Bits and Pieces

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Time to (at least start to) make a decision

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FCP Part 2?

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

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

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

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

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

Summer break

Taken off Sand Island in the Apostle Islands

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

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

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

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

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

The offseason is lame

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.

Duck Hunting

Photo courtesy of TSN

I'm extremely sad that I wasn't able to be at this game for obvious reasons. The Wild have now won 3 of 4 in the season series (this should be the last game, yes?). Backstrom was awesome no thanks to Johnsson causing Perry's goal. I was watching and I saw number 5 right by the net when he scored. Mikko Koivu!, Brian Rolston, James Sheppard, Pierre Marc Bouchard, and Marian Gaborik all scored for the Wild, while Mark Parrish almost did.

I laughed really hard when I got a text from my mom describing how Giguere ducked on Rolston's goal. He ducked, get it? I was laughing as I watched the game, but I hadn't even though about it that way. I laughed even harder that he threw another hissy fit. As Sherry pointed out on Battle of California, what do you expect from a man who has to drink from a straw?

Mikko Koivu may not be as sharp as he was before missing 20 some games according to Lemaire, but according to me he looks pretty effing good out there. He's been a huge boost for this team, and also for my fantasy team.

Notes:
Derek Boogaard is on the IR.
Santana is a Met.
Guy LaFleur is in trouble, or rather his son is. TSN has more on it. I can feel the shock all the way here from Quebec.
I will be SUPER pissed if Forsberg comes to Minnesota.
Mark Parrish and his wife are going to be parents soon! Congrats to them!

Up next: The Blue Jackets on the road. Bring it on, Bethany!

Justin Morneau re-signs with the Twins!

He's the one on the right, in case you didn't know.
Photo swiped from BatGirl's blog. Thanks, BG!

Our 2006 AL MVP winning first baseman is back for at least one more season, according to the Canadian Press and TSN. He's going to be making $7.4 million US for the year to hopefully bring us some more MVP numbers. What I really hope is that he doesn't play in the All-Star game again. Morneau had 28 homeruns before the break last season and three (I think) after it. I am superstitious enough that I will never vote for him again. I would love to see him signed to a long-term deal, preferably before 2010, when we have the potential to get really screwed.

Guerrier, Rincon (who I could have sworn they traded), and Cuddyer are still eligible for arbitration.