Gone (ice) fishing

Dear lovely bloggers and readers,
It is with great regret that I must write a posting notice. As many of you probably noticed, I haven't been around much this past season. I have read other people's blogs as much as I can, but I just haven't been able to keep up with the team well enough to have anything new to add to the blogosphere very frequently.
I'm not shutting down the blog permanently, just making all of you aware of why I can't post much. My personal life has been very hectic out here in Oregon, and I've taken on more than I can possibly handle at the moment. I'm hoping things calm down soon, but until they do, I can't even pretend like I know what's going on in MN for the most part.
Elise, Jeremy, Cortney, Roy, Nick & Co, Buddha, Maggie, Ms. Conduct, Deuce, and all the other good people of the blogosphere will continue to keep you informed, and I'll update my blogroll as I can. I say you should turn to all of them to keep you abreast of current events, and as always, entertained.
My email is listed, and I'd love to hear updates from the Wild world that aren't posted, or if you like you can facebook, text, or call me anytime, I'll probably be awake.
This isn't goodbye, just me taking some time off and if I were in MN, I'd say I was going fishing, back soon. I'll still continue to write the Friday Five for HLOG for the time being, so I'll check in with you all there, and I'll continue to read all of your stuff.

Thanks,

Kirsten
landoflakesandhockey@gmail.com

Mattias Ohlund vs Sheldon Souray Jan 7, 2009

Eat it, Ohlund.

And on the flip side...

I don't really like to make angry posts, so this one is all about the good things I've seen going on with the Wild and in the NHL.

1.) Colton Gillies. I love this kid. He works hard, and I like watching him skate even more than S. Niedermayer. If I weren't against giving Leopold more money right now, I'd buy a Gillies jersey. Definitely my new favorite player on the team. All the season ticket holders who sit around ours like to give me a really hard time about this fact. Probably because they think I'm his age. False. I'm older by almost a year.

2.) LoLaH & 18,568 RW favorite Toews is on the All Star team! A starter no less. Kane is too, but he seems to be hurt or something right now. All I know is that it was amusing watching him sitting in the press box being bored. I've heard reports from Chicago that point towards great entertainment from the young guys on the team.

3.) We have won quite a few of the games since I have been home. I'm hoping this won't end when I leave next week.

4.) NHL TV. I finally found a computer that will let me watch NHL TV, and I love it. So entertaining. Too bad the Wild have not jumped on this boat quite as much as some of my other favorite teams. Elise has kept me informed of all the amusing happenings, and during finals/midterms/school in general, it's a pretty good study break. Thanks, lady!

5.) Shep is working harder and getting more chances than he was at the start of the season. He's had pretty good games for all the games I've seen in person. Here's to hoping he just has the same sophomore curse as most of the sophomores in the league.

6.) The Wild Blogosphere. I love you guys. It helps me stay connected when I'm far away and too busy to watch the games online. I would have been even more clueless if it weren't for the fact that I read all the blogs before coming home. I also love my homies who write for other teams, it's much more entertaining than the mainstream media. I keep up with a lot of teams this way in addition to the TSN, RDS, and newspaper circuits. Keep up the good work my friends!

General Anger

I've been absent for a while, and I'm sorry, but I had surgery and relatives to visit, so that ate up my time and internet connectivity.

I'm mad at the Wild. There are several reasons for this, and most of them include the management. I'm not a patient person, and for me, I've been plenty patient with this team. There are reasons I'm happy with them too, but I'll make that a seperate post.

1.) Risebrough doesn't seem to be doing anything about Backstrom. He has saved our butts on many, many occasions, and when he's not saving our butts, he has saved us from embarrassment. He wants to come back. He likes it here, likes the fans, wants to sign. I fail to see anything wrong with talking to him, and besides, the better he does, the more we have to pay him. With the theory that the cap is going to come down, less money is good.

2.) The Gaborik thing. I'm just pissed at everyone in this situation. Everyone knows of my great disdain for Gaborik, a disdain that I have held for him since I was like 12. Now that has extended to Risebrough. The second he said he wouldn't sign for the very generous offer this summer, I would have packed him off to another team while he was still worth something. Dragging things out this long has made a mess, and now I wouldn't be surprised if he walks without us getting anything for him. WTF, DR? On a petty note, Marian Gaborik's face looks like a potato. Also, Mr. Gaborik clearly doesn't know how to take one for the team. The team he's being paid a lot of money to take one for.

3.) Benoit Pouliot. I keep hearing all about his mad skillz, but all I see is a lazy young man who isn't going to do anything but have potential. Every coach ever has told us "hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard". Colton Gillies seems to be showing this lesson, too bad Benoit isn't learning it. I seriously doubt any GM in the league will be dumb enough to take him in a trade, they've seen him play, and the #4 overall draft pick won't fool anyone, because as Daigle showed us, being drafted highly doesn't mean automatic awesomeness. (Though in all fairness to Mr. Daigle, I think his situation could have been handled better.) He's the Wild's version of Nilsson, not that any of you care about the Oilers.

4.) The expectation that the fans will just sit through this holding pattern. I'm starting to see that we as fans are getting pissed. There are more and more empty seats in the X, and I'm hoping eventually this will send a message. No message will be sent until the season ticket holders start to not renew their seats, though. You have to suffer to get a good team. Detroit in the 80's, Chicago in the late 90's-early 00's. We need to draft better with the picks we get, we need to either get better and make more rounds of the playoffs, or suck more and get higher picks. Something. I'm sick of just sitting in the middle. If I were in charge of my family's season tickets right now, I'd strongly consider dropping them. I still love the team, but I seriously doubt the management will REALLY do anything until we stop handing them so much money.

5.) Defencemen who don't play defence. I don't have a problem with having one on the team, but we have both MAB and Zidlicky. I heard complaints before I got here, but then I saw for myself, and they're right. Jesus. Also, putting them out at the same time? Bad news bears. It's like Souray only less talented and more liable. Skoula is starting to backslide a little bit too. I almost had to be nice to him for a while.

6.) The new Wild owner. There is something about him that I just don't trust/like. Maybe it's cause he's from Wisconsin? I can't put my finger on why I don't like him, I just don't. Mikko Koivu seems to be kind of creeped out by him too.

I'm sure there are more reasons, but my brain is tired. Why are YOU mad? Any beefs you'd like to get off your chest about the Wild? Let's hear 'em.