Land of Lakes and Hockey

Hello?

2010-09-09T12:07:00.002-05:00

Anyone still out there? I realize I completely suck at blogging, but now that I'm back in MN for at least a year or more, I fully intend to try this again.

I've been away in Oregon for four years so now I get to re-learn the team pretty much. My junior and senior years at school were super busy and I had a hard time keeping up with the Wild, so this will be quite the reintroduction.

Here's to hoping I can actually make it this time!

-K

Canada is Golden once again!

2010-02-28T19:52:00.003-06:00

Forgive the title, but I'm quite excited about the win. Please don't throw anything at me.

As excited as I am, I'm still rather irritated that Crosby had to get the goal, and subsequently be shown every two seconds just to remind us that he exists. As Elise pointed out, many other players (Toews, Miller, Keith, Parise, Nash, Iginla, etc) had much better tournaments, but of course Crosby can do no wrong. He may be great for the game and all, but it'd be nice to see some new faces being promoted and talk about the team efforts as well.

The Canadian goalies did not impress me terribly much, and in my opinion Scott Niedermayer was pretty good at the beginning of the tourney, but made some key mistakes later on. I was also very unimpressed with Patrick Kane. I didn't see any of his usual smoothness on the ice.

It was fun following all the tweets from Vancouver, and I think Brendan Shanahan is doing a good job as an ambassador for the league.

The game was insane, and it was great to see how excited the fans were. I love going to tourneys with Canadian fans, the passion they bring to the game is unrivaled.

It was nice to see Nash spread his wings a little bit, and in the words of Pierre McGuire, he was a monster.

GM Steve Yzerman did a great job picking players who know each other, as well as players with starpower. For the most part the combination worked really well, and Canada was a force to reckon with (minus the ending of the Slovakian game) for the last four games they needed to win.

Oh yeah and the NHL resumes tomorrow with the Red Wings playing the Avalanche. Don't forget to set your fantasy rosters...

Go get messy, Vancouver, and enjoy the win! I don't envy the city workers...

OLYMPICS!!!

2010-02-24T13:38:00.008-06:00

If you couldn't tell by the title, I'm pretty excited about the Olympics. (To clarify, the Olympic Games. My internship advisor is a forester and thought I meant the coastal mountain range in Washington state, but those mountains/rainforest are full of banana slugs and non-stop rain in the winter, so no.)

I have to admit, I've spent a lot more time doing homework and studying for midterms than I have watching the Olympics, but I've made time to watch all of the men's Canadian hockey games, and some of the others as time allows. By far the best hockey day was Sunday, or as my friends back home called it, "hate day". In Oregon we can't use words like that, so I called it "rivalry day" while explaining the finer points/major points of hockey to the revolving door of people who watched with me.

Stream of consciousness:

-I really enjoyed the U.S./Canada game...even if I did not enjoy the outcome.

-Thus far I have managed to get my roommate on the path to addiction to hockey, and have gotten the majority of my good friends out here to stop making fun of me for liking hockey

-I'm a little disappointed that it's pretty much a three team competition.

-Less than excited for the Russia/Canada match today, mostly because I have to write at least 5 pages during it

-Ski jumping seems like a really bad idea on so many levels

-People who do not come from a wintery place do not appreciate just how little there can be to do in the wintertime outside. They are not very kind to the more obscure winter sports

-The biathlon is really cool

-Sidney Crosby needs to stop looking like a petulant child every time the camera is on him.

-Professors do not accept the Olympics as a reason to extend deadlines.

-The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, however; does accept the Olympics as a legitimate reason to move a deadline.

-Google Calendar and iCal are friends, and this is extremely useful.

-It still freaks me out when there are flowers and trees blooming before Valentine's Day.

-Canadians do not seem to judge what medals they get, as long as they win. Case in point: my Canadian friends were all quite excited that the Canadian pair won gold for ice dancing.

-Caribou Coffee still REALLY needs to have a location west of Denver. Preferably in Salem.

-Canada should focus less on curbstomping teams they know they can beat, and more on beating Russia and the U.S.

Hope everyone is enjoying the Olympics and watching something new and interesting. Soon I'll probably write something pertaining to an actual Minnesota team. At this point, the Twins as well as the Wild are fair game, because BASEBALL SEASON IS STARTING SOON!

After a long, long hiatus...

2010-02-15T01:00:00.004-06:00

I might be back. At least for a little while, if for no other reason then to profess my great love for the Winter Olympics.

I took an unintentional break from blogging to write most of my senior thesis, take some hard classes, be a good Greek, apply for summer internships, start applying to schools for a B.S. in environmental science, have many surgeries, and just generally get my life together. Fortunately my life is coming together just in time for me to have small amounts of free time to watch the Winter Olympics which are currently practically in my backyard up in Vancouver, B.C.

The only events I've been able to watch thus far are a couple of short program pairs figure skating performances, two speed skating races, and a mogul skiing race, but thus far it's all been excellent. I heard the Great One does not appear to like the rain, the Opening Ceremonies were highly Vancouveresque (AKA you have to be on drugs to fully appreciate them), and the torch malfunctioned. I also hear from reports on the ground that it has been pouring rain pretty much the whole time. Oh well, still excited. My thesis draft is due at 2:15 PM on Tuesday, and after that I fully intend to sit on the couch and watch until 9ish.

I also hear that the new management wants me to be nearly as angry with them as the old management. Johnsson? Really? When you could have gotten rid of Zidlicky? At least Barker had the decency to score a goal in his debut or I would have been even more upset. Now we just have to work on getting Patrick Sharp and teaching Shep that he should stop trying to fight.

As a side note, I'm really digging the new, streamlined Team Canada hockey jerseys and the awesome red mittens. No wonder my housemates all think I'm a traitor.

As a second side note, there is a really cool, free iPhone app that tells you what events are on TV that day and what channel. It pops up right away in the app store on the iPhone...

The captain post....for other teams

2009-09-21T07:45:00.004-05:00

There has been a lot of talk about captains for the Wild, so I thought I'd post about other captains in the league and my thoughts on them.

Anaheim-Special Nieds (Scott Niedermayer) he's a very good player, even with his half season vacation. He lost a step, but that just put him only 1-2 steps ahead of everyone else instead of miles. I think he's been a pretty good leader for them, especially since they had kind of a circus for a while. I try to hate him, but in the end I fail.

Atlanta-Ilya Kovalchuk...all I know about him is that he has a horrible sweet tooth and had to have most of his teeth pulled when he came to the US from Russia.

Boston-Zdeno Chara is probably a great captain, because everyone is too scared to cross him. They just do whatever he says so he doesn't eat their children.

Buffalo-Craig Rivet, again, don't know enough about him to pass judgement. Sorry slug fans.

Calgary-Jarome Iginla- as much as I love to hate him, I have respect for him. Mostly because people have been comparing him to Joe Sakic.

Carolina-Rod Brind'Amour-kill me now. Better yet, kill him.

Chicago-Jonathan Toews-I don't think I really have to say what my thoughts are on him, even though he played for the Sioux. (barf)

Colorado-Adam Foote-I was unaware they had named another captain, but Foote will get the job done...just not as well as Joe Sakic.

Columbus-Rick Nash-well he must be doing something right...they sort of made the playoffs.

Dallas-Brendan Morrow-meh, as long as it's not Alvin the chipmunk, I don't actually care.

Detroit-Nicklas Lidstrom-he's not what he used to be, but he's still pretty good. He's now slightly less robotic than he used to be, and he's done a pretty good job filling Steve Yzerman's shoes.

Edmonton-Ethan Moreau-I have to admit, I don't know if this is the best choice, but I don't know who I'd name in his place. He's even more fragile than I am, and that's saying something. Hopefully something goes right this season for the Oilers, and maybe he'll show off his leadership under a new coach.

Florida-no captain...Bouwmeester maybe? McCabe would not be a good choice I feel. As Buddha pointed out to me, Bouwmeester went to Calgary. Clearly he will not be captain of the Panthers. In that case, I have no idea.

LA-Dustin Brown-from what I gather he's pretty young, but so is the whole team, so whatever, right? I like the Kings, so I hope he does a good job.

Minnesota-I think we all know what's going on here. If you want to read about it, my fellow Wild bloggers have pretty much all written something. We all know that Mikko Koivu is the captain of our hearts, so wearing the C is just a minor detail.

Montreal-I'm not sure what's going on here, but I imagine it's not very fun to be the captain of the Habs. So much pressure it's insane. I'm sure something will be worked out before the season starts.

Nashville-Jason Arnott-personally I think he looks like kind of a douche, but I think the Preds should not exist, so that's fine.

New Jersey-Brendan Shanahan-I'm surprised that JL would replace Langenbrunner, but I've been hearing here there and yonder that Shanny is the new captain. That's cool by me, he's a good leader, and it may be his last season. Nice way to end his time?

New York Islanders-No captain at the moment, they better hope the team doesn't take a page out of Vancouver's book, otherwise the team will not have a captain on the ice 99% of the time.

New York Rangers-Chris Drury-he's kind of a wuss, but then when you look at the rest of the team, he suddenly seems a bit tougher. Hasn't been the same since he left 20 Cent's hometown.

Ottawa-Daniel Alfredsson-he makes a really ugly woman, but other than that, he's alright. Not my favorite, but I largely ignore the fact that the Sens exist.

Philly-Mike Richards-from what I hear, many people approve of his being captain. Seems like he has a couple of good alternates, too.

Phoenix-Shane Doan-I don't like him at all, but apparently he's a great leader. I wouldn't follow him if my life depended on it.

Pittsburgh-~~Cindy~~ Sidney Crosby-ok, I lied. I dislike Crosby more than I dislike Doan. The only place I'd follow him is to a cliff...then I'd shove him off.

San Jose-what a mess. I'm guessing Thornton won't get it....

St. Louis-Eric Brewer-I think he's a fine leader for the young team. I have a lot of respect for him, and I hope they do well.

Tampa Bay-Vincent Lecavalier- I think Vinny's a great player, but I'm not sure what kind of a leader he is. He could be Wayne Gretzky and that team would still have struggles, so I'll reserve judgement on his leadership abilities round two. (He had the C when he was first in the league)

Toronto-another storied franchise without a captain. Sad.

Vancouver-Luongo. I don't think this is a good idea. I mean there's a reason they made the rule that goalies can't be the captain, and I think it's a good rule.

Washington-Chris Clark-who now? I'm sure he's lovely, but I have no idea who he is.

I'm such a good Minnesota sports fan

2009-09-13T14:04:00.004-05:00

Coach Richards back in the day. Nice hair, Coach.

Image courtesy of Google

They say hope springs eternal, and I say this phrase was probably invented for Minnesota sports fans no matter the sport. Generally if we didn't have hope, we wouldn't have anything at all. (We can't really complain though, most Minnesotans are cheap, so why would our team owners be any different?) I find myself thinking this to be very true as we stand on the cusp of a new NHL season. I'm really excited for this season to begin. From what I hear, I like the new coach. Granted I heard this from my friend's housemate, whose dad played with Coach Richards for the Gophers back in the day. Regardless, he seems pretty chill, and ready to make a good impression. As a bonus, he's from the better side of the river.

I particularly like the fact that he wants to name a permanent captain. I'll like him even better if that captain is Mikko Koivu. I'm also excited to see the fans back in the game. I think we started to lose our trademark enthusiasm towards the end of the old regime, and that made me sad. Even if the game sucked, the crowds were usually fun back in the day. On top of that, the first thing anyone asks me when they find out where I'm from (after they ask if it's winter year round and to repeat the word Minnesota) is if I'm a hockey fan. It gives me so much street cred for some reason, so I need my brethren in MN to keep up the hockey rep for me.

Besides, it's new. I like new things that are not school years, so anything new is exciting. Exception: the new jerseys. I like the fact that they're green, but they're not quite as cool looking as I was hoping for. My all time fave Wild jerseys are the original green ones. The logo is pretty cool, and it means something with the trees, star, river, and colors. I guess you can't win them all, and green is a much more flattering color for the highly Scandinavian population than red, so it's a step in the right direction.

I'm sure I'll write something a bit more focused in the near future, but I'm back in school and it's Sunday, so that means I have essays/lab reports to write and books to read. I think they stole my focus.

Patrick Kane is a huge douchebag

2009-08-10T13:34:00.006-05:00

As I'm sure you've all heard, he and his cousin got arrested and charged with a felony and several misdemeanors. Whoops. They didn't mention underage drinking, but I would be willing to bet that will be included, since he's only 20, and at that hour coming from the nightclub district, was probably smashed. At this point, though, underage drinking is probably the least of his worries.

This was all over 20 cents. I mean co'mon, you're supposed to tip cabbies, I would've handed the man a 20 and been done with it. At the very least just let him keep the change from the 15. THEN he not only took the 15 back, but stole another 100 dollars. Taxi drivers don't make much, help the man out.

The best part of all this in my mind is how much of a jerk this makes him look like. After spending all his time talking about how much he likes being treated like a regular kid (considering how often he says it, he clearly like the attention), he goes out and beats a taxi driver while asking him "don't you know who I am?". Wow. Smooth. I hope Toews rips him a new one for this, because after their awful summer, the Blackhawks really don't need this kind of publicity. I hope if he doesn't have to go to jail, then the judge at least orders some anger management for him. At school, this would be mandatory alcohol abuse counseling, anger management counseling, and possible expulsion. At any other job, he'd get fired, and if convicted of a felony, have a hard time finding another.

TSN has an article and interview with the taxi driver here. I thought this was a joke when I first heard about it by text. None of this is proven, but Jesus, it's not really good for your career to have allegations like this made against you. Even if he gets off, if anything like this happens again, no judge is going to find him innocent twice.

I vote they change his goal song to "Jailhouse Rock" and take him off the cover of NHL '10. He's scheduled to appear in court the day USA's camp opens, I wonder what will happen there.

Alexander Ovechkin is one Crazy Dude!

2009-08-07T00:45:00.001-05:00

Haha, I think the title pretty much says it all.

The NHL can't count?

2009-08-05T15:23:00.002-05:00

NHL.com is doing a "30 teams in 30 days" thing for August, except as the Ladies... pointed out, there are 31 days in August. Good try, NHL, but that seems kind of awkward unless you have something spectacular planned for the 31st? That being said I'll probably read most of them even though they won't tell me a whole lot, it's good to get a refresher in before the season starts, especially with the amount of info not weather or fishing related that makes its way to me lately.

In other news, the Twins actually won a ball game yesterday, beating the Tribe 10-1 in Cleveland. LOLAH and 18,568RW favorite Kevin Slowey is done for the season with a wrist injury. I definitely feel his pain (2 wrist surgeries) on that one. Feel better soon, dude! Wrist injuries are hard to heal from, but I'm sure you have a good doctor or two on hand to help.

My brother earned the rank of Eagle Scout, so congrats to him.

Housekeeping

2009-07-28T14:33:00.002-05:00

Due to my long neglect of the blog, some things needed to be changed, as the blogosphere is a very fluid and ever changing place. I've added, deleted, and changed some links, but if you have a blog and you don't see it on the blogroll, or your link has changed, let me know! I tried to remember who all has changed it up, but y'all are much less lazy than I am and it's hard to keep up sometimes. Also let me know if any of the links don't work. Hopefully I will find the time to update the layout, too.

Thanks!

Summer book club

2009-07-28T13:57:00.003-05:00

As I'm sure you know by now, I am interning for the DNR this summer. Because the DNR is a statewide operation, I have to live someplace awfully boring, so therefore I have more time than usual to read. I have finally recovered from the school year, so I've started picking up books on random subjects that I don't normally read about. I've decided to write about a few of the books I've read this summer and what I thought.

Image courtesy of Amazon.com
"Don't Swallow Your Gum!" by Aaron Carroll MD and Rachel Vreeman MD is an amusing book about random health myths and FAQs. Ever wonder if you really do eat spiders in your sleep? This is the book for you. For how informative it is, it's actually a quick read. It's light and fun, and I grabbed a copy off of Amazon to bring back to school for my sorority's bookshelf we are putting together. (Every girl is supposed to bring a book back to school with them on an assigned topic to be put on our house bookshelf. Mine was health.)

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

image courtesy of Amazon.com

"A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn is a fantastic read even for people who are allergic to books about history. It tells the history of the United States from the perspectives of people who aren't white, rich, and Protestant. (Not that I have a problem with those people, but I've read enough books about them.) Women, minorities, slaves, immigrants, the poor, Native Americans, you name it. It's kind of a cool yet depressing look at history from a perspective we don't always hear about, but at the same time it's not whiny. Caution: it's long, and I think he has certain pet subjects that he likes to go on about...

Because some sections were kind of slow I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Image courtesy of Amazon.com

"The Book of the Moon" by Rick Stroud is an excellent overview of the moon. It's not particularly deep, and if you have a strong background in science you might get bored, but it's a nice introduction. The book outlines the history of exploration, myths, astronomy, art, and other human connections to the moon. I did a large project on the geology, origin, and exploration of the moon for a geology class, but I still learned some things about the social aspects of what the moon has meant to mankind throughout the ages. A good book if are curious about the moon and don't want to read a really heavy, scientific work. (There is still good information, it's just presented in a manner that won't bore those of you who aren't science majors.)
It was a quick read and I liked the style for the most part, but it does like to repeat itself a lot to make sure you get it, so I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

How about you guys? Have you read any good books this summer? I'm definitely looking for ideas. I don't tend to read fiction, but this summer might drive me to it.

Goodbye to a great

2009-07-26T22:42:00.003-05:00

A very classy, talented man. Look at all that bling!

I didn't mean the title to sound funerary, and I'm really behind I know, but Joe Sakic retired, and that makes me really sad. He was my favorite player in the league, but he left the game on his own terms. Mr. Sakic didn't strike me as the type to hang around forever, and when he felt he could no longer play the way he wanted to, he hung 'em up. I respect that, but I'm still sad as I wanted to see him wear the red and white in 2010 in his hometown. Hats off to you, Joe. I hope whatever you occupy your time with is fun and you don't have second thoughts. Maybe you can follow in Yzerman's footsteps?

Link to his press conference is here

Summer updates

2009-07-21T20:15:00.001-05:00

First of all, I'm sorry I have failed and disappeared. First school was crazy, then I accepted a job with the DNR in northern MN, and the internet is hard to find up here. BUT, I did take up golfing while up here, and I'm getting a good tan, so it's not all bad.

Second, I'm pleased that we got Havlat...I think. I'm hoping he stays healthy for us. He Twitters, so he can't be THAT uncool, right? (I got sucked into Twitter. It's more fun than I thought it would be...)

Third, the Twins are picking it up? They blew it yesterday, but I'm hoping that was a fluke. Someone just mailed me a crapton of Twins baseball cards from the mid 80's to present, so if anyone wants a baseball card, give me a player name and I might be able to help you out. I have a lot of random ones including a bunch of Kirby Puckett.

All of you should read Gillies' diary on Wild.com about the prospect camp because it's really funny. He's definitely my new favorite player on the team, and even though I think he's awesome, I think going to the AHL for a bit would really help him out. Playing will help his development more than sitting.

Lastly, Ron Schara is awesome and gives the DNR love. Dennis Anderson...not so much. Moral of the story: Ron Schara is clearly much cooler.

If anyone is headed up north, I can easily get you a fishing report and maybe even think up something fun for you to do if you are looking for ways to have fun without spending a ton of money. Working for the DNR seems to require you to not only know things about nature, but also about the local tourism industry.

Gloating

2009-07-03T22:00:00.005-05:00

Ok, so it's no secret that I wasn't Gaby's biggest fan, but when I found out he was no longer with the team, I did a cartwheel. Then I remembered the hard way that I am still very much surgically repaired in my left arm, and also that we let him walk for free. That killed the celebration a bit, but still. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. I would give my condolences to the Rangers fans, but by being fans of the Rangers, they should pretty much expect them to sign players like this. They know what they are getting themselves into.

Not gonna lie, I kind of thought he'd go to be with his immortal beloved in Vancouver, but then I would have been very suspicious of tampering.

Also, since I haven't posted for a while, I'm extremely pleased that Dougie R got fired, but this does not completely change my attitude towards our...lovely owner. It helps, but still, he smacks of slime to me.

Maybe Baby Hockey Jesus is listening to me after all. Now if only the prank text I got the other day were true and we signed Toews.

There is no great loss without some small gain...

2009-04-28T11:20:00.003-05:00

So the Wild did not have a stellar season, but apparently that not so great season was the kick the Wild needed to create some turnover in the management. I like to review the good things that happened in the past seasons because I think the press tends to focus a bit too much on the negative because it's easier.

1.) Mikko Koivu was mostly healthy the entire season, and he made himself a STRONG case for being the permanent captain of the team. Under the new coach perhaps?

2.) Our veteran players really stepped it up and did their jobs. Hats off to Nolan and Brunette! This does not mean I will stop telling dinosaur jokes about Nolan.

3.) The Wild sucking got rid of Risebrough! If I had known that was going to happen...but that's beside the point.

4.) I got to see the Blackhawks play in person, and it was awesome. That's what I hope our team can turn into. Unfortunately that would involve almost 15 years of horrible teams. On second thought, that would suck.

5.) Foster's return! I'm so happy for him, I'm really glad he gets to play again, and let's not lie, I'm happy he's able to simply return to having a normal life. Walking is a really important thing.

6.) Skoula wasn't as brutal as he has been in seasons past. Granted this could be because several of his fellow defencemen were MORE brutal, but you know, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. For like 2 weeks in the middle of the season, he played pretty well.

Did I miss anything major? I wasn't able to watch most of the season, but I read blogs and the paper and watch when I can, so you guys will have to fill in the gaps.

2009-04-27T15:51:00.001-05:00

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Happy Monday!

2009-04-27T13:30:00.002-05:00

So my playoff predictions kind of fail, but maybe the Blackhawks will save me a little bit.

In their honor, I made this video. See post above. I figured out how to make it post directly here!

If you want to make one of your own, just go to jibjab.com, get a free account, and google some pictures to use. It's an excellent use of your time...they have a bunch of different styles, too.

2009 Playoff Predictions!

2009-04-15T16:46:00.002-05:00

Ok folks, here you go. The only time of the year when I make predictions.
West is the best, so I'll start with them.

Western Conference
Round 1
San Jose vs. Anaheim
Sharks in 5
The only reason I'm giving Anaheim a game at all is because of Mr. Scott Niedermayer. He may be kind of a douche, but he's good. Pronger has faltered, the goaltending sucks, but Nieds has been good for them. The Sharks are surging. This finally may be their year, and maybe it will be the year Thornton steps up his playoff game (AKA shows up) and becomes a true superstar in the game.

Detroit vs. Columbus
Wings in 4
After all that whining about not making the playoffs forever, they make it and face Detroit. Bummer, the Wings are going to destroy them, and I'm going to enjoy it, not gonna lie. I'm mostly indifferent towards Columbus, but I do get a little tired of getting lumped in a group with them. Lidstrom, Trianglehead, Zetterdouche, and co won't even have to break a sweat.

Vancouver vs. St Louis
Canucks in 6
I'm looking forward to this series, I kind of have developed a mini hockey crush on the Blues, and I think it's really cool that they pulled out a playoff spot. No, it does not have anything to do with specific players on the team. As much as I'd like to see the Canucks lose (sorry Alix), I don't think they are going to. They'd have to choke more than Thornton in playoffs past to manage that one. The Blues will not go down without a fight, though. I think fighting for a playoff spot can really help the mentality of the team.

Chicago vs. Calgary
Blackhawks in 7
I'm so going to watch as much of this series as I can. It's going to be a good one, though Calgary has lost a lot of momentum lately. The Blackhawks had a mini slump, but several of their players are on FIRE. They are young and hungry, so we'll see how far that carries them. I know Elise will be cheering for the Blackhawks... Maybe I'll be joining her, so sue me.

Round 2
Boston vs. Montreal
Bruins in 7
Le sigh. This prediction breaks my heart to make, but the Habs just don't have it together this season. I'm hoping Luc's lucky hat will help them on to greatness. Stupid Boston. I think I have ingrained, MN hatred of them. I just don't want to talk about this series.

Washington vs. NYR
Washington in 5
The Rangers have no chemistry. End of story. I didn't even think that they would make the playoffs at all, but they did. I'll give them a pity game, but I think for the most part they are going to get destroyed. Lundqvist isn't that good.

New Jersey vs. Carolina
Devils in 6
I don't even know why I'm giving them 2 games, but the karma inspired me to make this prediction, so there you have it. I don't really care about this series at all. Brodeur is awesome, Parise had more than 40 goals, um, Carolina should have lost in the 2006 playoffs. No, I'm not bitter...

Pittsburgh vs. Philly
Pens in 7
This series is going to be bloody, for the Pens. They are mostly a jailbait team while the Broadstreet Bullies are back for the most part. This series really could go either way. The only reason I picked the Pens is because I don't like Briere. At all.

Round 2
Boston vs. Pittsburgh
Boston in 6
The Bruins can totally take on the extremely non physical Pens. The Pens struggled quite a bit this season, and I'm a little surprised they made the #4 seed. This series will hold my attention for less than 5 seconds.

Washington vs. New Jersey
Devils in 7
This series will be a little more worth watching. The Devils aren't the most exciting team ever, but they have a lot of fight to them. The Caps aren't that deep, so they'll rely heavily on Ovechkin.

Round 3
Boston vs. Devils
Bruins in 6
The Devils have good, young talent, but I don't think they will be able to slow Boston's roll this season. Sorry, Brodeur, I know you think you're that good, but I don't think you are.

Stanley Cup Final
Detroit vs. Boston
Wings in 6
It's hard to repeat in this day and age, but I think the Wings can do it if anyone can. It kills me to say nice things about them, but in this case, I kind of have to if I'm trying to keep this objective. They are good, and who knows how much longer they will have this group of players. Should be a good series, though. I look forward to the finals this year. Sometimes it's no bueno, but the playoffs will be fun this year. Very fun indeed.

Who do you think is going to win? Do you think I'm crazy for making these rankings?

Updates

2009-03-17T21:19:00.002-05:00

Lake Natomas, where I'll be. Not my crew, btw. We have crimson oars with a gold stripe on the end of the blade.

Well then. I haven't posted in a while, because I really haven't had a lot to say, also no time to say it.
Uninspired play by the Wild? Check.
Professors trying to kill me? Check.
Mini mental meltdown? Check.
Going to Cali to row next week? Check.
Trying to find a way to make hippies do useful work? Check.

Maybe that's why I haven't had time to post. Sorry guys.

Anyways, the WCHA Final Five is this weekend, so that's exciting, I'm sure I'll recieve many text updates about that, and I'm pretty stoked. I have to get a lot of things done before I leave for California for the week, so I probably won't have to much time to follow the tourney on my own, but it should be good. Many bets have already been placed.

I'm ready for baseball season. If only the Twins were opening in Seattle instead of the other way around...that would be sick. This Twins season is going to own. OWN.

All I have to say about the Wild is they had better win tonight, because co'mon. The Avs have been horrible this season. On that note, pleased Hockey Gods bring Joe Sakic back. He's too cool to leave.

Baby Hockey Jesus Trade Deadline

2009-03-05T09:32:00.003-06:00

Dear Baby Hockey Jesus,
I know I have been a most undeserving fan recently, but man does my team need your help. While I've been away taking care of my life, the Wild have run into some struggles. (Actually, they were struggling before I left, too.) Mostly stemming from the fact that our GM seems to not want the team to win. Ever. Please help us in your infinite wisdom and power. I will sacrifice Joe Mauer to you for a Stanley Cup. Not that he has anything to do with hockey, but everyone seems to love him, so I figured maybe you did too. Hockey isn't a year round sport, and who knows, maybe you enjoying knocking back a cold one at the ballpark with the other Hockey Gods.

As chief liason between you and the Wild fans, I would ask you for these things:
1.) PLEASE PLEASE let Burns stop sucking. He was so awesome, and now, I don't know what it is, but something isn't going well. Maybe he's having some minor elbow relapses too. Either that or he's spending more time taking care of his pets (if you don't like snakes, don't click...) than focusing. Whatever it is, please help him to see the light. Also, please help the coaching staff see the light and NEVER EVER put him on forward ever again.

2.) Smite Gaborik. If you are merciful, you will smite him in one fell swoop so I don't hunt him down and beat him to death slowly with his own stick. Since they usually make a half a dozen sticks at a time, so 5 other people can help me!

3.) Make Mikko the permanent captain. The team seesm to do soooo much better when he is the captain. He is driven and competitive, two qualities I like to see in my captain.

4.) Please let us either make the playoffs and do well, or get some draft picks. I'm sick of this middle of the road holding pattern that MN teams seem to be cursed with. If you think of it, could you extend this to the Twins as well?

5.) Help me clear out my schedule so I can get more than 4 hours of sleep a night and actually have some free time to read something that isn't assigned/sleep/sit around doing nothing/not do homework whatever that means.

6.) Help Wiz to make his way back to the Blackhawks. Bur is probably crying in the corner as we speak, and the Ducks are dumb. They don't deserve entertaining players.

7.) Keep a close eye on Lombardi and help him to realize his speedy potential in Phoenix. At least he's not a Flame anymore.

8.) Let TSN be correct that Jokinen is a locker room killer. I would like nothing more than to see the Flames self destrct and implode. It would kind of make my life.

9.) Let Shanny and Sakic have graceful exits from the hockey world if they have to leave us. Such great players deserve to be remembered well and treated with great respect.

Please Baby Hockey Jesus help my team(s) on to great success because I want to come home to some playoff hockey in Minnesota!

Go Royals!

2009-02-26T20:19:00.003-06:00

I came out of hibernation to support my former high school team. The ladies are playing in the state hockey tourney, and they play the cake eaters (Edina) tomorrow! They beat Irondale and now it's showtime. Go girls! Kick some ass for me! I have instructed everyone I know still in the Twin Cities to cheer for me.

You should all send good karma their way for me!

I miss you all and hopefully will post regularly soon. You can expect me to say a few words about the trade deadline...

Gone (ice) fishing

2009-01-21T00:01:00.004-06:00

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

2009-01-08T18:23:00.001-06:00

Eat it, Ohlund.

And on the flip side...

2009-01-08T13:54:00.003-06:00

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

2009-01-08T13:05:00.005-06:00

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.

Aaaaaand we're back!

2008-12-20T20:13:00.002-06:00

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

2008-11-26T03:59:00.006-06:00

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

2008-11-21T02:52:00.001-06:00

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

2008-11-16T17:12:00.005-06:00

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...

2008-11-12T22:49:00.004-06:00

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

2008-11-08T18:30:00.006-06:00

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...

2008-11-01T22:26:00.005-05:00

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!

2008-10-29T12:19:00.006-05:00

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,

2008-10-24T22:00:00.000-05:00

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

2008-10-21T16:35:00.004-05:00

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

2008-10-12T18:00:00.000-05:00

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

2008-10-04T20:00:00.004-05:00

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

2008-09-28T12:46:00.003-05:00

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

2008-09-25T17:19:00.003-05:00

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

2008-09-23T11:38:00.003-05:00

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!

2008-09-21T14:50:00.002-05:00

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

2008-09-16T17:56:00.004-05:00

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

2008-09-12T21:09:00.001-05:00

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!

2008-09-12T17:30:00.000-05:00

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

2008-09-08T10:13:00.000-05:00

...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

2008-09-07T15:40:00.000-05:00

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

2008-09-03T12:36:00.002-05:00

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

2008-09-01T11:35:00.003-05:00

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

2008-09-01T11:00:00.002-05:00

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!

2008-08-27T23:31:00.001-05:00

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

The search is on

2008-08-26T22:13:00.002-05:00

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

2008-08-24T16:35:00.004-05:00

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

2008-08-21T19:20:00.005-05:00

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

2008-08-11T20:22:00.003-05:00

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

2008-08-07T12:29:00.017-05:00

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 #!@!~~^ **&(

2008-07-29T21:41:00.003-05:00

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

2008-07-14T23:09:00.004-05:00

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

2008-07-09T21:34:00.003-05:00

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

2008-07-08T22:51:00.001-05:00

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!

2008-07-03T21:27:00.005-05:00

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?

2008-07-01T21:29:00.004-05:00

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

2008-06-26T23:02:00.003-05:00

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

2008-06-22T00:04:00.002-05:00

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

2008-06-15T14:21:00.005-05:00

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

2008-06-09T22:05:00.002-05:00

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

2008-06-05T18:21:00.002-05:00

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

2008-05-30T20:39:00.008-05:00

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

2008-05-29T16:40:00.003-05:00

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

2008-05-28T17:41:00.004-05:00

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

2008-05-25T11:34:00.002-05:00

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

2008-05-21T15:04:00.003-05:00

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

2008-05-15T13:50:00.000-05:00

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!

2008-05-11T20:28:00.000-05:00

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!

Twins update and third round predictions

2008-05-08T16:40:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine emailed this picture to me, and it makes me giggle.

The Twins just lost to the White Sox, allowing them to take 2 out of 3 in the first series I've been able to watch. Slowey had 4 1/2 great innings in his first outing since April 3rd. Joe Mauer did not trip over the base and eat it, but he did have a pretty good series, since every time I turned around he was on base.

Justin Morneau did not do as well as Mauer, but he advanced the runners quite a bit and made their outfield look stupid at least twice.

Redmond played yesterday and it was awesome. I love Red. Cuddy did well for himself and made several great plays in the field.

New dudes: I got to see some of the new players play, and beyond CGo hitting for the cycle yesterday, I was not really impressed. Young didn't impress me either, but I really liked Tolbert, and Harris, Everett, and Lamb seem fairly competent.

Nick Punto (is not a new dude) managed to save his own skin yesterday after making a glaring mistake at the play, he turned in a career high 5 RBIs.

Don't forget to vote for the MLB All-Star game! I always vote like mad and never watch the game, but you should still go and vote for your favorite players, or if you don't have any, my favorite players.

http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080428&content_id=2603915&vkey=allstar2008&fext=.jsp

Third Round:

Stars vs. Red Wings:

Red Wings in 6. I don't really see how the Wings will not win this series, sorry Stars fans/Matt Niskanen.

Flyers vs. Pens:

Everyone knows how much I like both of these teams, but sadly one of them has to win. The Flyers might just take the Pens apart with their imitation of the Broad Street Bullies, so I say Flyers in 7 games.

Completely Unreasonable Summer Wishlist

2008-05-07T14:40:00.001-05:00

I will post a real wishlist that is actually feasible later. For now this is just what I'd REALLY like to see. None of this money saving, team chemistry crap.

1.) Vincent Lecavalier and Joe Thornton. I should be the GM of the Rangers. We need centers.

2.) A younger Martin Brodeur, though I could do without the personal scandals and douchebaggery.

3.) Joe Sakic. Duh. What wishlist of mine would be complete without his name?

4.) Andrew Brunette, because this is a fake wishlist, and I don't want to tear him away from his good fit in Colorado. I am glad to see he has found his niche, especially because I don't think he is really a good fit for this team any longer.

5.) Matt Niskanen. He won't be allowed to leave the Stars of his own free will for quite some time, but whatever. Too bad the Wild aren't like the old school Montreal Canadiens...they always got their man.

6.) While we are on the subject of defensemen, a young Nicklas Lidstrom would be nice.

7.) A hardworking Marian Gaborik. I can dream, right?

8.) Scott Niedermayer when he still cared about hockey...because you can never have too many Norris nominated defensemen on your team. (But you might still make a first round exit anyway, that's what Vinny and Joe are there for.)

9.) Scotty Bowman as the coach. Jacques Lemaire is a good coach, but there is no better coach in all of hockey than Scotty Bowman.

Twins Update: I watched an entire game last night. With his hat on, Nick Blackburn looks an awful lot like Joe Mauer. Justin Morneau made an outfielder look stupid, and Joe Mauer still looks funny when he runs. That is all. Oh yeah one more thing, KEVIN SLOWEY START ON THURSDAY!

***Update***: Check out this quote from Justin Morneau:
Our fans sent in some letters with questions for you guys...read this particular one out loud if you would.
"JM: (Justin reads).... "I wanted to know if Justin or Michael watch SpongeBob SquarePants and if so, who is their favorite character?" Yes I do watch that show, we watched it all the time in the (New Britain) clubhouse. SpongeBob is my favorite character."

and then this interview:http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Answer-Man-Justin-Morneau-talks-hockey-middle-?urn=mlb,77430

Bert and Dick were talking about Gomez's cycle, and Bert goes " I almost hit for the cycle once, I was a double, triple, and home run away!" Dick just laughed.

Luc Robitaille NHL ad

2008-05-03T02:10:00.001-05:00

This one goes out with a shoutout to my HLOG sisters who are reppin' LA. Lucky Luc is awesome.

A letter to a Hockey God

2008-05-02T21:13:00.000-05:00

Dear Joe Sakic,

Please, please, please don't retire. I want to be able to see you play one more time, and I don't want to see you end your career on an 8-2 loss kind of a note. You are my favorite player that ever will be, but I also don't want you to play longer than you want to. I hope you discuss this with your family, step back for a few weeks, go on vacation or something. I know you will not pull a Scott Niedermayer. You battled back from a tough injury, and I got scared. I thought that this would really get thoughts of retirement going in your head, since before you were coming off a 100 point season. Please remember that you came back from the injury and led your struggling team to the playoffs like Moses to the promised land, and continued your playoff studliness. I know you have one more year in you, but Wayne Gretzky said that the best time to retire is when people think you could/should have played one more season. I wish you the best with whatever you decide, and I hope to see you out destroying my team next year. Preferably when I'm home to watch.

Respectfully,

Kirsten

P.S. I figured out why my pleas to the Hockey Gods didn't work, it's because you are one of the Hockey Gods and had a vested interest in the decision. It's too bad you played on a team with Forsberg and Smyth who have angered the rest of the Hockey Gods, or you might have been able to go a bit farther.

The offseason is lame

2008-05-01T18:37:00.000-05:00

So I always try really hard to get into the offseason, promise myself I'll look up who is going to be drafted, try and play armchair GM, etc. This never actually happens, and this offseason is no exception. I've been following the Habs series closely, but beyond that...not so much. I'm sure many wonderful and interesting things will happen this offseason, and I just won't know about it until September. I guess this will give me time to write the epic adventures of Zetterdouche and Trianglehead to entertain the newly graduated Steph.

It's almost time for me to officially start paying attention to baseball, so let's see if I can name one thing that I know about each positional player on the team.
Joe Mauer: He runs like he has a pole up his butt, and he tripped over first base and completely ate it.
Justin Morneau: He's a beast. That's all you need to know.
Michael Cuddyer: Has a cannon of an arm.
Gomez: He's young, maybe 22?
Young: Isn't he the dude that hit an umpire with a bat?
I have no idea who is playing third, second, or shortstop

Trying to name something about eveyone just resulted in epic failure. I suck.

I'm not quite dead yet...

2008-04-28T20:57:00.000-05:00

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...

2008-04-25T00:07:00.000-05:00

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

2008-04-23T16:19:00.001-05:00

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

2008-04-20T13:56:00.000-05:00

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

2008-04-20T00:13:00.001-05:00

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

2008-04-18T21:38:00.001-05:00

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

2008-04-14T02:49:00.000-05:00

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

2008-04-10T23:42:00.000-05:00

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

2008-04-10T00:36:00.000-05:00

Feel better, Grumpy!

More tomorrow

Pimping for the Playoffs

2008-04-09T17:18:00.001-05:00

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

2008-04-08T21:10:00.000-05:00

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!

2008-04-06T18:59:00.000-05:00

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

2008-04-06T14:15:00.001-05:00

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!

2008-04-01T23:30:00.000-05:00

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!

2008-04-01T13:14:00.000-05:00

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.

Dear Baby Hockey Jesus,

2008-03-29T17:19:00.000-05:00

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...

2008-03-27T23:39:00.000-05:00

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

2008-03-27T01:43:00.001-05:00

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

2008-03-25T16:17:00.000-05:00

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

2008-03-23T12:03:00.000-05:00

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

2008-03-21T21:16:00.001-05:00

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

2008-03-19T22:33:00.001-05:00

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?