I'm not quite dead yet...

After I give my presentation tomorrow, I just have finals and then I'm good to go. I will be presenting on ethanol and its benefits, but mostly I will be talking about the bad things it is doing to the Midwest. Happy subject I know. Wulapalooza was crazy, but all that's left to do is write the thank you notes. I was designated official thank you note writer, so tomorrow after my presentation, I will be going out and purchasing/writing 40 thank you notes to various people that we would like to have help us again next year.

So did anyone think that Dallas was going to murder San Jose thus far? Me either. Texas must be full of murderous rage or something, since they beat the Twins 10-0 yesterday. Ouch.

Pittsburgh vs Rangers...blah blah blah whatever. I'm still sick of the Penguins and hearing about how freaking wonderful everyone thinks they are.

Habs vs. Flyers: WTF is going on? Oh well, it's only two games, the Habs can certainly come back and win three more.

Detroit vs. Avs: Why do the hockey gods hate us? Baby Hockey Jesus, I promise I will make proper sacrifices this time if you stop hating the Wild. Everything is going wrong for the Avs, and the Wings are taking full advantage. Hopefully the Red Wings will find more creative ways to sling their octopus around. Steph of No Pun Intended is quite indignant about the fact that the NHL is banning it. I'm indignant about the fact that the Avs couldn't have crashed and burned a round earlier.

For some reason that doesn't seem like many series to talk about, but I always forget that the deeper in to the playoffs we go, the fewer games there are. Simple math is sometimes the hardest math.

I will be paying close attention to the Habs series, and I will check in with the other series during my study days coming up. May 5th is the magical day of freedom.

My fellow Wild bloggers are starting to recover from getting unceremoniously dumped out of the playoffs, so start to look for all of us to talk about actual Wild related things that may or may not happen in the offseason. The only things that I will talk about are the things that I want to happen, since I don't want to jinx something bad into happening by talking about the possibility of it.

Before the weekend starts...

So I am helping to run a huge music festival on campus that will take place on Saturday. I probably won't emerge from the craziness until Monday or so, but there are a few things I wanted to make sure get addressed.

My second round picks:

Montreal vs. Philly

Montreal in 6.

I don't know if the city of Montreal can handle another game 7 right now, and this series will be tougher than I previously thought.

Pittsburgh vs. NYR

Rangers in 7

I hope to God the Rangers win. Not that I like the Blueshirts by any means, but I'm SO sick of the Penguins.

Detroit vs. Colorado

Detroit in 7

Colorado is playing pretty well right now, but I don't know if they are playing well enough to knock off Detroit. The thing Detroit should be worried about is that they are not completely steamrolling along, hence the non-sweep of the last series.

San Jose vs. Dallas

San Jose in 6

This series will be hard fought, too. Dallas seems to have recovered a bit from their pre-playoff slide, but then again they played Anaheim, who had all of two players really playing hard for them. San Jose barely won their last series, so we'll see.

Twins: Let's not lie here, I have watched most of a regular season game (the opener), and about half of a preseason game so far this season. I really don't have a clue as to what's going on, but in 11 days I will, and I promise I'll talk a bit more about them then. Anyone who would care to fill me in on what I have missed should feel free to shoot me an email, I'd be happy to read your thoughts on the season thus far.

Habs won in overtime tonight, and Detroit almost blew a 4-1 lead, but still managed to hang on for the win. Those were the only two games tonight, so I'm sure there will be a ton of games tomorrow and Saturday nights. As always, if there is a specific team you are dying to know about (or even mildly curious about), check out my blogroll. I think I have all the blogs labeled by team...

I don't really want to speculate about what will happen in the offseason, but perhaps I might ask Baby Hockey Jesus to help DR make good decisions this offseason, and to go and find his balls from wherever he left them after the Doug Gilmour trade.

2008 Twins Territory

Best commercial of the new season. The Wild need to learn from the Twins how to make commercials!

10 good things to take away from this season

I am really unhappy about the Wild getting tossed out of the playoffs by Theodore the Avs, but I feel that a lot of good things happened this season that I'd like to highlight. Before I forget, congrats to Tapeleg and Jibblescribbits, and thanks for not rubbing it in too much...yet. Jibblescribbits has to follow his own rules and give us a while to mourn before he can gloat.

10.) Branko Radivojevic stepped it up. I have been really hard on him in the past, but you know what? Towards the end of this season he got better, and all his hard work paid off.

9.) Stephane Veilleux tried to be a French Wes Walz. This is not to knock Walz, but I'm fairly certain that since he is from Alberta, he doesn't speak French. Veilleux plays with a lot of heart, and works his butt off each game. From what I hear he's also a really nice guy, and he's certainly good for an entertaining inverview.

8.) The aquisition of Todd Fedoruk. Let's not lie here, when I saw who we got, I laughed. I wondered what good he would really do for us, but in addition to entertaining me with his dancing, he has turned out to be a pretty decent hockey player, and for free no less. (Free to aquire him, he still had to be paid)

7.) Marian Gaborik scored five goals. He finally lived up to the hype, even though he was really streaky this season, he showed us glimpses of what he could be like if he worked harder, learned to play with linemates that are not his best friends, and stepped it up as a leader. Giving him the C sort of was a good thing.

6.) I got my Mark Parrish sweater signed. I know, this has nothing to do with the actual team, but I'm stoked anyway. I'm hoping he comes back, refinds his niche, and has a better season next year. Congrats again to the Parrishes, I'm sure they will have a busy summer ahead of them with their new little girl.

5.) Sheppard learned a lot this season, and while he wasn't always spectacular, I think the future is bright for him. If we hadn't been so short on centers, we might not have seen Pouliot and Shepp as much as we did, but I'm glad for it. I'm also glad that Pouliot showed that he's not as lazy and douchey as he seemed.

4.) This was the year of three players, and Nick Schultz is definitely one of them. He became captain for the first time in his career, and he really stepped it up. I think one of the main reasons the Wild left early was because we missed him and Foster so much. (Foster can be a good player and he's improving, shut it, haters.) I have been fairly indifferent towards Schultz, and sometimes downright mean to him such as when I invented the game to count how many times in a game he would get completely annihilated (I also learned how to spell annihilate this season). This season I was really, pleasently surprised to see how well he played, led the team, and he really seems to be a well-spoken, intelligent guy.

3.) Brent Burns learned some sick moves this year, and was named one of Pierre McGuire's Monsters. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/feature/?fid=11413 He elevated his game for the second season in a row, and even though he will miss Carney should he not return, I think he will be just fine on his own. He has really matured out, and is very entertaining as well. He and I have a very similar vocabulary, and he would probably agree with me that Dan Terhaar and Mike Greenlay should not try to be cool like us and steal our favorite words/phrases.

2.) Mikko Koivu has shown the world that he's a legit stud, and will be as good as his brother if not better. He can finally kick the "Saku's little brother" status and come out from Saku's shadow into the sun. God knows he could use a little sun that one. He was awesome for us in the playoffs, and the quarter of the season that he was missing due to Ohlund sucking at life, the team was hurting for him. I can't wait to see what he does next, and I fully expect him to be named captain soon, possibly even permanent captain if Lemaire chooses to retire at some point.

1.) WE WON THE DIVISION TITLE! May there be many more to come. I'm sad about the early playoff exit, but stoked about the banner. I wish I could be there to see it hung. It was a fun ride watching the intense fight for said banner, and it reminded me why I love being in this division. (Besides getting to watch the Oilers a lot.)

Honorable mentions:
-The awesome dude that sits next to my parents season tickets. Awesome Dude, if you ever read this, I enjoyed watching games with you and hearing all your stories about the Twins and North Stars back in the day. I hope you have a good summer and renew your seats!
-Watching Harding and Backstrom burn each other.
-Getting the double bonus of spring break games that I didn't think I'd get to see.
-The great rookies that emerged in the league this season.

I'm still cheering for the Habs in the east and my western allegience is up for grabs. I'm now accepting reasons as to why I should cheer for the team of your choice.

Wild eliminated

The Wild were elminated tonight in six games. I will maybe talk about it tomorrow. I am starting to loathe Ryan Smyth. Ever since leaving Edmonton he has fallen in my favor. I was somehow ok with him being good for them since it's the Oil, but for Colorado? Unacceptable.
Sens
Devils
Wild

Here's to hoping the Flyers, Habs, Stars, and Sharks all win.

At least the Twins won 3-0 over the Tribe.

Oh crap

Thank you Baby Hockey Jesus for providing us with a stud centerman...
Writing with Paint is hard. Stupid text box function for being wonky.

I watched Monday's game, and it was awesome.
I watched part of Tuesday's game (then I had to go and study, I'm sorry), and it was not so awesome.
I did not watch any of yesterday's game, and it was slightly more awesome than Tuesday's but not much. Sadly Mikko Koivu didn't get the captain's C a goal.

WTF is with Gaborik? Several of my friends say I'm just happy that I get the chance to rip on him, but in all honesty, I'd really rather not get to rip on him, and instead be forced to admit that he's a beast, or in the words of Pierre Mcguire: A MONSTER. I really expect better of Gaborik, isn't he supposed to be the captain? As much as I don't want to say anything nice about Sakic, Gaborik should be watching him and taking notes. Copious notes, but that of course assumes that he can read and write, and you know what they say about assumptions.

I need a Panic Metre Sherry Style for this one.

Stages of the Playoffs when your team is playing like crap:
First: WHOO! MY TEAM MADE IT! STANLEY CUP HERE WE COME!
Second: Awesome, we don't have to play the Flames! They are going to completely destroy Colorado. Parade route is planned.
Third: Where have all the defencemen gone? Oh well, Av's defence kind of sucks, it'll be ok.
Fourth: Many prayers are offered to the Hockey Gods/Baby Hockey Jesus.
Fifth: $%#$*@
Sixth: How bout 'em Avs/Shames/Habs/insert team that isn't sucking here?

Stages of the playoffs when your team is not playing like crap:
First: see above
Second: Who cares who we play? We will destroy them like the vermin they are!
Third: YEAH! We are kicking their butts! Beers for all!
Fourth: I wonder if Detroit and San Jose will get it together and win so we have to play them next rounds?
Fifth: Eat it, #1 and #2 seeds! Watch out east! We are coming to kick your fancy, goal scoring butts!
Sixth: I HAVE THE BEST TEAM IN THE WHOLE WORLD! LET THE PARTY/PARADE/DRINKING/BRAGGING ENDLESSLY BEGIN! WHOOOOOO!

Up next: The Wild play on the road on Saturday. I have strict orders to watch this game since my family will be in Wisconsin for the birthday party of my grandma. (It's in a nursing home. I bet it will be a blast...) This is obviously a must win for the Wild. Maybe since I will be watching the whole thing they will win this time? I have all my pregame rituals all planned out.

Shoutout to my boy Parrish: Feel better soon, bud. I need you to make my Parrish sweater have good karmic value, but in order to do that, you need to play!

***EDIT*** BROTHER OF MIKKO IS GOING TO PLAY FOR THE HABS TONIGHT! Time for them to finish this off once and for all. Eat it, Bruins.

***EDIT #2*** Check out what Brad Bombardir, AKA my favorite Wild player ever, has to say about game 6 here: http://wild.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NHLPage&id=21738

Playing Catchup

This is a bit what my brain feels like lately.
Photo taken from a random Google search.

I realize that I have not been blogging as faithfully as I should have been, but for some reason I'm just not feeling very creative/analytical these days. This might be due to the fact that I'm under a lot of stress right now at the end of the semester. I've been watching as much hockey as my internet connection and TV reservations will let me, and I've been especially reading what other people have to say about the games that I have to miss. I've been more than content to let others do the work recently, and that makes me a major slacker, so I'm going to attempt to say a few things about each series that I've noted so far.

Habs/Bruins:
Habs are up 2-1 in the series which is more than I expected from the Bruins. I feel like the Habs have been slacking off even more than I have these last couple of games. This is not good, they can't afford to take anyone lightly in the playoffs. Come back soon, brother of Mikko! The Habs keep getting me put on internet probation because I can't not watch, but the games are so early, and I need to watch my boys too.

Red Wings/Preds:
Wings are up 2-0 in the series, and from what I can tell they are just toying with the Preds and the slaughter and pain will be over in a few days and the Preds players can go off and play golf or whatever. I hear Zetterdouche shaved his beard for the beginning of the playoffs. He and his laziness should love the playoffs in terms of personal grooming... Steph will soon be happy again.

Penguins/Sens:
Pens are up 2-0 in the series, and boy do I have to hear about it constantly. I've decided that I care a lot less about this series than I thought I might. For Sherry's sake I hope the Sentators show some life and smack the Pens around a little bit next game.

Sharks/Shames:
Series is tied at 1-1. I admit, I'm blatantly cheering for the Sharks on this one, even though I'm not really a big fan of them, I just really, really don't like the Flames. I'm hoping this will be the year Joe Thornton decides to play in the first round, then he can disappear again. Sorry to Leanne.

Caps/Flyers:
Series is tied at 1-1. This series is more entertaining than I thought it would be, but I'm still finding it hard to care about this series since two teams I'm fairly indifferent towards are playing in it. I hear Ovechkin is up to his usual, dramatic tricks.

Wild/Avs:
Series is tied at 1-1. Obviously this is the series that I am watching most closely, and it's about to kill me. I'm hoping the boys in green red can pull this off, even though the Wild are plagued with injuries and Joe Sakic. I will keep my fingers crossed and my superstitious habits going.

Devils/Rangers:
Rangers are up 2-1 in the series. This is another series that I don't really care about, but for some reason I was disappointed to see the Rangers lose tonight. I have no idea why that is. It's starting to get more interesting tonight with the Devils' win.

Ducks/Stars:
Stars are up 2-0 in this series. I care a lot more about this one than I thought I would, and I have found myself paying more attention to it than I should. Two teams that I don't like so much, though I definitely hate the Ducks more at this point. The game almost got fun yesterday, but nope, another blowout. If the Ducks don't show some life in the next game, I say they are dead in the water.

Up Next: The Wild play the Avs on the road at 9 PM CDT. The game is on Versus, and I will be watching. The Wild need to come out ready to play, and play hard. Someone needs to contain Forsberg, and Sakic can't be allowed to wander around near our net at will. Laperierre shouldn't cause too much trouble, so if Parrish is going to be ok, I expect him to play and be the Wild counterpart to Ryan Smyth. Hopefully the Wild will remember that Bruno is wicked with the wraparounds. I as always encourage that you guys head over to the Avs blogs and trash talk a bit, then check out the other, less lazy Wild bloggers to see what they have up. They are trotting out some good stuff for the playoffs.

Dear Baby Hockey Jesus-the playoff edition

Last night's game did not go the way I wanted it to, so I ask you Baby Hockey Jesus, to help the Wild right now, and to help Joe Sakic see that he likes golf. A lot. I know for a fact that Andrew Brunette does, and from what I hear, he's a pretty good golfer. Bruno, if you are listening, all it will take is you to do the Patrick Roy thing on Jose Theodore, and then you can go back to loafing on your couch and watching baseball...you know you want to!

Injuries:
Baby Hockey Jesus, I ask that you put your hands upon those on our team who are injured and bring them back in one piece and better than ever, particularly my boy Mark Parrish. Nick Schultz would be nice too, but we are probably better off without Skoula anyway.

Karma:
Please use your pull with the Hockey Gods to make the karma be on the side of Minnesota, and show me what I can do to help improve said karma.

Please help the Sharks to win, because I think I might actually rather play them than Calgary, because Iginla is a stud in the playoffs, and Joe Thornton is .....not.

Help the Habs to sweep the Bruins and continue their season of awesomeness.

Baby Hockey Jesus, I ask these things in the name of the Hockey Gods who are lords of hockey forever and ever, amen.

Conference Quarterfinals Game 1

Feel better, Grumpy!

More tomorrow

Pimping for the Playoffs

So here are a few Blogs that you might visit depending on what team you want for the playoffs:
Eastern Conference:
Montreal Canadiens:
Four Habs Fans Warning: Slightly off color on occasion, not for those who are easily offended but absolutely hilarious
Girls Don't Love Hockey

Pittsburgh:
No Pun Intended

Washington:
Capital Addiction
A View From the Cheap Seats

New Jersey:
Interchangable Parts

New York Rangers:
Some Like it Blue

Philadelphia:
Eager to go Psycho
Flyers.Femme

Ottawa:
Scarlett Ice

Boston:
Five for Writing

Western Conference:
Detroit:
No Pun Intended
Behind the Jersey

San Jose:
Musings of a Radical Redhead
A Sharks Fan Knits
Battle of California

Minnesota:
18,568 Reasons Why
Hitting the Post
A Wild View from Section 216
No More Minnesota Nice
Wild Puck Banter
Wild4Knitting
Deuce by Definition

Anaheim:
Battle of California
Earl Sleek on AOL Fanhouse
Girl With a Puck
Anaheim Duck Fan

Dallas:
Untypical Girls
The Shootout
Hockey Coma

Colorado:
Jibblescribbits
Jerseys and Hockey Love

Calgary:
Open.Ice.Hits.
Double d(ion) maybe she will make an appearance? I hope so, I miss you, HG!
Hit the Post

Nashville:
I know there are some new HLOGgers from NSH. I don't have their links up yet, though. Sorry!

These have been listed in order of seeding, and the blogs within are listed in no particular order. All blogs can be found in my sidebar since I don't know how to link words. As always, I recommend reading all the fine blogs displayed, and if you don't see your blog on the sidebar but would like to, just let me know and it shall be added.

Corrections and random other things

Ok, so I was reminded that the teams are reseeded after each round, something I had a nagging feeling about, but ignored. So go with my first round predictions, and more to come once I know the re-seeding. My bad, and sorry for the confusion. For the record, I think Montreal will win in the East still. Many of my predictions were made more off of feelings than off of actual stat combing, so feel free to tell me I'm an idiot if you think I'm completely wrong. That's why I provide an email address.

For all the English speaking Habs/Bruins fans out there, if you find something in French that you can't read, I would be more than happy to translate for you.

PLAYOFFS START TOMORROW!
The NHL schedule can be found here, as well as TV channels.
http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=359445

Superstitions:
As Jdoghooey correctly guessed, I have many superstitions.
I have been asked by several people why I do not pick my own team to win the Cup ever. I believe that it is bad luck to pick your own team.
Secondly, I am very superstitious about wins. I think the Walz sweater has many wins left in it, and I am insisting that it be worn at the games. My appologies to Mark Parrish, but until his sweater is proven lucky/Walz isn't working as a karmic helper, I will not ask that it be worn. I'm bad about this kind of stuff, following pregame rituals when I play sports, and demanding that others join me in my pregame rituals and superstitions for sporting events in which I am not participating. No, I'm not a goalie.
I agree with Jdoghooey about the karma surrounding Andrew Brunette. Not to be negative, but the Hockey Gods clearly love him, and I hope that Colorado doesn't get to use him for their benefit this time around.
I feel slightly responsible for their loss to the Ducks last year due to my personal inability to fling poo at Niedermayer, so this year Joe Sakic, Andrew Brunette, and Adam Foote will all have entire herd's worth of poo flung at them in the hopes that I will be able to convince everyone, myself included that I don't want them to do well. I don't want to see anyone hurt, but I'd like to see a lot of zeros on the stat sheet.

Nick Schultz will be back soon. Don Cherry would say so since he's a good Canadian kid from out on the prarie, tough as nails, he'll stick it to that son of a Euro Stastny. I wish him a speedy recovery, and I hope for his sake that he doesn't push it too much and come back too soon and end up hurting himself. Permanent damage for sports is a bad path to go down.

PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS!

The teams have been finalized. I filled in my chart that I made here at school, and now I will post what I think will happen.
We'll start with the west since I'm partial to it.
Western Conference
Conference Quarter Finals:
#1 Detroit vs. #8 Nashville
Detroit in 5 games

#2 San Jose vs. #7 Calgary
San Jose in 7 games

#3 Minnesota vs. #6 Colorado
Minnesota in 6 games

#4 Anaheim vs. #5 Dallas
Dallas in 7 games

Conference Semi Finals
#1 Detroit vs. #2 San Jose
San Jose in 7 games

#3 Minnesota vs. #5 Dallas
Minnesota in 6 games

Conference Finals:
#2 San Jose vs. #3 Minnesota
San Jose in 6 games

Eastern Conference
Conference Quarter Finals:
#1 Montreal vs. #8 Boston
Montreal in 4 games

#2 Pittsburgh vs. #7 Ottawa
Pittsburgh in 6 games

#3 Washington vs. #6 Philadelphia
Philadelphia in 5 games

#4 New Jersey vs. #5 NYR
NYR in 5 games

Conference Semi Finals:
#1 Montreal vs. #2 Pittsburgh
Montreal in 6 games

#5 NYR vs. #6 Philadelphia
NYR in 6 games

Conference Finals:
#1 Montreal vs. #5 NYR
Montreal in 5 games

Stanley Cup:
#1 Montreal vs. #2 San Jose
MONTREAL in 7 games!

Baseball note, Justin Morneau hit his first homerun of the regular season today. Let the countdown begin.

Dance off Fridge Style

Things have been crazy for me lately, so I'm going to be lazy and post this instead.
I grabbed the link off the Wild.com boards. Hilarious. I'll post my predictions when I know the playoff matchups.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The Flames beat the Oilers 3-2 tonight to eliminate them from the playoffs. Sad day. I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted them to make it, but alas, Baby Hockey Jesus did not hear/answer my prayers. TOPPEP (HFboards/Facebook), in it's infinate wisdom did not deem this year the year to make another epic run at the Cup.

The Avs beat the Nucks 4-2 to make us have to fight for the division crown, but as was mentioned on the podcast created tonight by five Wild bloggers, that might not be such a bad thing after all. It will provide more motivation for the boys to beat Calgary and Colorado. I'll post a link to the much longer than anticipated podcast.

I'm going to go and study for my exams and try not to think about how much I don't like the Flames, so that I get some work done.

On a brighter note, I made my chart for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and as soon as the matchups are released, I will make a chart with my predictions on it.

PLAYOFFS!

Playoffs here we come!

As I'm sure you have all heard, the Wild have clinched a playoff spot with their 3-2 OT win over the Avs Sunday night. The playoffs begin on the 9th, but it's not certain who we will play until just before then. As of right now, the Wild will play Colorado in the first round, and I'm ok with that, as long as they can keep Sakic at bay. I have a good feeling about playing them. Calgary not so much, and I don't know if we'd get lucky enough to see a distracted Luongo throughout an entire playoff series...

Anyways, the Wild have two games left. One at home on Thursday vs the Shames, that will be fan appreciation night. The last game of the season is on the 6th, vs the Avs. That game may affect just how much I want to play them in the playoffs.

I'm back at school now, so my nose is back to the grindstone, but I'll try and put something up soon about my playoff predictions.