Dear Baby Hockey Jesus,

I have decided that in order to get what I ask of you, I should probably also communicate when times are good. That's what they tell you in CCD classes, right? I was too busy being told I was going to hell to pay attention to what they were trying to teach me.

Times are good right now if you are a Wild fan, very good indeed, so this is mostly a post to thank you for your kind intercession.
Thank you Baby Hockey Jesus for:

• Helping Mikko Koivu to regain his mojo and play like the stud centerman we still need another of.
• Inspiring Burns to learn how to fight
• Chasing Luongo from the cage last night
• Helping the Wild regain their division lead
• Kicking Vancouver out of the playoffs
• Inspiring Sam Gagner to greatness
• Not letting Edina win the state title
• Helping the Gophers to win many intense games

I thank you Baby Hockey Jesus for helping me with all of these things, but there are still a few things I feel hockey could use your help with:

• Helping Gaborik to be better on breakaways
• Reminding Joe Sakic that it would not be such a bad thing for the Oilers to win
• Getting a stud centerman to help out Koivu in the offseason
• Bailing Mark Parrish out of Lemaire's doghouse
• I would still like it if you would smite Skoula...
• Find someone else to be the spokesmodel of the NHL...preferably someone who does not play for the Pens.
• Finally Baby Hockey Jesus, I ask you to arrange it so that we do not have to play the Flames in the playoffs. That is my greatest wish at this time.
• On behalf of Elise, please inspire Jacques Lemaire to play Shepp, and please let him score some goals so that Lemaire will leave Shepp in.

Thank you Baby Hockey Jesus, and I hope you hear the prayers of fans everywhere, and grant them most of what they need, just so long as it does not hurt my team.

I went to to the Wild/Vancouver game last night and it was awesome, but I really don't have anything else to add that the wonderful Wild Blogosphere has not already written, so I refer you to their blogs if you want to read about the actual game. If there are any Naslund fans in the house, I took a lot of pictures of him to cheer up Alix of the Humming Giraffe. If you want to see, just leave me your email address, and it shall be done.

Top of the division once more...

Quick notes:
Last night's game was awesome. Mikko Koivu would probably agree with me, since he had three assists and was the number one star of the game. The Wild came out hell bent on revenge last night, and had better luck with the goalposts than a young Patrick Roy. Backstrom didn't get pulled, Gagner didn't make fools out of our defencemen, and I was at the game!

All in all it was a good night. The Avs chased Luongo out of the net, and the Wild took back the division crown with 91 points. A good time was had by everyone not an Oilers/Canucks fan.

Up Next: The Canucks at the X. I will be at that game, too! I have promised Alix some pictures ( I have pictures of the Oilers up on Facebook) to cheer her up, so hopefully they will let me by the glass. Should be a good game, and of course every game is important at this time of the year. I fully expect to see the thug line out in force tomorrow to take care of Kessler (not to be confused with Kessel...) and Burrows.

Top 10 NHL goalies most crazy/funny moments

Some of these are just ridiculous. It's hard to say which is my favorite.

PS, I'll be at the game tonight, so if you see someone in a Mark Parrish sweater (green) with a Team Canada hat, come on over and say hi.

In Which the Wild decide to hand over their playoff spot to the Oilers

So the Wild have apparently decided that making the playoffs isn't such a good idea after all. Maybe they'd rather work on their golf games or something. Maybe some of them haven't taken a look outside lately, but it's not exactly good golfing weather. Last night's 5-3 beating at the hands of the Oilers was not pretty. Three goals in something like the first five minutes of the game were enough to get Backstrom yanked, though he was back in the game for the third period.

This team is imploding like nobody's business. I'm all for the Oilers making the playoffs, but preferably not at the Wild's expense.


So yeah, we have to play them again tomorrow, and I will be there. We'll see how that goes, but I'll be there in my Parrish sweater cheering, even if I do like the Oilers. The Oilers are playing some desperate hockey right now, and the Wild should be too.

The Habs clinched a playoff spot last night, but unfortunately the Twins couldn't pull out a win today. Baby Bradke was on the mound for the start, but the Twins' fielding sucked more than the Wild's defence last night.

I hate the Flames part 7

So everything was looking really good for a while in the game. Pouliot finally did something useful and scored a pair of goals. It all went downhill from there. Iginla had a hat trick, I fould out that Calgary has ice girls (causing me to lose respect for them), and Lombardi scored a goal at the very end of the game because Sean Hill is a bum. Johnsson had 2, count 'em TWO, goals last night. Final score: 5-4 Shames. We lost our three point lead over them obviously, which is bad since they have a game in hand.

In other news, the Oilers beat the Avs 7-5 yesterday, with my boy Sam Gagner getting a pair of goals and earning the first star of the game. Sadly Joe Sakic did not get a goal, but was named the third star of the game. AWESOME. Oilers are still rollin' and are now three points behind the Avs...I bet HF is ready to explode right about now.

Habs beat the Bruins 3-2 in a SO to complete their series sweep of the B's. Way to go Habs!

Right now I'm watching the Twins game, and Bert is wearing rabbit ears. How cool is that? Liriano is starting, but he's not looking as good as I would have hoped. Maybe he just needs a season to get his mojo back? Joe Mauer just threw someone out at second base, and Dick sounds quite amazed to have seen happen. BUUUUURN. They are playing Baltimore, btw.

The Kings beat the Stars 4-2, which is useful to the Wild, because it means that Minnesota is catching up to them in points.

The Leafs beat the Sens 5-4, even though last I heard the Sens were killing the Leafs.

Live blogging the Canucks

I'm not putting times on this, just comments.
1st period:
-Koivu is starting. Yippee!
-Things are already getting chippy...I can't find Koivu scoring and gloating on Youtube.
-Boogaard just shoved someone.
-Shepp is not so good with faceoffs, I'm just putting that out there.
-Gaborik seems to need someone to skate with him (preferably life partner Demitra). He's much better with 2 on 1s than breakaways by himself.
-Kessler is a jerkwad. He has no balls just like Kessel.
-Mikko Koivu wants a goal.
-Butch is really slick. I hope we keep him in the offseason.
-Skoula just made another bad play and coughed up the puck, Shepp looked bad on that play too. -I haven't seen Parrish out there...I hope he's not scratched. Looks like he is indeed scratched for Simon. How many thugs do we need? Stupid Simon. This does not endear him to me.
-Burns is much better at checking people than he used to be. Back in the day he spent a lot of time checking himself.
-Terhaar clearly can't tell the difference between blue and white.
-Now he can't seem to remember that he is employed by the Wild, not the Canucks. Unusual for him.
-Nazzy hits people? What? He just smashed Nick Schultz.
-I felt badly for Mitchell when he had the cage on in MN, now I am just making fun of him.
-Bieksa...UGH. WHY DO WE HAVE TO HEAR ABOUT YOU EVERY THREE SECONDS?! Houhson (sp?) Makes me not look forward to HNIC with Vancouver. If it's not Bieksa it's Loungo. "GREAT SAVE, LUONGO" is another thing I could do without.
-Co'mon Koivu!
-Fedoruk is not completely useless, he just drew two penalties for us.
-I had forgotten how foul Willie Mitchell's mouth is.
Second Period
-BACKSTROM! Back in your net! We are missing Foster right now.
-Pouliot has a problem staying on his feet.
-WHOOO! Went off of Wilie Mitchell, looks like Rolston will be credited for the PP goal. 1-0 Wild. -Rolston needs to learn how to pass. He's very loose with the puck.
-God the Sedins are creepy looking.
-Burns is starting to look like Zetterdouche. Instead of a homeless Swede, he can be a homeless Canadian.
-I can't decide if this game is boring or really interesting. Either way most of the period seems to have disappeared on me.
-Wait! Stop! You're going the wrong way! Bonus points to anyone who gets the reference
-BURROWS! LEAVE PMB ALONE!
-Fedoruk just butt tripped Bieksa
Third Period
-Someone just tripped and zoomed across the ice and made Luongo fall too. Nice.
-GOAL! RADIO! Wow, he's on fire lately.
-Boogie has been deployed in the third. Lemaire must be expecting trouble.
-This is crap, he so didn't trip him.
-NOOOOOOOO! 2-1 Wild. Salo maybe?
-Aaaaand Derek Boogaard is probably done for the night. Now I doubt Lemaire will put him out there unless there is a problem.
-Sean Hill is missing a step or five right now.
-Gaborik, that was weak! Try harder. You're supposed to be the captain.
-Pouliot has a rough life lately. He flails a lot when he falls down. You don't get style points, though he IS French.
-So close, but denied. Demitra sucks.
-Luongo just headed off the ice.
YES WILD WIN!

This got kinda long, sorry guys. I can't figure out how to do the read more thingie.

Players that are Awesome

So originally I was going to write an ode to Matt Niskanen, but I'm not good with pretty forms of writing like Odes, so I'm just going to make a list of the reason that he's awesome. I'm hoping this will cheer Cat up a little bit.
1.) He shoved Niedermayer down. Way to go!
2.) He likes fishing!
3.) Uses proper Minnesota words
4.) Has a fishing bobber hanging from his rearview mirror.
5.) Seems to be humble a genuinely nice guy.
6.) Very smiley and polite
7.) Wears green well. Wild sweater anyone?
8.) Cat gives him a good review after meeting him and getting him to sign a box of Cocoa Puffs...
9.) He's from MN!
10.) He played for UMD...I was accepted to go to school there, even though I usually cheer for the Gophs.

Sam Gagner is also super awesome. His list:
1.) He's going to be a stud in a few years
2.) Seems really dorky, but really chill.
3.) His dad described him as a "really fast turtle"
4.) Has an awesome draft day picture.
5.) Can cook broccoli
6.) Nickname is "Gags"
7.) Seems to really want to sign something for my friend
8.) Plays for the Oilers
9.) Can grow great hockey hair
10.) Dominated the Russians in the Super Series

I know there are more awesome players in the league, but these are two young guys that are fast becoming two of my favorite players in the league, even if one of them does play for the Stars. Who are your favorites? Did I forget to add anything for either of these two players?

A Win in Regulation!!!

WHOOOOOO! The Wild beat the Avs 3-1 on Monday. It's a good day in the neighborhood. Goals from Burns, Radio, and Veilleux completed this game, and Sakic got a goal for Colorado. I was hoping it would be his only goal, since I didn't want everyone in Minnesota to hate me.

Last night I watched a little bit of the Oilers game, but not too much, cause I wanted to save some bandwidth to watch Joe Thornton the Wild game tonight. It was probably a good choice from an academic standpoint, because instead I went to the library and read through a stack of academic journals to research for my chem presentation that's coming due. From a karmic standpoint, it was CLEARLY a good choice as the Oilers won 8-4 over the Yotes. The Oilers are rolling, and I fully support their playoff push, especially if it kicks Vancouver out.

Tonight: Wild @ San Jose 9:30 PM CDT on FSN. (Whoo! A game at a time that I can actually watch!) San Jose's roll got killed by the Oilers, and I'm hoping that means good things for the Wild. We need each and every point that we can get right now.

**EDIT**
Several Wild Bloggers, spearheaded by Nick in New York (Hitting the Post), have created a message board so discussion among blogs etc can occur. We hope to have a podcast at someo point, so everyone should go and check it out!
http://z9.invisionfree.com/Wild_Blogosphere_MB/index.php?act=idx

On a Personal Note

I try to keep this blog all about sports, but right now I seem incapable of making my own decisions, so here goes.

• I'm entering several March Madness pools. Anyone have any idea of who's going to win? Any strategies that you can share?
• Does anyone know if Spanish or Chinese would be more useful to an environmental science major?
• How about French? I speak it fluently and write it pretty well. Maybe I should not take French in favor of Geographical Information Systems?

Next game: So the Wild are playing a lot of division rivals until the end of the season. Colorado is surging, and I'm hoping the Wild can slow them down. Many players have returned from injury for them, including my favorite player alive: JOE SAKIC. I announced today on my friend's sports show that I have a man crush on Sakic, and he responded with, "but you're a girl..." in a very confused voice. Yes, Dillon, I'm not gender confused, I just mean that he's old enough to be my dad/is married, so it's not that kind of crush. It's just a huge one on his wrist shot/captaining skills/awesomeness in general, so therefore it's the typical mancrush. (or what I would define as a mancrush) I'm going to be done making the Avs feel good about themselves now, and hope for a win tomorrow night at 6CDT on VERSUS! OMG, I just realized it's on Versus! I have to go and reserve the TV now.

At Least the Ookies are Awesome

Booth pictures are from a random Google search. I suggest googling Scott Niedermayer if you don't believe the Ookies, Alix, or me.

So tonight I hung out in the IBP game thread, and had a lovely chat with many of the (ir) regulars, and some poo was flung...mostly by me, I have to admit, and mostly at Alix, writer of The Humming Giraffe. I'm sorry, Alix, I love the giraffe, and you are awesome. I'm just frustrated, and not looking forward to playing you guys 2,395, 573 times at the end of this month. The fact that Scott Niedermayer looks very much like the giraffe that adorns The Humming Giraffe was also discussed in the quest to find a name for said giraffe. I don't know about you guys, but I hereby vote for Scott as the name.

So the Wild lost 4-3 in a shootout to the Devils, and went 0-3 in said shootout. Earth to Brian Rolston, the slapshot thing isn't working any more. I think every goalie on God's Green Earth has figured out that you will try that...

Paul Martin (former Gopher) and Zach Parise (former UND player boo, but he's from MN) were in town tonight for the first time as Devils, as we haven't played the Devils in Minnesota since before they were born probably. (Which is not a knock on them, since they are older than me.) I'm sure they had quite a crowd there like Nisky did, but they play for a team I like better than the Stars. Martin Brodeur continues in his quest to look exactly like Gump Worsley, except he's too vain to play without a mask.

Anyone have any idea what this is? Google turns up some strange things sometimes. Apparently it's a hockey card...

Up Next: LA Kings. I'm a bad fan. I didn't know that off the top of my head, and I had to use my cell phone to light up my Wild wall calendar since it's A.) dark in my room B.) Faster than looking it up on the internet somewhere. So we play the Kings. Rob Blake is awesome, Dan Cloutier is not, unless he's helping us win playing like his normal self instead of super well like KMS2 mentioned. Game is on at *checks calendar* 7 CT, and that's the end of the useful information I have gleaned from this highly useful wall decoration.


This photo came up when I googled "Scott Niedermayer" The facial expression totally works.-------->

As one final, random aside, I just found out about the existance of a giraffe beetle while making this post. I don't know how you guys feel about bugs, but click on the link if you want to see the coolest thing EVER. Apparently they live in Madagasgar. I really, really want to see one now. http://images.wildmadagascar.org/pictures/dylan/Giraffe_Beetle,_Perinet.jpg

Methods of Consolation

So lately the Wild have been sucking, and my friends both hockey fans and non fans alike have been trying to help me think of ways to console myself. Here are some of their suggestions:
1.) Post lots of half naked pictures of Joe Thornton/Vincent Lecavalier. When asked how this would make me feel better, the submitter (Courtney) replied that it would make her feel better no matter what, and would probably make her forget all about the Oilers. I don't think that's going to work.

2.) Steph of No Pun Intended says that she " cried and drank a lot" when the Wings were losing, and made sure I did not forget the most important part of all: "oh and swearing. Don't forget about swearing." She also watched many AHL games, but that one is not feasable for me, especially since the only local hockey team (The Portland Winterhawks) is crappy beyond belief.

3.) Matt says that I should tell the Wild to eff off and become a dedicated Twins fan/baseball fan instead. Since the Twins do not have an actual starting rotation, I feel like this would just cause me more pain and stress.

4.) My roommate told me to go and hit something or be otherwise violent/aggressive, but with my arm messed up, that's maybe not a good idea.

5.) Several of my MN friends suggested that I transfer to MN somewhere where there are many other hockey teams to watch besides the Wild. Courtney says I should come to Edmonton and watch Sam Gagner the Oilers play. Tempting...

Any other suggestions? I feel like transferring schools might be a lot of work, but I'm open to anything else that will help me to dull the pain of this horrible month of March in hockey. Like Elise said "This whole Gaby as captain thing isn't exactly working out too hot. It seemed smart for about, oh, 1 game." She speaks words of truth, and she also writes them. Check out Wild.com or 18,568 Reasons Why for a link to her story posted on Wild.com! AMAZING stuff, folks.

Up next: The Devils. I will not try to compete with the -Ookies since they have a fantastic blog over at Interchangable Parts, but I will definitely make some kind of rude comments about Martin Brodeur (because it's SO easy), and maybe Zach Parise because he still owes me a fruitbasket. Boxworthy has fallen down on the job...I don't actually have anything intelligent to say about the team right now, so I'll just refer you to them and make fun of people.

A little shameless self promotion: be sure and check out Hockey Blog in Canada. Teebz gives some nice shoutouts, and mine is hilarious.

Mark Parrish Benched

Last night I was too irritated/tired to talk about this properly, and I will probably get flak for this, but whatever. Parrish was benched, and I was furious. I don't care if this makes me a bad fan with "rose colored glasses", Parrish is my boy, and I only want good things for him.

I blame Wild beat writer Russo (Minneapolis Star Tribune) for this happening. Last time he wrote an article about a player doing poorly, he got to take a seat in the pressbox. Russo writes a less than nice article about Parrish and look where he is next game. I'm half kidding, but at the same time...I definitely blame him for messing with Backstrom on gameday. You can't kill the karma like that, man. Clearly Mr. Russo was not an athlete back in the day, or at least not as ridiculous of an athlete as I am. Nik Backstrom is also more polite than I am, because I would have chewed him out for throwing off my gameday flow.

I didn't want to make a comment on Russo's blog because he wrote a post essentially dissing fans who were supporting Parrish telling them to "take off their rose colored glasses". As for his rant, he should have seen it coming. Like he said, Parrish IS very beloved here, and many people are going to be quick to defend him. Minnesotans (and people in general) tend to be very proud of where they are from and others who are from the same place. I understand that Parrish is not playing well right now, but neither is 80% of the team. Since lately my opinion has not been very welcome on Russo's Rants, I figured I would get blasted by all of the Russo faithful and get called a bad fan if I commented about this on his blog. I still might here, but it's my blog making it different.

Note: I normally mostly respect the work of Mr. Russo, but this one issue has rubbed me wrong. My mom told me to calm down about this, but calming down about things is really not my strong suit in life. This post was not intended to be rude to Michael Russo or anyone who posts on his blog. I have great respect for all of you, I'm just frustrated right now with many things, and it needed to come out somehow.

Minnesota Nice does not apply to sports

Memo to the Wild: See above. Helping other teams make the playoffs is not a good thing to be doing right now. You guys are sucking at life, and I want to know why. You blew a division lead in a week. LAME.

Calgary is on top of the division right now with 80 points. The Wild are tied with the Flames, but Calgary has a game in hand. Colorado is breathing down everyone's necks, and Vancouver is one spot out of the playoffs. With 13 games left, I expect this team to really step it up, but from I can see it looks like they are giving up. With three straight losses to teams that they should have been able to beat, and before that losing to teams like the Caps, it's really not a good sign in my mind. I'm not if full out panic mode yet, but I'm getting there. Jdoghooey mentioned that the sky was falling in the comments on 18,568 Reasons Why, and it might be a little bit. We need a Wes Walz to step up and peel the paint off the walls and get the guys going again. Carney, Hill, Schultz, Fedoruk, the stick boy, SOMEONE needs to do something. Rolston has been sucking at life. Parrish has been battling injuries, several of the young guys have disappeared altogether. Backstrom and Harding are getting bombarded every night, and players are having huge, costly brain freezes. Mikko Koivu seems to be the only player on this team really interested in playing right now.

All that being said, here's to hoping for an awesome game on Sunday and an interview with Joe Thornton by someone like Tom Reid so we will all be entertained. For an opposing viewpoint, you can check out Musings of a Radical Redhead or Battle of California.

Twins: HA! I am finally mostly caught up and have a clue what's going on. Sounds like the guys are ready for the season to begin, and Gardy is his usual self. I watched the Twins beat the Yankees the other day, and it was lovely. Once the Twins started winning, the announcers really had no idea what to talk about, since I don't think they know most of the players on the team. (Not that I can really say a whole lot about that.) I almost like not having Santana around for the one reason that I don't have to hear every three seconds about how he's going to the Yankees. The Mets are much more tolerable.
Margee will be doing a Squeeview of all the teams in MLB coming up soon, and Ckim, Finny, and McPhizzle have a new podcast up.

I interupt your regularly scheduled hockey

for this important announcement. BRETT FAVRE HAS RETIRED! Happy times in Minnesota, that's for sure. Bears fans might not be quite as pleased since the team seems to have had his number. TSN is reporting this, and I'm sure ESPN is as well. My grandma is probably going to have a fit, and it's not respectful to speak badly of sick people, but co'mon, it's the Packers. I loathe them and I'm not even a very good football fan.

On to more important news...the Wild beat LA 2-1 on Sunday, but not very impressively. Kms2 says we are welcome for the two points, and I thank my adoptive team for their support of the Wild's playoff quest.

Montreal lost last night, and that makes me very sad for them. They were in first place ( they might still be, I'm too lazy to look up the standings), and I hope they continue to stick it to the Penguins fans and keep their lead!

Up Next: Wild play Chicago at home tonight. It's a 7 PM start on KSTC tonight. I know Elise is stoked about the game, and I really hope they win and start a whole new winning streak against them to make up for the fact that the last game sucked. A lot. Mikko Koivu may or may not play, he had the flu in the very recent past. Josh Harding may be in net for this one. He seems to own the Blackhawks.

Twins: I'm pretty sure they beat the BoSox the other day. I've been trying to read up on the new members of the team so that I can be able to sort of know what's going on when I return home.

Joe Sakic and Adam Footer commercial

Just because Sakic and Foote are both back doesn't mean I hate the Avs any less.

This is Stupid

Gaborik should NOT be the captain! He's lazy, whiny, and only seems to play hard when he feels like it/plays on a line with his friends. The theory is that wearing the "C" will give Gaborik extra confidence. Really? If that's true, I don't think that's a good reason to give someone the "C". The best player on the team is not necessarily the best leader. The reason the team has to consider keeping Demitra this summer and run the risk of losing Bouchard is to keep Gaborik happy in the hopes that he will continue to play in Minnesota. Maybe I'm just angry with Gaborik about his comments during the All-Star Break, or maybe I've just really never liked him all that much. Whatever it is, I'm extremely displeased to see him get the "C", especially THIS month of all months. The one that when we make the playoffs, means they get to remain captain throughout the playoffs. A tradition started with Brad Bombardir, then Mark Parrish, both of whom are AWESOME. Long story short, I'm sure Jacques Lemaire knows far more about hockey than I do, but that doesn't stop me from being furious about his selection.

Anyways, the Wild won 3-2 last night on goals from Koivu, Burns, and Veilleux all had goals for the Wild. I got to watch the last 8 minutes of the game due to other commitments (too many early starts. Stupid East Coast bias.) , but Elise (18,568 Reasons Why...)kindly kept me updated. Thanks! I started to get really scared that they were going to blow the game and I was going to have to kill someone. Especially during the last three or so minutes when Backstrom had far too much to do. I flipped my calendar page today, and who should be there wearing the Captain's C? MARK PARRISH! WHOO!

Around the NHL:

• Montreal kicked some serious butt last night! Good for them! I'm not a fan of banana slugs, so it made me happy.
• Both Vancouver AND Calgary lost last night.
• Joe Sakic seems super excited that Adam Foote is back.

Next game: LA Kings on Sunday at the X. The Kings had a tough 5-4 loss to the Oilers the other day, so they might be out for blood. Ckim informed me that several members of the team went back to the minors to compete in the playoffs there. They are my adopted west coast team, so I will definitely be making time to watch this game, and it will be much easier since it's on a Sunday. Game is on 6 PM CT (4 PT) on FSN in MN, and I don't know what in SoCal. I'm looking forward to the game, and I'm sure kms2 of Purple Crushed Velvet, and Ckim of A Queen Among Kings are as well. RudyKelly, the Kings correspondent for Battle of California, will probably have something up as well.