Aaaaaand we're back!

It's been awhile, but I'm back in Minnesota, and the Wild are back to winning. Or at least they were until tonight, they are currently sucking against an extremely depleted Blues team.

I went to the game last night, and COLTON GILLIES GOT HIS FIRST NHL GOAL! I was so excited for him, cause he is a top contender to be my favorite Wild player if he hasn't earned the title already.

Gillies wasn't the only one last night, Veilleux, Koivu, and Bouchard also added goals to make it 4-1, Wild. I got worried when the Isles opened the scoring, but we tied it up, and then in the third it was game over.

I'm a little bummed that the only two players on the Isles that I like weren't playing last night, but you know, it happens. It was good to be back, and it was good all around. Johnsson, though. The should not have taken the C away from Mikko after he got a goal, almost a fight, and the first star...I feel like he would have fared better in a fight than his brother (who is currently playing the Sabres 3-3 in the third).

The Leafs are killing the Pens. I have no idea how this is happening, but I like.

I should be at all the Wild games from now until January 13th, so if you are going to be there, leave me comment/text/facebook post/email, and we should hang out!

Wes Walz, the Stars, and other stuff

This picture is seriously old school. It was taken by my friend Mollie and I at the last Skills Competition in 2003.

School is still eating my soul, so I apologize for the infrequent posting. I have four days coming up to catch up on life outside what's due immediately, so I'll try to finish up a few things I've been kicking around. Gaborik, Burns, Koivu, and whatever else I think of by this coming Sunday will all be posted, and I think Baby Hockey Jesus might show His face as well.

Wes Walz Day is on Friday for those of you who didn't know. The Wild have offered that you can write him a note that will be presented to him, and my bro and I agree that it would be bomb if it was really long and awesome. The link to write some warm and fuzzy things for Walzy is here I re-wrote mine like 10 times because I didn't want it to be lame.

If anyone goes to the game, I'd love to see pictures, so please email/Facebook/text me any pictures, comments, or whatnot that you have from the game, I want to know EVERYTHING. Walzy is a BAMF, and he's sorely missed in my world, I dunno about you guys.

The Stars are coming to town tomorrow (well today, actually), and I expect great things. We have a long history of kicking the Stars around when they come to the X, and they haven't exactly been spectacular this season. Sorry, Cat! Minnesota natives Mark Parrish and Matt Niskanen will be there as well as Toby Petersen who is also technically from MN. Petersen sucked a whole lot for the Oilers, so I don't really care about him. I miss Grumpy, so I'm looking forward to this game which starts 10 minutes after I get to start my Thanksgiving break! (Thank you major that has a lot of lab required classes...) The game is on Channel 5, so all of you can tune in!

In other news:

-Shep got his first goal of the season Monday against the Caps.

-My fantasy hockey teams are both rocking their respective tacos.

-Hedgehogs are pretty awesome pets, I kind of wish I had one.

-I have a new pet frog who requires a name, any suggestions are welcome.

-I hope my family saves me the giant turkey to color in from the Strib tomorrow. It's awesome stress relief during finals.

-Norm Coleman is winning the Senate race with 231 votes. That's why it's important to go and vote, folks!

-Looking at past Oh You Turkey winners, these kids go all out. I was always lucky if I even finished coloring the turkey at all. (yes, I really am 20, don't judge me)

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Americans out there, and happy 4th Thursday of November to everyone else!

Trap it Like it's Hot - Canucks Rap

This is all I have to say about the Canucks. Also, my mom told me about this thing on Wild.com where you can go and give Wes Walz warm fuzzies. I will be doing so, and I suggest you all do the same!

Injury hiding

This (A-rod haters should be sure and click)doesn't have to do with hockey or real sports injuries, but you should still vote for the All-Star game anyway. Now back to your regularly scheduled rant.

People have been grumbling about the NHL policy of hiding injuries, and I think that's dumb for several reasons. Keep in mind I'm writing this from an athlete's perspective, so I am on their side.

1.)The teams have no obligation whatsoever to tell the fans about the injuries. Your boss doesn't put it in the paper that you have a medical problem, so why should theirs?

2.)As an athlete, I fully understand hiding injuries. I am famous for not saying anything until I absolutely can't take it any more. You don't want to let the team down, and you don't want to seem like a wuss. There is something to be said for just playing through the pain, though there is also something to be said for being smart about it. Sometimes the sports culture takes playing through pain a little too far, which can lead to life ruining injuries. Overall for minor things, the players don't want to be seen as weak, so they hide the injuries, and probably wish the press would too.

3.) Not all opponents are into the gentlemanly play and sportsmanship thing. Some players will go for dudes where they know they are hurting. It's not fun having someone try to seperate your shoulder when they know you are hurting, trust me. (not that it's fun anytime, actually) Saying you are playing hurt is like painting a target on your back for some guys.

4.) It might explain why someone is playing like crap, but as long as the coach knows, then it's fine. As much as we'd like to, it's not our job as fans to make the lineups.

5.) The second the team said Burns was having surgery, the Wild fans all went nuts. It was a minor surgery that he recovered quickly from, but still. It shakes the confidence of the fans in the player. Surgeries can't always put you back to rights completely, but they sure can do a lot of good. The bad part about them is, people look at you like you will fall apart again any second. Disclosure of injuries lowers the confidence level the fans have in certain players and makes them all freak out about what could be nothing in the long run. Not a lot of motivation for the teams to say something if it means the fans won't be happy. Hockey is a dangerous sport, but that doesn't always register with people.

I know you just did this whole voting thing...

but IT'S ALL-STAR voting time! I love to vote for the All-Star games. I don't usually actually watch the games, but I like to vote for my favorite players.
The Wild have Gaborik, Burns, Koivu, and Backstrom on the ballot this year. I recommend voting for the last three, and Gaborik if you are one of those poor misguided 8 year olds who always seem to have his sweater at the X.

Obviously if Sakic gets better you should vote for him, as well as Gagner, Toews, Oilers in general, Latandresse, Price, St. Louis, you know, awesome dudes like those.

I'm not gonna lie, I was a little confused at first, but here's where to go if you want to vote.

Mikko is in third place for forwards in the west, and the Habs are basically owning the east. Sweet.

PS, or you can just click on the large, "click to vote" button.

Tucker is a douche

There's a little karma for you

Wow. I had to check up on the Avs game because as you all know, Joe Sakic is a LoLaH favorite. Instead of reading about how godly Mr. Sakic is, I get to read about how douchey Darcy Tucker is. I hate it that players like Tucker, Avery, and (as much as I hate to admit it sometimes) Raffi Torres take away from the game. They take away from its beauty with their crap. Cheap shots and disrespect. It's one thing to trash talk, but it's another to make threats and purposefully hurt people. That's not only disrepectful to the game, it's disrespectful to fellow men.

Elise has a write up about the incident, and the ever awesome Jibblescribbits does too. Check it out.

Tonight we play the Canucks. They have Willie Mitchell who used to be awesome, but now not so much. He's another one *coughParrishcough* that we maybe should have kept around. Shut up, he was awesome back in the day, ok? He couldn't fight, but whatever. He was still awesome. Alix will probably say a few words about the game, and I have several other Canucks bloggers on the blog roll. Check 'em out.

PS, did everyone see the AWESOMENESS THAT IS MARK PARRISH GETTING A HATTRICK? What now, DR? I hope you saw too.

I'm number 1 in the Wildbloggers fantasy hockey league this week! Whoo!

I just thought I'd write to say...

Dear Captain Koivu,
That C looks awfully good on your chest. I agree with you. You should be the captain permanently. Congrats on being named two months in a row! Now you can be a cool kid like Bomber. Keep up the good work, and remember, I'm pulling for you, we're all in this together. Points to anyone who can tell me what that's from...
Stoically,
Kirsten

Dear Shep,
I know you've been having a rough start to your season, and you are probably starting to think that coach is going to kill you. Well, from my experience with coaches, he probably is, but that's beside the point. There seems to be a sophomore curse on the league. Toews has had a slow start, Sam Gagner is invisible, and Matt Niskanen is having some struggles against every team not from his home state. Even I had a rough start to my semester, so I can sypathize. Don't give up, and please teach Josh Harding right from left so he can learn to play the guitar.
In solidarity,
Kirsten

Dear Goober,
Please beg the coaching staff to keep you at defence. You as a forward brings back memories of your first year in the league, and it's just better for my overall mental health if that doesn't happen.
kthx,
Kirsten

Dear Baby Walz,
Even though no one seems to show you any love yet, I still think you are like Wes Walz, so therefore according to the casual poll I've taken of MN hockey fans *by wearing a Walz sweater/having someone else wear it and letting the compliments on the sweater pour in*, someday they will show you great love. It just might take a while. Hopefully Coach Lemaire will let you live long enough to find out. PS, I'd learn to sleep with one eye open if I were you and living with Brent Burns.
Optomistically,
Kirsten

Dear Justin Morneau,
I really hope you win the MVP title. You are MVP of the team and of Joe Mauer's heart, but there's nothing wrong with winning even more trophies, right? Maybe Wayne Gretzky will send you something cool this time around.
Hopefully,
Kirsten

Habs, baby!

vs.

The picture difference does not indicate anything but my own laziness. I don't feel like cropping the pictures to make them the same size.

Bonjour, je m'appelle Kirsten, et j'aime beaucoup les Habitants. Ma mere m'a dit que je dois aimer les equipes de Minnesota, mais le probleme avec ca est Edmonton et Montreal. Ils sont des equipes tres agreables. Je ne peux rien faire de ce probleme.

Today is the battle of the Brothers Koivu, and as you all know, I will be mildly torn. I love the Wild and I want them to win, but I love the Habs and would love to see them restored to their former glory. I'll be listening to the French feed online while I do my homework, or at the very least as soon as I finish my classes, labs, and other obligations. THEN I will listen to the French feed. Later when I have the time, I found a cool article on the Koivus that I will translate and throw up here.

I plan on actually doing a post game reaction post. I know, right? What's going on here? Two posts in a week? Impossible.

PS, yes I do realize I skipped a game and that we play Dallas today, but I don't really care, and I actually found time to write this, so there you go.

PPS If you are looking to read the thoughts of the other team's bloggers, you need only go to Four Habs Fans. Not for the kids mind you, but a hilarious read. I have no idea how those guys manage their greatness day in and day out.

Dear Baby Hockey Jesus,

I know it's been a while, and I hope you had a nice summer working on your tan and drinking celebrating at all the Wings' parties. There are a few issues that have been brought to my attention that I was hoping you could help me out with.

First off, this whole injury thing needs to stop. Rolston and Demitra don't play for us any more, so I thank you in your wisdom for making sure of that so we didn't get screwed. I'd really like to see a healthy PMB, though. Also, new Czech sounding defenceman. He should probably stay healthy too. Else how will I get to know more about him? Gaborik, well, that brings me to my next topic.

I need you to do me a favor. I know you know people who could help me take care of the Gaborik problem. I know at least 18,000 people who would chip in to help take care of the costs. At the very least, please make him healthy for long enough that we can send him packing and get some good, healthy players in return. I'd totally be willing to send Pouliot with him. Gaborik clearly doesn't want to be here any more, so I say the hell with him. Let him be overpaid somewhere else. I'm sure the Rangers would sign him if they had the cap space. Pouliot just strikes me as lazy. I need your help with him, too Baby Hockey Jesus. Either light a fire under him, or make some other team verrry interested in him. Preferably a team I already like to laugh at.

Also I need you to look after Gillies. He's a big, strong kid with a lot of potential, I think he's just maybe having a rough adjustment time. Maybe he could borrow the spirit that Walz has? Walzy doesn't need it any more, he's coaching in Tampa. Barry Melrose is fired up enough for all of us.

Here is a list of tiny things I would like to see:
-I'd still like you to smite Skoula
-Help Mark Parrish to make the team where ever he chooses to go
-Put a protective bubble around Mikko Koivu
-While you're at it, I wouldn't mind if Burns had one too

Lastly, on a more personal note, I need you to help me figure out a way to get my mojo back, Baby Hockey Jesus. Lately I've been pretty busy, and I'm feeling a little disconnected from Minnesota. It feels like I've been living on the west coast forever, and it's been kind of hard to really feel this season. I've had a lot of writer's block, and not a lot of time. I know it will get better once I get back to Minnesota, but I'd like it to get better now.

Thank you, Baby Hockey Jesus. I promise you, the Wild would throw much better summer parties...just something to think about as the season progresses if you know what I mean. We have a much younger, hipper team, you know.

Quick Round up

A few awesome things and a couple of not so awesome things have happened in the blogosphere lately. I'll start with the not so awesome so as to end on a good note.

James Mirtle is handing in the keys to his blog to work on a new project. Sad day as he was (is) one of the greatest.

An Oilers blogger was kicked out of a game for live blogging during the game. This is explained in more detail over at Covered in Oil, and one of the writers is leaving. We'll miss you, buddy.

In other news, Elise has shown her brilliance once again in my favorite thing in the blogosphere, Tale of the Tape. Go over and check it out!

RudyKelly of the Battle of California made fun of the Avs goaltenders and caused them to lose the game. Note to self, do not make fun of the Avs goaltenders. Though he does speak works of truth when he points out that Mr. Sakic probably really hates their goalies.

If you want to check out the competition for Thursday, I'd recommend heading over to see Heather B. at Top Shelf. She's hilarious and is a Twins fan.

If I get my homework done, I'll do my first game preview of the season.

Sorry guys

I fail at keeping up this season. I read as much as I can, but I might be a little slow to figure out the changes. It's been a pretty tough semester, and I'm having a little trouble finding the inspiration to write.

Elise and several of my friends who were at the game kept me updated while it was happening, so I'm fairly caught on on last night. The Wild won 4-3 over the Bruins, no thanks to traitor one and traitor two. (AKA Wheeler and Kessel)

Basically the rest of the post will be my notes on hockey:
-I really like Gillies so far. His new nickname is Baby Walz.
-All the other Wild bloggers are doing a much better job than I am.
-Mikko! Koivu! is the captain for October!
-I told you all Burns would be fine.
-I'm getting a thumbs down on the mascot
-Nolan is determined to make me eat my harsh words about him according to game 1.

I'll write more when I find the time/inspiration.

Just like the good old days...almost

This new crop of awesome players reminds me of back in the day when I had like 8 favorite players. Bomber, Walz, Wiemer, Mitchell, Roloson, Bruno, Johnson, and Dupuis. Those were the days. The playoff run, the skills competition, the general good times before I knew we could be better. The Twins were legitimately bomb and had a lot of players I really liked too. The same thing has happened, I miss my old crew, but I've got a new one. Clearly I just have a pattern that I follow with fanship.

For a while most of my favorite players left frequently, and I was hard pressed to find ones that I liked. Walz (obvi) and Parrish filled in nicely, but beyond that I struggled a little bit. The same thing happened with the Twins. When Koskie left, I was heart broken. One by one my boys started leaving me, and I didn't know what to do. To cheer me up, my mom suggested that Justin Morneau might be a good replacement for Koskie, and it went from there.

Now there is a new group of players for me to do the same thing with. Burns, Bouchard, Koivu, Harding, Backstrom, Foster, Bruno (he's back!), Shep, and maybe Gillies (if he turns out to be as Walz like as promised). Burns and Bouchard were here before, but they were just young'uns and I had not yet seen their potential. Now they have grown into their potential and can join the magic circle.

The Twins example goes as follows. Old school: Koskie, Jones, Bradke, AJ (before he became quite so douchey), Eddie G (he's back!) , Silva, and Lew Ford. They were my boys.

In the middle there was Tyner and assorted others who did not stick around.

Now I've got : Redmond, Cuddyer, Morneau, Slowey, Blackburn, Span, Punto, sometimes Harris, and I'm keeping my eye on Buscher.

I miss the good old days with the Twins and Wild, but at the same time, both teams are now infinitely more talented than they were back in the day, so maybe it's good to move on and just remember back in the day fondly. The best part of all this is, Eddie and Bruno are back, though I'm hoping Bruno's return will go better.

Sorry for the nostalgia, I just thought about this today and thought I'd quit slacking off and write a little bit.

Fantasy Hockey

Nick in New York (Hitting the Post) has set up a fantasy hockey league to pit the bloggers against the readers. We have five people, but we need at least one more to draft since we need an even number! Anyone interested should click here and send him an email.

Random Fact

Do you know what the government of Finland is?

Mikko Koivu will tell you! (there is a quick advertisement first, then it starts)

In other news, apparently the Wild won last night.

Quick update

I'll add more later, but I just wanted to say good job to the Twins fans out there. Justin Morneau is one of the six finalists for the Man of the Year award, and now his fellow players will vote to see who they think deserves the award.

I have a huge pile of Twins/Wild news to catch up on, as well as a couple of copies of the Hockey News. At least I'm not behind in school, right?

Training camp has begun!

WHOO! It's finally here. The long awaited training camp! Russo is there covering the event, and so are a few of my friends (but they aren't getting paid). I'll be relying much more heavily on their reports, since they will tell me good stuff, and Russo will tell me the boring details about how everyone played.

There is an open practice today, so I expect a full report back. J. is up there with his wife and family, so look to his blog for firsthand accounts of the goings on.

The camp currently has 53 on the roster, and apparently that will be cut down to as few players as possible before they hit the Cities. This seems like a good idea to me, I couldn't really say why, but it just does.

Wild.com is following the events, and they have full updates and photos. I'm sure there is some stuff up on Wild TV too, but I just haven't had the time to look. Sadly I don't think any of the pictures will be as awesome as Bomber kissing the fish or rocking out on Guitar Hero.

Bits and Pieces

School hit me like a freight train, so I apologize if everyone else gets things up faster than I do.

I'm not done with anything informational, but I'll do a Blogosphere round-up.

Elise is just as bored with September in sports as I am it looks like. Youtube is an excellent resource for killing boredom, though.

Nick has decided that I am responsible for Brent Burns' healing karma I guess. I don't know how I feel about that, but I'm sure it won't be hard since I still maintain he'll be good to go soon. Or now.

The girls over in Rangers land are having inner conflicts about Brendan Shanahan. I feel for them.

Jibblescribbits explores the dangers of rainbows...and I have to say, living in a very rainbow place will never be the same again.

Alix is clearly better at scouting out her team than I am. I can only name a handful of the players attending all these camps that weren't on the team last year. Now I can apparently name more of the Baby Canucks.

Hammer's keeping us all up to date on our west coast junior hockey teams, and in turn they provided lots of entertainment with what looks like a pretty intense game of putt putt golf.

Teebz has the updates on the new uniforms for this upcoming season.

Margee is back with her ever helpful Girls Guide to Football, which I'm sure I will find extremely useful this upcoming football season. I have survived the first two weeks of fantasy football with my pride intact.

I have a new poll up, and a piece on Marian Gaborik when I finish it. Who knows when that might be.

Brendan Shanahan and Darren McCarty on

This is HILARIOUS. Just watch. Too bad the clip isn't a bit longer, though on second thought, I don't think I need to know any more about either of them.

MVP! MVP!

So when I went on the Twins website to look up the starting pitcher for tonight (shut up, I still don't know the rotation since the All-Star Break...I just know that Blackburn and Slowey are the last two.), I saw an article about Justin Morneau maybe getting another MVP. Of course I had to stop everything and read. Basically it talks about how he's got another long shot at becoming the AL MVP. That's what they said in 2006, too. The article is here.

As always I'm pulling for him, and I will show my support of his MVP bid on Facebook. He hasn't had a million home runs this season, but he's been consistent and clutch. This team would be in trouble without him.

Also, Morneau has been nominated for the Man of the Year award. You can vote for him here.

I'm not scared

...yet. A lot of people are really scared for their upcoming hockey seasons, but I'm not that concerned. I really think we will be ok, and here's why.

Note: I will make no actual predictions, that's a good way to get the Hockey Gods to frown on you. The only time I will make predictions is for the Stanley Cup playoffs, and even then I usually don't lay out what I really want to happen.

Demitra left, but Brunette came to replace him. Andrew Brunette has always been very reliable and healthy, and we really need someone to actually be near the net. Demitra was not always the healthiest or the hardest working, so we've clearly upgraded in getting a hardworking, healthy player.

As much as Keith Carney was a great teacher, I think Brent Burns is ready to go out on his own in the world. He's turned into our number one defenseman, and I no longer cringe and avert my eyes when he steps out on the ice. Sean Hill was pretty much no help at all, so I'm not sorry to see him leave. Nick Schultz is a good, steady prairie kid who is durable, less prone to getting smashed, basically the rock of the defense. Now if only we could get rid of Skoula...


I've mentioned this on other people's blogs, but don't panic about Burns' surgery. I've had two wrist surgeries and an elbow surgery (and probably one more elbow surgery in in my near future), so I know what I'm saying when I say: he will be back soon, and he will be fine. My elbow healed probably five times faster than my wrist did. It just seems to be a tough joint. Wrists on the other hand, do not heal all that quickly. They have more going on in them, and are easy to mess up again.

We have Koivu, M., Burns, Bouchard, Gaborik (if he shows up), a goalie fight, prospects hungry to crack the roster, two new guys that I don't know too much about, but hopefully will want to prove themselves, Shep who has rapidly learned how to make his way in the NHL, Bruno, Schultz, and soon a healthy Foster. Now all we need is Jonathan Toews and life will be good.


Nice fish, bro. The Blackhawks just went up in coolness points. Or at least Toews did. Same thing, right?

Twins update: The bullpen sucks. That is all.

100 things about me, grand finale

81.) I'm not that much of a TV watcher, but I do like the show "Bones".


82.) I really like doing Sudoku puzzles. Crosswords are too hard for me, though.


83.) There are a million Facebook groups out there that I agree with, but I feel like it's bad to join too many for some reason.


84.) Now that I'm in college, I follow Big 10 sports pretty closely. The Gophs have become my team for real.


85.) I love Calvin and Hobbes. LOVE. If it didn't cost $150, I'd get the entire collection of the comic.


86.) Trees fascinate me. There is just something about them that is awesome.


87.) I've always been a geography nerd. According to my mom, I presented my kindergarten teacher with a picture of Madagasgar during kindergarten round-up.


88.) I had a hard time learning to write, and learning to write in cursive. My handwriting is still terrible, and I'm learning to write in Chinese now. This was probably not one of my better ideas.


89.) I love the smell of clean laundry.


90.) I don't like to read just one book at once. I will start five and switch back and forth between them all.


91.) I love to play cards. Any game is fine.


92.) The Blue Bombers are my CFL team. Even though they suck this season.


93.) I briefly considered becoming an international studies major and going into international business or becoming a translator. Then I remembered that I don't care much for the social sciences.

94.) Somewhere down the line I seem to have inherited my ancestoral disdain for Finns. I just seem to pick on them more. My Finnish ancestors would not be pleased.

95.) I like doing things where I can instantly see results. I'm not a "well eventually this will be cool" kind of a person. I fold laundry, pick up things, weed the garden, but planting seeds? Not so much.

96.) I don't have a problem with Crocs. They are great for crew, or just to run a quick errand in. Obviously they are not exactly good workout footwear, but they have a time and a place where they are extremely handy.

97.) Much as a I love a good intellectual conversation, I'm still 20. There seem to be many people at my school who can't spare a few thoughts for something that isn't politics/religion/war/something else that requires me to make an intelligent response. I try to avoid those people when my brain is full.

98.) I'm extremely good at origami.

99.) I still have the same boxes that I shipped to school freshman year. They are still good boxes, why should I get rid of them? During moving out time, finding boxes is pretty near impossible. Yes, I realize how Minnesotan that made me sound.

100.) I'm more Minnesotan than I ever noticed. I read the article in the Strib, and I hear about it all the time, and really, it's all true. Minus the part where my friends here say I use more o's in one sentence than a whole can of Spaghetti o's. That part's a lie.

The Twins source of greatness is all in the hair

So I thought about this the other day. The two best players on our team can clearly trace their awesome karma to their sideburns and curls. Next, I had a great idea of what I wanted to do with Paint, but unfortunately Paint and Flickr have conspired against me tonight to not let me use their pictures, OR scribble all over said pictures with lime green. Life is sad.

Justin Morneau used to have golden curls, the kind that make old ladies try to pinch your cheeks and tell you what a handsome young man you are(or youngster, since that seems to be Bert's new word). In fact, that's probably the actual reason he cut them off. (Much to the sorrow of the female portion of Twins Territory)

Taken just before he cut off his curls and became the MVP with some prodding from Gardy.

Justin Morneau is too good for hair, and he doesn't care if he looks like a monkey while hitting 500 Moose Antler (Courtesy of Bat-Girl) home runs over the fences.

Because I can. He just wishes he could grow facial hair. Unfortunately he still tries. It'd be so much manlier if he didn't try, if he just let everyone think he doesn't CHOOSE to grow facial hair.

The above picture leads me into my next subject.

Joe Mauer's sideburns. He's never shaved them off that we know of...but like Elise said, if he did, his career would probably be over. Are these sideburns in the making? Hard to tell.

This being said, much as I hate to admit it, Joe Mauer has never been brutal. He has always hit consistantly well, even if he's not swinging for the fences like his former roommate. Clearly it's all in the sideburns. Or maybe it's really the confused look? Either way, Joe Mauer's sideburns are clearly somehow powerful. Even Joe Mauerasaurus has them. You don't get to be the batting champ without something helping you out.

So basically if Joe Mauer didn't have awesome sideburns and Justin Morneau hadn't cut off his curls, the Twins would probably be losing an awful lot more than they already are.

You guys should click on all the words that you can, because those are the best pictures yet.

Also, did you know that Kevin Slowey had better than a 1400 on his SAT's? That's back in the old days when they were out of 1600.

Favorite player update:

Thank you all for your suggestions, they will be taken under careful consideration. I'm still accepting reasons to choose one player over another, up until such time as I make an official decision and announcement.

Please note: Marian Gaborik is not an acceptable suggestion for any reason. Also, if it helps, my three favorite players have been Brad Bombardir, Wes Walz, and Mark Parrish.

Elise must have listened to the conference call thingie with Shep and Bruno, so I'll refer you to her if you want to get a quick summary.

Time to (at least start to) make a decision

Ok, so as all of you know, Mark Parrish was bought out, and I was and still am upset.
Because of this disturbance in the force, I have need of a new favorite player on the team.

The suggestions thus far:
Mikko Koivu:
Probably the future captain of the team, steady, talented, entertaining, good at winning faceoffs, and probably not going anywhere. On the flipside, EVERYONE is in love with him, and I don't want to be one of those girls with the Koivu sweater after seeing what the other girls with the Koivu sweaters are like.

Nick Schultz:
Already been the captain of the team, much improved, no longer gets annihilated every single play, probably also here to stay...doesn't seem to have a personality, or smile. Ever.

Brent Burns:
He's still a goober, but at least now he's only a goober off the ice. To his credit, he's very polite. Much, MUCH improved on defense, entertaining, random, but still a goober. All the girls with his sweater make him signs asking him to marry them. (Clearly the Koivu bunnies think he's married or something)

Pierre-Marc Bouchard:
Spin'O rama! Better now that he's on wing and not a center, smiley and polite, maybe not going anywhere? Doesn't seem to have a big puckbunny following. Did I mention spin'O rama?

Andrew Brunette:
Still awesome at however old he is, made St. Patrick look bad, came back to Minnesota because he likes it here, is a baseball fan and loves to fish, but he's getting up there, and who knows how long he'll be around. He's always been one of my faves, but somehow he's never made the leap to ABSOLUTE FAVORITE PLAYER EVAR. Maybe this year is his year.

What do you think, folks? Any other suggestions or reasons that I missed? I'll be putting up a poll to see what you guys think. James Sheppard was also suggested, but I don't feel like I know enough about him to really write something up.

Maybe I'll just have to wait until the season starts to pick a player.

100 things about me, Part 4

So I'm back at school now, and I have an 8 AM tomorrow, but it's only 9 Pacific time so I have loads of time on my hands...for now.

61.) I'm really slow to adjust to time changes. No matter how hard I try, I always get tired at 9 PM Central Time.

62.) I really like to have windows open. Since it doesn't get very cold here in Oregon, I can leave them open year round. Roommate interference aside.

63.) I really like having a bulletin board. I couldn't even say why that's so important to me, but it is.

64.) Whenever I go to school, I bring Minnesota with me. No one else I know has as many things up reminding them of their home state than I do. In my defence, few people are from as far away as I am.

65.) I always arrange books on bookshelves first by subject, and then by size.

66.) My closet is organized by clothing type, never by color.

67.) I'm fanatical about recyling. Whenever a member of my family or my roommate does not recycle, I got back and recycle what they threw out.

68.) I am working on overcoming flat surface syndrome. That is to say, I'm doing my best to break myself of the habit of just piling things on the first flat surface I see. I have done so by putting a limit on the number of items that can be on that surface. We'll see how it goes. I was fairly successful last semester, but now that my room is larger, I might not feel the need to be as tidy.

69.) I hate it when towels are folded in thirds on the towel bar. That way I can't just grab the towel and open it up, I have to unfold it first.

70.) I don't like driving near semi trucks. They freak me out since I feel like the drivers aren't always paying attention to what they are doing closely enough for such a large vehicle. I'm also freaked out by the fact that they sway around, and on days where the wind is whipping in off the prairie, they sometimes fall over.

71.) Speaking of prairies, they seem kind of boring to me. I know from studying them that they are actually complex and important ecosystems, but still. I like trees. If I want to look at something open, I'll go to a lake.

72.) I like to make to do lists, add things I've already done or that are easy, and then cross them off! It makes me feel accomplished.

73.) I like to study outside, but sometimes I just can't. Outside always seems to be ten times more distracting than inside. It's better if I study at my desk or in the library. The Bistro is just as bad as outside. Too many people I know there.

74.) As much as I don't like clutter, I always have all of my walls absolutely full. I can barely tell what color the walls are at home, and every year at school I add decorations all year long until I can barely see the walls there, either.

75.) I like that Tide has now made their detergent concentrated, so I don't have to lug around the heavy bottle anymore.

76.) I take my calendar with me wherever I go now. Having to plan things with people as I randomly see them has done that to me.

77.) I love light stained furniture and trim. I just like the brightness of it. Dark furniture makes me think I'm living in some old, German house or something. (All the furniture in my dormroom now is blonde. I love it since it's so gloomy out I don't have the sun to make things bright.)

78.) I love to doodle random things on my friends' whiteboards. Like I said, I'm not a good artist, but it's fun anyways. When all else fails, I'll just draw a sunshine or a smiley face.

79.) I'm a good test taker. I LOVE it when the prof says, this class will be exam based. Then I know I'm good to go.

80.) Single hole punches are hard for me to operate. I can't ever figure out which way is up, and then the little paper circles fly everywhere. Not cool, man.

YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

JOE SAKIC IS COMING BACK! I'm SO stoked about this. Thanks to everyone for their Facebook posts/texts today.

The search is on

I need a new favorite Wild player since Doug Risebrough is a douche and bought out Mark Parrish. Opinions, anyone? After I finish up my internship this week, I'll write a more detailed list of pros and cons for you guys and see what you think.



In the meantime, Joe Sakic is going to speak with the media on Thursday before his golf tournament. Jibblescribbits and I will probably be depressed for weeks if he announces his retirement. I will be at least. I do hope he decides to stay for the 2010 Olympics in his hometown, that would be uber cool, but I gotta respect whatever descision he makes as the right one for himself and his family.

Part 4 of the 100 things list coming soon. Maybe after I'm finished with that list, I'll even talk about hockey...

100 Things about me, part 3

41.) I love all the seasons, but winter is my favorite. I do enjoy living in a place with all four seasons so I can enjoy them all. Oregon...has two. Rainy and not rainy.

42.) When I pick favorite players, I pick them for life. Unless they turn into big jerks like AJ. Twins fans know what I'm talking about. Anyone talks smack about Parrish, no matter who he's playing for, I will defend him.


43.) I hate watching the news on TV, but I like to read the paper.


44.) Making my bed is my least favorite chore EVER. I don't know why, but I just hate having to do it. I also am not a big fan of folding laundry. Living in a dorm has kind of forced me to do both of these things frequently.


45.) I chew a lot of gum, and I brush my teeth a lot, too. I really like mint, I guess.

46.) I also still wear my retainers once a week. I've had my braces off for almost six years, but as I said before, I was a kid who really needed braces, and I'd cry if my teeth went back to the way they were. That's why I'm willing to put up with the dorkiness of still wearing them.

47.) I have a younger brother, and it's probably a good thing that I only have one sibling.

48.) I'm absolutely terrified of tornados. Even when there is just a drill on a bright, sunny day, I freak out and start thinking of the nearest shelter. As Teebz put it, I go into "total survival mode". It's true, I do.

49.) I don't usually have the attention span to watch a whole movie. I rarely see movies in the theater for this reason, because I like to be able to pause, get up, walk around, and then refocus.

50.) I'm an extreme rock hound. Ever since I was a little kid, I've always filled my pockets/suitcase/drybag/canoe with rocks everywhere I go. When I come back from trips, my mom always expects to see a big pile of them sitting on the floor of my room.

51.) I am generally ok at video games, but I RULE at Mario Kart and Mario Party. One of these days I will become a Guitar Hero.

52.) I don't like to drive. I get less bored driving than I do riding in the car, but that's because I have something I have to focus on. Driving a half hour each way to my internship is not cool.

53.) Even though I generally dislike children, I spent my summer being a naturalist(AKA intern, which I'm pretty sure is a nice way of saying slave) for the Three Rivers Park District. I learned what I don't want to do with my life as a result. Teaching kids about nature tops that list.

54.) I am not capable of napping. I sleep soundly at night, but I can't nap during the daytime. I've asked everyone I know to teach me how to nap, and my brother has been the least helpful with "just lie down or lean against something and close your eyes". Thanks, bro. If that worked, I wouldn't be asking you how to nap, now would I?

55.) I still really enjoy playing with Legos. They are one of the few things from back in the day that I refuse to get rid of. I will probably take them with me when I move out. On second thought, they can stay with my parents until I find space for them, provided they let me do that.

56.) I love pancakes. They are the one thing that is good about Lent, getting pancakes for supper in addition to breakfast on Fridays. Pancakes with strawberries? Basically the best meal ever invented.

57.) I don't eat a lot of fast food. It just doesn't appeal to me. Chipotle is the notable exception to that statement.

58.) Hawaiian shirts really bug me. They should be banned from public unless you are at a party of some sort, and only if they theme specifically calls for them. This could be because my dad has a particularly ugly one.

59.) I would really like to go bungee jumping and sky diving. I would also really like a tattoo. Sadly I have not gotten around to any of these things, but somedayI'll definitely do the first two, but the tattoo will be happen after I finalize the design.

60.) I love to play catch. I will stand outside and throw a ball back and forth for hours. The problem is I have a hard time getting people to play with me. The softball coach is after me to play again, so maybe I'll have the rowing and softball coaches fight it out. After my wrist heals, that is.

100 things about me, part 2

21.) I own a lot of Nalgene bottles. 8 to be exact, and they are all covered in stickers.

22.) I LOVE my iPod. I have almost 5,000 songs on it, and I'm always looking for something new to listen to.

23.) I don't really like to read fiction books anymore. I read books about lots of random subjects, and I'm the queen of random facts/knowledge.

24.) No matter how clean the rest of my room may be, my coffee table seems to always be messy. This bothers me, but there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it.

25.) I love to catch fish, but I'm not really a big fan of fishing. I'm perfectly content to sit around catching sunfish if the walleye or bigger fish aren't biting. Rapala has an advertisement about their new bait being for people who like to catch not fish, and I think they must have created it just for me.


26.) I had braces for two years and a month, and it was one of the best things ever. I'm known as a smiley person, but before it was hard to smile my overbite was so bad.


27.) I'm earning a degree in environmental science, but I really have no idea what I want to do with that degree. I'm sure I will go to grad school, but for what, I don't know.


28.) I don't like seafood. The only kind of seafood I will eat is salmon.

29.) My favorite subjects in school have always been sciences and foreign languages. I HATED having to take English, philosophy, and home ec. I thought they were beneath me.

30.) I love freeze pops. The blue ones are the best, though I also like the pink ones.

31.) I have a lot of wood floors in my house, and I love them. I like the look and feel of wood, but it does get a little chilly in the mornings in winter.

32.) I have a list of jobs that I would like to do for a week. This includes : being a mailman, working construction, being a train engineer, and being a jeweler.

33.) I'm extremely impatient. I hate it when people can't make up their minds about simple things or walk too slowly. It's a habit I constantly get yelled at for, but patience is coming slowly to me.

34.) I love the idea of buying and reading books, but I don't like having all the books lying around. It's that whole fear of clutter thing.

35.) When I drink water, I like it to be ice cold. I'm pretty sure the ice cube maker in the fridge at my parents' house is pretty much off when I'm not around.

36.) I eat more fruit than a toucan, and I love vegetables. I'd make a good vegetarian except for the part where I do like some kinds of meat, and I believe that humans are not designed to be vegetarians.

37.) The Wild are my team, but I do have a really large soft spot in my heart for the Oilers and Canadiens. People may call me traitor, but what can you do? The Oilers had Wayne Gretzky, and the Habs have been around for 100 years, and have been good for most of them. Besides, it gives me a chance to flex my French speaking skills and I love the sweaters.

38.) I love maps. I have several up on my walls, and I have many more that I occasionally open and stare at. I like to travel, and I like adventures, so usually the maps I have that are drawn all over are of remote places. Gates of the Arctic National Park is a place I would LOVE to visit.

39.) I don't like to sit around. My schedule at school is always packed, and when I'm home if I'm not at work, I like to keep busy. I'm incapable of napping.

40.) I'm told that I'm a sound sleeper. I sleep through everything, (jack hammers, smoke alarms, Rock Band) and I hope that doesn't get me trapped in a burning building sometime. I also talk in my sleep, but almost never in English.

100 things about me...part 1

OK, so all the other cool kids are writing these lists, so I might as well since I got to look over and comment, it's only fair that I make one too.

1.) I like Minneapolis better than St. Paul, and now my mom is going to smack me.

2.) As a kid, I invented my own language and tried to teach my brother. Sadly he did (and still does) not share my enthusiasm for languages.

3.) I am EXTREMELY superstitious. Whether I'm watching sports or playing them, I have many rituals that must be followed. During the playoffs, participation is manditory.

4.) I can't watch horror movies. My imagination makes everything ten times worse than it actually is. Same goes for ghost shows, mystery books, or even made up stories.

5.) The older I get, the more OCD I get about cleaning. I've been told it's just the Finnish genes in me combined with the Swedish and constantly being told to clean things.

6.) I didn't really like baseball as a kid and into my teens, but as I get older I'm finding that I like it more than I once did. The fact that we have likeable players on the team (Redmond, Slowey, Morneau) doesn't hurt, either.

7.) As a child, I wanted to be an astronaut, a marine biologist, a botanist (all before I turned 8), a veternarian, and now I don't know what I want. I wish I had the focus of my younger years.

8.) I love foreign languages. I speak several fluently, and I will start to learn Mandarin in the fall. I plan to take Spanish (though I understand it pretty well and can speak a little bit) when I find the time, and then travel when I can to pick up a couple more. I can easily pick up speaking a language in a month, but reading and writing are slower to follow.

9.) I love to go into stores and just pick up everything. I enjoy stores like Creative Kidstuff, REI, IKEA, etc where I'm encouraged to go in and touch everything and test things out.

10.) I'm also very auditory. I love to listen to music and I recognize people more by the sound of their voice than by their face a lot of the time. This probably helps my language gift.

11.) I hate road trips. If I have to ride in the car for more than 15 minutes, I'm bored. I have a constant need to be entertained, and I'm an excellent multitasker, making it difficult to keep me entertained.

12.) I love to be outside. I like to camp, fish, play sports, everything outside. Ron Schara has the best job ever in that he gets to be outdoors and get paid a lot for it.

13.) For all that I love to be outside and in nature, I also tend to be very easy to reach. During the school year I'm on Facebook a lot, and when I'm not at work, I text fairly constantly.

14.) I love bright colors. Bright leafy greens, the bright blue the sky gets in the summer, and yellow. My skin tone doesn't really allow me to wear these shades well until I tan, but the walls of my room at home are bright yellow.

15.) Even though I now spend 8 months of the year in Oregon (during their rainy season), I really don't like rain. I'm a child of the sun all the way. Who says Scandinavians don't tan well?

16.) That being said, I love the water. I love to swim, row, fish, canoe, kayak, and just generally be around water.

17.) I have always had a lot of pets. I've had dogs, parakeets, a cockatial, chinchilla, fish, hamsters, guinea pigs, and a crab. Going to school is weird, all I'll have is bamboo for company.

18.) I'm not very artistic. The only form of art I am good at is music. My only attempts at visual arts at the moment are my random Paint scribbles. My art tends to be more representational than recognizable.

19.) I am extremely competitive. It doesn't matter what it is, I will compete at it. I will compete against any one, any time.

20.) I love getting mail. It pretty much makes my life complete. If anyone sends me mail, I do my best to find something to mail them back and return the favor.

Blogosphere round up

So I've been really lazy about blogging this summer, and I blame my internship for that. It kicks my butt most of the time, and leaves me with very few brain cells left over to come up with anything original or otherwise to write here. On that note, my fellow bloggers have been busy, so I'll direct you to a few things that have kept me entertained and informed in this time mental quicksand.

Sherry has been busy keeping us updated on the Sens as well as telling us 100 things about herself. Heather B. and Alix have also done the same. This is a project I find particularly interesting, because it highlights just how cool my fellow bloggers are. I'm sure others are doing this as well, and if I can think up 100 things to say about myself, I might join them.

Teebz wrote this article that is a more articulate version of my angry rant about Mark Parrish, and you should check it out if you want actual math, reasons, and statistics, not angry babble and green scribbles.

Jibblescribbits shows the ladies of the blogosphere some love and support on his blog, and we all appreciate it.

Margee is continuing her desperate attempt to create more football fans. Due to my upcoming debut as a fantasy football GM, I'm taking notes. Anyone that wants to help me not look bad is more than welcome to pitch in their advice. I know next to nothing about football, so anything you care to tell me is helpful.

As always, if you don't see your blog on any blogrolls, feel free to drop me a line, and you'll be added...provided you aren't some random, insulting spam type site.

If you are looking for actual Wild news and analysis on a regular basis, I would advise you to turn to my fellow Wild bloggers, as they are not slackers like me.

Rude fangirl post ahead AKA #!@!~~^ **&(

So maybe I got a little carried away with the blind rage...

Mark Parrish, my favorite player on the team, 5000% less traitor Ryan Smyth, and all around good guy, has been put on waivers. My rage at Doug Risebrough knows no bounds.

When I pick my favorite player, I tend to be slightly irrational. Mark Parrish was the heir apparent to Wes Walz for my new favorite player, and with Mr. Walz's untimely retirement, claimed his title. I got the sweater, I got it signed, I cheered my heart out for him even when he was having some rough times. He didn't have the greatest season (s) of his career, but that's ok. I still really liked him anyway, and damnit, I don't have to have a reason. I picked him and that's that. This system didn't really fit him, and he was injured a lot. I hope he makes a full recovery from his injuries and goes to a team that appreciates him. Preferably the Oilers, even though they don't really need anyone right now.

A word to DR (and Jacques Lemaire, since this seems like it has his hand prints all over it):
Si je vous vois dans la rue, regardez bien vos dos. Je vais vous trebauche.
In English, since I'm not convinced DR is smart enough to be bilingual... If I see you in the street, watch your backs carefully. I WILL trip you.

Extra for JL: J'ai ponce que vous etes plus professional que j'ai vu. Cette guerre entre vous et M. Parrish est comme les enfants. Vous avez quel age? Vous n'avez pas aimer M. Parrish, et vous n'avez pas lui donner une chance de faire quelque chose quand il est retourne de ses blessures. C'est stupid, et maintenant, je ne suis pas un supporter de vous.

I feel slightly better now, and to make it all better, I didn't just cuss a blue streak like I wanted to.

Maybe something else tomorrow.

This is the first time I have openly critisized Jacques Lemaire, but he didn't get along with Parrish for some reason, and that left Parrish screwed/in the doghouse/unhappy.

A happy ending to a crappy day

In case you haven't heard, JUSTIN MORNEAU WON THE HOMERUN DERBY!!!!!! I'm dying because I could barely breathe, I couldn't mess up his karma.

WARNING, THIS IS SLIGHTLY GROSS. IF YOU DON'T LIKE BLOOD, SKIP THE PARTS IN RED.
So my day started off like this:
Can't get out of the driveway because of road construction.
Get to work, find a HUGE to do list in my cubby.
Feel like I'm going to puke, but I have to take a bunch of dead, smelly birds out of the freezer to thaw, then cut up a rat for the owl.
Break up an owl/turkey fight.
Save the poor Blanding's turtle from death again.
Wash, blowdry, and pin up said dead, smelly, now thawed birds.
Take a bunch of deer, beaver, and other assorted skulls outside and put them in a box for beatles to eat. They were bleeding on the floor. I kind of decided that six more weeks might be a bit much.


I got home, yelled at some people for almost getting into a car accident in my driveway, and then finally my day improved.



The homerun derby.

• Josh Hamilton hit 28 homeruns in the first round. I thought his pitcher was going to die before it was over.
• Justin hit 8 in his first round
• I was bored by the time the Hamilton dude who used to smoke meth or something was done. I guess he's clean now? I have to say, I wasn't listening.
• Some other people bat. I text/IM people madly updating them.
• The dude who looks like Bill Guerin fails.
• Justin Morneau proceeds to hit 9 more homeruns, Bill Guerin look alike who plays for the Brewers goes off to cry in the dugout.
• Joe Morgan is convinced that you must have 7 homeruns to win the competition.
• Justin Morneau proceeds to hit 5 homeruns. That's not good enough for Joe Morgan.
• I yell at one of my friends for killing Justin's karma.
• Josh Hamilton makes me almost die, but he only hits three homeruns.
• I run around yelling like I don't know what. My mom kind of looks at me like I've lost my mind. I did it! I didn't jinx him! Then he gets to help some little girl, and several people say his name wrong, some random dude calls him Jason, and the interviewer lady says his last name incorrectly. I feel for you, dude. Apparently Kirsten is a hard name to pronounce too.

Now I'm tired from running around like a nut and being happy. I'll go back to pinning birds to a board, but with a smile on my face. At least for 10 minutes, until I have to break up another angry bird fight. If I didn't have to wear the smirf shirt tomorrow, I'd be wearing a Justin Morneau one. *sigh* Too bad my boss would not accept his winning as a proper excuse. I'll just be sitting down in the dungeon all day dealing with dead birds that have been frozen as long as I've been alive, but she's not known for being nice/accommodating/helpful.

GMs I love, and GMs I don't

First off, a big shoutout goes to my boy J. (Wild View from Section 216) and his wife. Congrats on the baby girl, I hope everyone is happy and healthy!

Kevin Lowe is awesome. He totally told Brian Burke to shove it, and he flaunted his six Stanley Cup rings in Brian Burke's face. By my Minnesota math, Klowe has six times as many Stanley Cup rings at Burke does. I'd shut my mouth if I were Burke, but being Burke, I'm sure he won't. I'd also like to hit Bettman with something. Brian Burke has been shooting his mouth off forever and a day because he lost Penner because he was tied up with indecisive veterans, but Bettman didn't say a thing. Kevin Lowe finally gets sick of Burke's crap, and bam, all of a sudden Bettman gives a crap about a petty, hilarious GM fight. What gives? Jerkwad.

Doug Risebrough is also on my list of GMs I'm mad at. He's always talking about how he made all of these offers to players, but only rarely do said players show up in Minnesota. No Hossa, no Naslund, no Jokinen, no Rolston (which I blame on his dickhead agent), and I'm concerned about Pierre Marc Bouchard and Marian Gaborik as well. I may not like Gaborik, but he's occasionally useful to have around. What's with signing all of these random people? The fans will keep buying tickets, but unless something miraculously awesome happens, the grumbling will start to get louder. Pat Burns once said "You can't keep replacing the foot soldiers, sometime the general has got to go". DR should watch that this does not happen. Mr. Burns was referring to the coach, but the GM could also go if butts are not in the seats. Also, please bring back the green sweaters!

Elise of 18,568 Reasons Why agrees with me on all of this, and Roy over at Wild Puck Banter has a rant about the sweaters. You should go and check both out.

Datsyuk's Ringtone

Um wow. This is kind of ridiculous. Who cares if he can't speak English/can't dance? I still maintain that his head is shaped like a triangle.

Pitching!

The Twins have AWESOME pitching. Baby Bradke (Kevin Slowey) had a complete game shutout in his last start, and now Hot Mauer (Nick Blackburn) pitched 7 shutout innings giving up only three hits. Slowey also gave up just three hits. Baker has been pitching sort of well, and he was good the other day. Boof got demoted to the bullpen. Hernandez got roughed up the other day, but usually he has pretty good run support. For some reason I almost NEVER see Perkins pitch. Anyone know if that's a good or bad thing?

Monroe: A lot of people are down on him, and his number aren't great, but I like him a lot. He's been great off the bench, and the Twins are 7-0 in games where he gets a homerun. He hits a lot of homeruns with people on the bases, only adding to his awesomeness.

Stupid Red Sox fans outvoted Twins fans in support of Justin Morneau. Apparently the power of the sideburns has extended to the east coast, though, because he was winning the All-Star race the last time I checked. It might have something to do with the fact that I can't name the Red Sox catcher, but I can name most of the rest of the team. Mauer just got lucky. (No, I'm not at all bitter about Morneau not being a starter.)

FCP Part 2?

I've complained enough about this on other people's blogs/cell phones, so it's probably time that I dug out my computer and wrote about it. The Oilers traded Greene and Stoll for Visnovsky, and I'm not pleased. Bro said that Edmonton was not on his list of places to go, and after having FCP bail and screw the team over, I'm extremely wary. Also, I really liked Stoll and Greene. I'm less upset about the acquisition of Brule. 1.) his name is fun to say, 2.) he seems like solid player. Cole I'm kind of indifferent to. The new owner Katz is aggressive indeed. He wants the best team NOW.

The fact that Bruno has been acquired makes me extremely happy. Shepp better start to pick a new number, because I don't know that the Wild faithful would allow him to survive if he didn't give up number 15 to Bruno.

Joe Sakic has not yet made a decision, but I say he should take his time. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The rest of the trades have been very well analyzed over at TSN, and I won't pretend like I'm as cool as Bob McKenzie. He has a couple of great articles up, and TSN has provided analysis on all the trades and stuff. I'm too tired to post about all of it (this stupid internship is killing me), so I just decided to write a small blurb for now where people can yell at me back for completely trashing the Edmonton/LA trade. A crapload has happened in the past few days, and I'm sure I'll make a better post about it, just not for a bit.

Happy Canada Day to my Canadian peeps! Justin Morneau is currently celebrating in fine style.

Baby Hockey Jesus in the Offseason

Dear Baby Hockey Jesus,
I'm sure you are busy working on your tan in this offseason, sitting around and knocking back a few cold ones, and fishing, but the Wild are in a bit of trouble this offseason, and they need your help.
First off, we need you to teach Brian Rolston's agent to answer his phone/return his messages.
Secondly, it would be great if you could help get Butch signed to a long-term contract. I'm afraid he will walk if he doesn't get one.
Third, PLEASE REMIND DR THAT SIMON WAS NOT A GOOD IDEA. I don't want to see any more useless players signed.
Fourth, Marian Hossa would be nice. Then Gaborik can have his other life partner here and maybe he'd stop whining and play hockey. On the other hand, he might be too busy partying with Hossa to focus. I'll leave that one to your judgement. Since we probably won't sign Rolston or Demitra at this point, we'll have piles of money sitting around.
Fifth, please let Demitra leave without smack talking the Wild. We'd like to be able to sign free-agents in the future.
Sixth, please make Chris Chelios retire.
Lastly, please, pleaseeeeeeee let Joe Sakic play at least one more season so I can see him play in person at least once more. I didn't get to see him play in person last season, and I'm uber bummed.

Thank you Baby Hockey Jesus for interupting your vacation to help us out. I will find and sacrifice Sidney Crosby to you if you will grant my wishes.

In other news, I would direct you to see the latest genius over at 18,568 Reasons Why.

I would like to as always, thank the Untypical Girls for introducing Baby Hockey Jesus to the Wild.

Field Trip: Twins Autograph Party

Today I had an absolute blast at the Twins Autograph Party. All the proceeds went to help various charities, and I picked up some awesome stuff, and met some awesome players.

10:30 AM: I arrived a bit later than I was supposed to, but I had a rough morning. Stupid allergy attacks. I picked up a few things at various booths, including a present for fellow Wild blogger Elise.

10:45 AM: I met up with Stacy and all of us stood in line to see Gomez, Boof, and Mike Lamb. We had a blast watching the people next to us in line get loaded. The had a huge cooler full of beer and they didn't seem to mind the long lines.

11:00 AM: I made a donation to help the relief efforts in Iowa and Missouri by getting a bag full of goodies. The Twins players wives and girlfriends were selling them. I got a Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer, and Joe Mauer "sandlot" poster, a wiffle ball bat and ball, a Twins hat, and a signed Tony Oliva picture. Justin Morneau's girlfriend was nice enough to look through all the bags for me to find me a "good one". My brother claimed the bat and ball, the poster is going on my wall, the hat will probably be given to whoever wants it (it's signed by Twins pitcher Matt Guerrier), and the picture was claimed by my mom.

11:30 AM: we sat around stuffing our faces and telling stories to keep ourselves amused. The event officially started at this time, but we were too busy standing in line to check anything out at that point in time.

12:30 PM: The line finally started moving, and we got through pretty quickly. We spent most of the time in line trying to sort out who needed what signed. We got up there and Gomez was first.

1:00PM: We arrive at the table. Gomez was up first, and he was kind of a dick. He didn't say anything to anyone, and just shoved stuff at people while glowering at them. Kind of like Marian Gaborik. Boof attempted to be amusing while discussing why girls always seem to have Mauer and Morneau shirts before realizing that a lot of guys have Morneau shirts too. Mike Lamb was pretty nice, but much older than I thought he was. I got three new signatures for my baseball.

1:07 PM: After consulting with a Twins employee to figure out where table #2 was, we headed off to see Baby Bradke and co. There were a lot of fun people in the line, so life was good. We got through fairly quickly, and man was it fun when we got there. Casilla was really nice and smiley, and he inspected the ball very closely then signed. He was very friendly, and made me want to take back a few of the mean things I have said about him. Shaggy (Matt Guerrier) was his usual awesome self. He and Slowey were arguing about football teams, and Slowey and Casilla were bickering in Spanish. The whole tent was really entertaining. They all seem to get along well and were all really chatty. Slowey was awesome. He was really talkative and nice, and got really excited when I told him we like to sit around and compare him to Bradke. He smiled at me and said he was honored. Um right, I'll stop now.

1:40PM: we decided we didn't have time to get in another line, so we wandered around and checked out what was going on elsewhere. That proved to be really fun, as I saw several people that I know, got to watch random players interacting with fans, and added to my tan.

2:00 PM: We decided to get in line to see Roy Smalley and Bert. There was a random Hispanic dude also, but I keep forgetting his name. Juan somebody. We stood in line showing people the old yearbooks my mom sent with me to get signed, and watching the snowcone dude make snowcones. I wanted one really badly, but they only had the cherry kind. Yuck.

3:00 PM: I got to meet BERT! It was awesome. He loved signing the old stuff, and he told me about some of his pranks that he pulled. The Juan dude must not speak a lot of English, because he just smiled a lot and signed things. Roy was SUPER awesome and he signed the old stuff, told me a story, and was really pleased when I told him how much my family enjoys his batting segments. He made Justin Morneau batting hands for me, probably due to the fact that I was wearing a Justin Morneau shirt. I love Roy, he's the best.

3:30 PM: We located snowcones, documented ourselves eating them, managed to get Joe Mauer posters, and entertained kids by playing with the wiffle ball bat. I managed to bounce the ball off the bat 47 times in a row. That is my accomplishment for the day. We then took video playing hockey with the bats we got and ball. It was a little like Justin Morneau and Lew Ford playing hockey. A random dude challenged me to a game, but he went to get more beer and I think he forgot.

4:30 PM: we got photographed for the Twins photo gallery of the event, and we stood around in the sun comparing stuff that we got and chatting with random people. Then we bought a raffle ticket for the boat on the plaza and headed home. It was a good day, and the weather could not have been more perfect.

Congrats to Michael and Claudia Cuddyer on the birth of their son! Mr. Cuddyer seemed very excited whenever people congratulated him, and I can imagine why.

Pictures and other random stories are available on request. This is just a brief summary of an awesome day.

Reasons I like baseball

Before I only watched baseball in the summer, but this spring the playoffs made me mad, so I watched a lot more baseball. I'm really starting to like the game a lot more now. (Minus Carlos Gomez) The Twins have been super up and down this season, but whatever. In my never ending quest (similar to Margee's football quest about football) to get people to not think baseball is boring, I present to you some reasons I like baseball.

1.) There is nothing better than sitting outside in the sunshine on a nice afternoon stuffing your face and watching a game. I like watching the Saints, and soon the Twins for this reason. For those of you over 18, 19, or 21, I hear sitting around knocking back a cold one is a good perk also.

2.) TWINGO, cotton candy, and yelling, are three of my favorite reasons to go to the Dome. Sadly I was one play away from getting TWINGO before all the prizes were handed out, but it's fun anyway. I also enjoy getting a scorecard and doodling all over it. My friend Matt FREAKED out when he left his scorecard for me to mind while he got up for a sec, and was extremely upset to find that I had doodled all over it. He takes his scorekeeping very seriously.

3.) You don't have to freak out if your team loses a game. With 162 games in a season, you can kick back, relax, and just enjoy the game at hand. Watching the division leaders change every week is fun too. Especially if you are a fan in the central division.

4.) Dick and Bert. Dick and Bert are like the Twins version of Tom and Bob. Tom and Bert are both colorful pranksters, and Bob and Dick both know tons about their respective sports and remain reasonably unbiased. Bert circles people and counts down to his birthday while telling stories about how he likes to light stuff on fire.

5.) You can leave and come back, and in three highlights, you're all caught up. It's fantastic. Equally fantastic are the highlights that they show. Awesome catches, sweet hits, outfielders from the other team running into each other, it's hard to pick just one usually.

6.) Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer, Mike Redmond, Kevin Slowey, Chipper Jones, Raul Ibanez (I think his name is funny), Bradke, Corey Koskie, Matt Guerrier, all my favorite players. I like them because they entertain me, give back to their communities, smash things, and make awesome plays. It's like my favorite hockey players only less sweaty. Smell those hits!

7.) Twins fans. I love that anywhere I go in Minnesota I can sit around and talk about the Twins with random people. The kids I teach all tell me who their favorite players are (usually Joe Mauer), random dudes in Twins hats chat about last night's game with me. It seems to be a Minnesota thing.

8.) Making fun of Joe Mauer. It's just SO easy and entertaining. He runs like he has a pole shoved up his butt, sits around with his mouth hanging open, and his really unfortunate hair.

9.) The Twins commercials are SO MUCH BETTER than the Wild commercials. If you don't believe me, you can either go to the Twins website or YouTube some of them. Hilarious.

10.) Summer is lazy, baseball is lazy...it doesn't require nearly as much energy to watch, which suits me just fine in the summer time.

Why do YOU like baseball?

My soul just died

CTV bought the rights to the "Hockey Night in Canada Theme Song" and it will be used on TSN and RDS in addition to the Olympics. I'm too sad to even try to tell you about how sad I am. My Canadians understand.

Stupid CBC. Now I am going to freak out everytime I watch TSN, kind of like when I freak out about tornado drills on sunny Wednesdays.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=240196&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_main

OK fine

Maybe I'm a little bit happy about the Cup win for the Red Wings, but mostly only because I loathe the Penguins and didn't want to see them win. I'm not a bad Wild fan/Minnesotan, I promise. I'm sure Steph got drunk if she has the funds, and she has a nice couple of posts up about the win over at No Pun Intended. Hopefully she and Elly manage to still be friends. Watch this space for the Epic Adventures of Zetterdouche and Trianglehead if my 40 hour a week internship doesn't kill me first.

The playoffs thus far in pictures

Round 1:

Hooray! We managed not to completely self-destruct and make all of Quebec hate us!

Yeah, what now, FCP??? NOW YOU KNOW HOW IT FEELS.

Round 2:

Joe Thornton will never shake his Marty Turco Stigma, and Forsberg learned that he is not better than half the population of Sweden, or even Nicklas Lidstrom by himself. Yes, I do refuse to say anything rude about Joe Sakic.

He should have stayed with the Pens/not cut his mullet.

Round 3:

A less than epic war was waged, and families (you don't want to know how long I stared at that word trying to see if it was spelled correctly. Stupid foreign languages.) were divided. But not for long.

Marty Turco kicked his playoff stigma in the balls, until Al kicked him back.

Sad day

Luc Bourdon was killed in a motorcycling accident this afternoon. TSN, RDS, and basically every news source in Canada are reporting the death of the 21 year old Canucks defenceman

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080529.wsptbourdon29/GSStory/GlobeSportsHockey/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080529.wsptbourdon29

http://www.rds.ca/hockey/chroniques/252651.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/2008/05/canucks_luc_bourdon_dies_in_mo.html

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=239196&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_main

My condolences to his family and friends.

Baby Hockey Jesus 2; Sidney Crosby 0

I wonder if this is the Untypical Girls at work. In their original post about Baby Hockey Jesus, Sidney Crosby was the sacrifice. I'm thinking that this is Baby Hockey Jesus collecting on that offering. Thank you Baby Hockey Jesus for your brilliant timing.

Meanwhile over at No Pun Intended, Elly is attempting to make herself feel better with Knob Hockey and alcohol, and I'm sure Steph is off somewhere gloating about the 2-0 lead and the fact that the Twins got owned 19-3 over the weekend. I really, really don't want to talk about it, Steph. The game tonight will be telling. If the Pens lose at home, they are screwed. Obvi, right? If they can't win on the road, and they can't win at home, I guess they would not win anywhere and therefore get swept, but sometimes I need to lay things out so that I can understand.

In keeping with my theme, right now it seems to be Baseball Gods Five bajillion; Minnesota Twins -.500

The Twins fans are complaining about a lack of power, but I really think they need to be complaining about the fact that our bullpen kind of sucks, and so does the fielding of certain players. *coughyoungcough* Other stupid people are complaining about the fact that Justin Morneau isn't playing as well as he should be, but really, he's been hitting pretty consistantly, getting plenty of RBIs, and he seems to be pretty capable of catching the ball. On top of that, he is not arbitrarily deciding when he will and will not play. Gomez, I've got news for you amigo, you are a rookie and in hot water for some of your fielding decisions. You should not be trying to tell Ron Gardenhire what you feel like doing, because judging by his umpire wars, he's not afraid to tell you what HE feels like doing. Think Red Foreman.

Joe Mauer may not be playing long ball (I wonder if that will hurt his fan club, as the ladies love the long ball), but he's getting on base, and in these times of barely .500 baseball, every little bit helps. That being said, he does not have ANY homeruns this season, and even Everett has one. Really, Joe? I have often wondered why Gardy doesn't have him hitting 1 or 2 instead of 3, but like I said before, I don't think it's wise to tell him how to run his baseball club/he knows more about baseball than I ever will. Cuddyer is doing the best he can, and I admit, he's had some struggles at the plate with just one homerun, but he's been making up for it on the field, and seems to be providing veteran leadership in the clubhouse and helping to keep things loose and fun. Besides, he has not run into a wall and broken his throwing hand, nor has he made an error in judgement that cause the opposing team to tie up the game in the 9th inning when the game was 3-0. I'm looking at you Gomez and Young.

We have a completely different infield for the most part, and I think they are still doing some shuffling around trying to see who fits best where. The fact that they are all getting injured is really hurting the team. The AAA club was getting really annoyed with the fact that they had no players left in the infield because the Twins had called them all up.

Lastly, the bullpen has not been stellar. Jesse Crain has been brutal this season, and I freak out every time he is put in the game, especially since he has been in towards the end of the game a lot. This does not give the team time to recover from him WALKING IN RUNS, SOMETIMES MULTIPLE RUNS IN AN INNING. Juan Rincon is totally off his game this season, though he's not anywhere near as bad as Jesse Crain. I only cringe a little bit when he's put in. I usually figure we just lost the game when Crain is put in. Joe Nathan was mad at Delmon Young last night, but he gave up a bunch of hits to allow all of those people on the bases, so he should be more forgiving and doing some apologizing of his own to Mr. Nick Blackburn. Blackburn has been pretty good for us this year, and he pitched really well for 8 and 1/3 innings last night. Mega shout-out to him, even if he does look alarmingly like Joe Mauer when he has a ball cap on.

If you made it all the way through that post that you thought was about hockey but was really about baseball, good job, and Go Twins!

Summer break

Taken off Sand Island in the Apostle Islands

This is just a note to say that if I'm not around much, it's because I have a summer internship 40 hours a week, a job soon, and then whatever else comes up. My summers tend to be kind of spontaneous.

I will be at the Wild Road Tour final stop in Rice Park on June 12th. I'm bummed that Mark Parrish won't be there this season, but he's probably chained to his house changing diapers right now to pay his wife back for all of the road trips of the season. Everyone should come, it's a really fun event, and the best part might be watching the players play street hockey with five year olds.

I will also be at the Minnesota Twins Autograph Party on June 21st. You will probably find me in line to see Kevin Slowey, Bert Blyleven, or Justin Morneau. The event costs $30, but all the proceeds go to charity. You can collect all the autographs you can get, as long as you aren't in Joe Mauer's line, in which case you will get like three total. I would recommend getting your ticket early if you are going, because they sell out every year.

I'm still cheering for the Red Wings in the finals. I'm predicting this series will either be a five game massacre for the Wings, or a seven game battle with the Wings coming out on top. Last night seemed to point toward the four-five game annihilation with the Wings winning the game 4-0. I'm sure my friend Dillon is ignoring my gloating text right now.

Tony Granto has been re-hired as the head coach of the Avs. Jibblescribbets is really upset about this fact, and frankly I can't blame him. That's almost as horrible for the Avs as Iron Mike being hired for the Flames was. Almost.

Stanley Cup Finals 2008

UGH. I can't believe I'm being forced to care about the Red Wings, but I swear on all I hold holy and dear, if the Pittsburgh Penguins win the Stanley Cup, REALLY bad things will happen to whatever I come into contact with first. I will do whatever the rage directs me to do, which is not something to be taken lightly. I HATE HATE HATE the Penguins this season. I have no specific reason why, just something that makes me loathe them. Sidney Crosby's "beard" isn't helping. Baby Hockey Jesus, please make sure that the destruction of the western Twin Cities does not happen by making Chelios not have so many brain farts, and inspire Nicklas Lidstrom to be a great, Joe Sakicesque leader of the team.

The Zetterberg and Datsyuk hate is on hold for the remainder of the playoffs, and at that time, the epic and long promised "Adventures of Trianglehead and Zetterdouche" will be released for all to marvel at. Until then, I will be a faithful and kind supporter of the Red Wings.

It's going to be a No Pun Intended smackdown, and I kind of can't wait to see what the girls do to each other, since a little birdie named Steph tells me they are going to be hanging out at some point. This should be good.

PS, all of you should check Margee's Squeeview of the finals over on Sportsquee. Absolutely hilarious. More later if I feel so inspired to write.

Sports confessional

I have some confessions to make to you all. This past sports season has brought many changes to my hatreds both past and present.

1.) I no longer hate the Stars the same way I used to. I blame this on Cat (Untypical Girls), Caitlin (Untypical Girls/Hockey Coma) and Jen (Untypical Girls/The Shootout). This all started when I read their hilarious blog post about Baby Hockey Jesus, as they are the originators of the rituals, I just perpetuate them. After that, I was hooked. Chatting with Cat and Caitlin has showed me that not all Stars fans are evil, and that there are even things to like about their favorite hockey team. Way to go ladies, I didn't think anyone would ever be able to accomplish this. PS, don't even try to get me to like Modano. That will NEVER happen.

2.) Vincent Lecavalier is much smarter/less shallow than I previously gave him credit for. I always thought he didn't look too bright, but the more I hear him interviewed and see him in the community, he does good work, and his English and French grammar are both impeccable, and he gives intelligent answers. Mr. Beliveau gave his approval of him, and who am I to argue with the great Jean Beliveau?

3.) I no longer hate the Red Wings as completely as I used to. Steph, I'm looking at you, you big jerk. You convinced me to like them just a little bit, and ugh. Now I even would be ok with them winning the Stanley Cup. What's next? Same thing goes for Chelios as for Modano. I will never like him. PPS, Sakic is better than Yzerman.

4.) I was also wrong about Brent Burns, Mikko Koivu, Brian Rolston, Mathieu Garon, Marty Turco, Marcus Naslund, I'm sure the list goes on. Basically my prediction skills are sketchy at best, and I tend to be harsh on those who do not garner my instant affection (ie: Marian Gaborik), and I'm especially mean to those who abuse my adoration (Ryan Smyth).

5.) I still hate the Ducks, a lot. I'm even managing to think that Scott Niedermayer is a giant bag of douche, but that breaks my heart since I love to watch him play. I like Andy McDonald. I even liked him when he played for the Ducks.

Any confessions of your own to make? Everyone's squees and secret loves are safe here.

I feel a smackdown coming!

vs.
Both of them have a bad case of "Malkin face".

So lately I've been hearing from multiple sources that they think Malkin is better than Crosby. This news makes me smile like there is no tomorrow, because I can't wait to hear what Sidney Crosby has to say about this once he hears. I bet this could get good, and I can't wait to be entertained by the fight I am envisioning ensuing. I will be horribly disappointed if Crosby is his usual, boring self and just says that it's good for the game or whatever.

The Stars are getting murdered by the Red Wings, but they showed a little bit more life last night. There was also the Ribero/Osgood incident at the end of the game, so I'm guessing some of the Wings *coughMcCartycough* might be out for blood. Specifically Ribero's blood, but I wouldn't be surprised if he went after Turco to retaliate. I wouldn't do that if I were him however, as Marty Turco strikes me as the type to fight back, and fight dirty.

Random Twins ramblings:

The Twins are currently playing the BoSox. They won the first game, dropped yesterday's game, and now have been doing pretty well thus far in the game *knock on wood*. Justin Morneau is doing much better than he was last series, and he gave a great shoutout to his mom today complete with actual smiling, a rare thing from the stoic Canadian. OOH, he's up to bat and he has a pink bat. NICE hit. He's now 3 for 3 with a hit right up the middle that practically made the pitcher piss his pants. He smashed that ball.

Joe Morgan is a good baseball announcer, but whoever he is working with NEVER, EVER shuts up. Like seriously. He knows more random facts about the Red Sox than anyone has a right to, and he seems to have a burning need to impart all of this wisdom to me in the span of this ball game. Stupid ESPN, I miss Dick'N'Bert.

Blackburn seems to have a hard time sealing the deal. He gets two strikes, then seems to try too hard or something to get the third. I still maintain he looks a bit like Joe Mauer with a hat on. Must be the sideburns and dark hair.

On an even more random note, now that the Twins are back at home, I don't have to hear them mention that they are on the South Side of Chicago every three seconds. I was starting to count how many times a game they mentioned that fact. According to Tenisha, the south side is not where you want to be.

Justin Morneau almost fell on his face he just stopped and backed up so fast. The third baseman just bobbled the ball off his nuts. The announcer made tons of excuses for him, why doesn't he do that for the Twins players? LAME I say.

Wild:

If anyone caught the interview on KFAN with Mark Parrish, I'm sorry. It was amusing when they weren't taking advantage of the fact that he's too nice to tell them all to eff off and stop asking him such rude questions. He answered all of their questions very politely, but he didn't sound happy about most of them. Unfortunately they spent a lot more time talking about the fact that he had a poor season than the fact that next year is a new season, we won the division title, and we have a lot of players who REALLY improved this season. Oh well, such is journalism I've found. Parrish sounded like he's doing a lot better after his concussion, which he said was brutal. It's really good to hear that he's feeling better, and that his little girl and wife are both doing a really well. All the best to ya Grumpy, the fans still love you, even if the media doesn't.

One last thing: Jacques Lemaire has annouced that he will be back for another season. This is good news for everyone but the opposition. I'm pleased that he's back for another season, and I'm hoping that they will play a little bit better for him this coming season. The Strib and Pioneer Press are all over this story like white on rice, so you can read more about it there or on Wild.com.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL MOTHERS EVERYWHERE!