances happening. Wild.com has more on that. My bro has a Court of Honor that night, so it looks like I won't be getting Mark Parrish's autograph after all.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Post game/pre-game
Taken of the opening of the game at the Xcel Energy Center
So I forgot to do a post game anything for the last game, since I was too excited that they managed to win to remember. The didn't play well at all (specifically the top line combined for 2 shots on the night), but I'm sure Lemaire yelled at them and it will be all better tonight when we play Columbus. According to the Blue Jacket's website, they are 3-7-2 all time in Minnesota. That's a stat I like.
Looks like Adam Foote is going to be around tonight (which is cool, I like him, but he does like to team my team apart limb from limb), but Mike Peca and Derek Dorsett (Yay Medicine Hat!) will not be, since they're on the IR.
A random PS to whoever writes the Jackets pre-game reports...you need to make them more interesting somehow.
Bitchany,writer of "Bethany's Hockey Rants" and leader of the Blue Jackets fans, has already predicted that the Wild will lose. Bring it on! We can so take you, even if you do have Rick Nash.
Know Thy Enemies: http://bluejackets.nhl.com/index.html (official site)
Blog: http://bethanym85.blogspot.com/ (Bethany's Hockey Rants)
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Today's the Day
So I'm kind of bouncing off the walls with energy because I'm so excited for the season to start. Normally I'm dead tired on Thursdays, but hockey has energized me, and I'm even getting things done.
Tonight is the Wild's Home Opener against Chicago. At least two members of my family will be there at the game, and I really hope someone takes me some pictures, or at the very least coughs up their calendar so that I can have it on my wall at school. (I'm looking at you, Jess. You can't even find your walls, so therefore you should fork over the goods!)
I told someone to wear my new Mark Parrish sweater because he needs to feel the love. Sounds like he was ringing quite a few shots off the post during preseason, maybe this extra karma boost will be what he needs to put a puck or three into the net...
If I end up having to go home in two weeks, I would get to see an Avs game at the X if I caught a red-eye back to Oregon Sunday night. It would be pretty sweet, especially since I don't get to see one over winter break. Seeing Joe Sakic would totally make up for any loss of sleep I may have, and I gain two hours flying back west, so it wouldn't be too bad. If I left the Cities at 10 PM and got to Oregon at 2-3 AM, it would only be 12-1 AM, then an hour drive back, then 5 1/2 hours of sleep, for college that's pretty good. I've slept less for worse reasons (like homework).
In other news, it's still raining in Oregon and I 'm cheering for the Cubs to win the World Series.
Tonight is the Wild's Home Opener against Chicago. At least two members of my family will be there at the game, and I really hope someone takes me some pictures, or at the very least coughs up their calendar so that I can have it on my wall at school. (I'm looking at you, Jess. You can't even find your walls, so therefore you should fork over the goods!)
I told someone to wear my new Mark Parrish sweater because he needs to feel the love. Sounds like he was ringing quite a few shots off the post during preseason, maybe this extra karma boost will be what he needs to put a puck or three into the net...
If I end up having to go home in two weeks, I would get to see an Avs game at the X if I caught a red-eye back to Oregon Sunday night. It would be pretty sweet, especially since I don't get to see one over winter break. Seeing Joe Sakic would totally make up for any loss of sleep I may have, and I gain two hours flying back west, so it wouldn't be too bad. If I left the Cities at 10 PM and got to Oregon at 2-3 AM, it would only be 12-1 AM, then an hour drive back, then 5 1/2 hours of sleep, for college that's pretty good. I've slept less for worse reasons (like homework).
In other news, it's still raining in Oregon and I 'm cheering for the Cubs to win the World Series.
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