What now, Detroit?

They need to change the name of their restaurant...

St. Paul has officially been named the new "Hockeytown" according to Yahoo!.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news?slug=rm-saintpaul110107&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Oh yeah, and we play them tomorrow. Should be an interesting game to say the least. Steph, you and I are just not friends this week I see, but good job in getting Hemsky back. I appreciate it.

I may not have a lot of time to post until after tomorrow/Saturday/maybe beyond since it's finals week, so I invite you to check out all of the awesome blogs in my sidebar from around the NHL...

If you dislike Bucci : Check out A Queen Among Kings, or Hockey Blog in Canada

If you need to laugh until you hurt: Sportsquee, Barry Melrose Rocks, and Covered in Oil are good choices.

Eye Candy: Hot Oil is having their annual "Hot Off" to determine the hottest Oiler on the team.

Enemy opinions: Steph over at No Pun Intended will fill you in on the Wings, and Bethany at Bethany's Hockey Rants has the Blue Jackets covered.

If you are jumping up and down with glee because Scott Niedermayer is coming back, I'm sure Finny at Girl with a Puck, and Earl Sleek at Battle of California would love to join you in celebration.

And as always if you are bored (or procrastinating)...YouTube is your friend! If you are a really good person, you will vote for your favorite NHL players for the All-Star ballot.

I'll be sure and put up awesome posts once I'm back in MN and able to see the team in person, shoot the breeze with random people, talk to opposing fans, er I mean heckle them, and I won't be doing mountains of homework every day so I'll actually have time to surf the net and/or find something cool to put up.

Wildblogosphere: Wild Puck Banter has a new contributer who also likes Mark Parrish and Mikko Koivu. You should check it out. *nudge*

Valeri Kamensky vs Scott Niedermayer Hockey Fight

Because this is the greatest video clip I will ever see of Nieds...and because I have a secret thing for him even if he does play for the Ducks. It's because of Team Canada, I swear!

Liveblogging the Broad Street Bully Wannabes

I came back from dinner at the halfway point of the game just in time to hear the announcers talking about how great they think Steve Downie is...

Second half of First:
Score is 1-0
NOOOOOO! That was a horrible play. 2-0 BSBW.
Dominique Moore? Apparently we have a woman on our team now...
Are these announcers homers much? Jesus.
Timmonen looks like he just got nutted...announcer says he's "writhing in pain".
Centre Ice just cut out on me! Hosers! Oh here we got, Timmonen icing his nuts..er midsection.
Whoo! Gaborik breakaway! Or not. WHY! WHY DO YOU FAIL AT BREAKAWAYS!
Interviewing some Flyer and putting out fresh towels.
There is now a random thing called "Coatesy's Corner". Whatever. Not nearly as good as watching Don Cherry turn purple.

Second Period:
My roommate took an interest in the game randomly, so I'm teaching her about the great game of hockey.
What's with all the stupid penalties?
Watch yourself Fedoruk. You had better believe the league is watching, hits like that are what keeps getting the Flyers suspended. Please try to forget you ever played for them.
WHOOO! I almost forgot. Did you guys see that absolutely sick goal? Awesome.
Yet again, interviewing some random Flyer.

Third Period:
CRAP! What was that? Co'mon, you guys are better than that. 3-1 Flyers.
So close, then a bunch of random punching, with Lupul trying to look tough. Just a hint for you...it's not working.
It's never Keith Carney, it's always Veteran Defenceman Keith Carney. At least according to the announcers. It's so random.

That was ridiculous. I was not pleased with those goals. Good thing I just picked up another goalie today, trade pending. That goal we got was sweet, though.

Oh yeah and that Scott Niedermayer guy is back. TSN is all over it.

Game previews, Captains, and limericks

C is for captain, that's good enough for me-What Cookie Monster would have sung if he were a cool kid and a hockey fan instead of a cookie fan.

Today the Wild will play the Canucks. Whoppee, more division rivals. All I have to say is we had better beat the crap out of them. Koivu isn't skating and is in the IR, so I'm going to guess he won't play for a bit. I need my boys Rolston, Bouchard, and goalies to be sharp tonight for my fantasy team! I've had a rather tough week, but I might be able to pull off a win tonight.

Mark Parrish has been named the captain for the month of December. Congrats to "Captain Grumpy"! He used a lot of words like proud and honoured when asked for his reaction to being named captain for the third time. Here's to December being much better than November! As the above picture illustrates, I'm just really not a fan of Brian Rolston as captain. No particular reason why, I'm not just not.

Also, the first person that can find a the video clip played on the NHL Network/TSN of Parrish fishing and breaking his boat will be my hero forever.

Speaking of Captains, everyone should check out SportSquee. Margee has, as usual, posted a brilliant investigation into the secret lives of the NHL's captains. Sakic's is my favorite. (No, not just because it's Sakic.)

Clearly Janessa was bored in the shower today, because she created this limerick about Jarret Stoll. There are more of these on HF, including an excellent one about Pierre McGuire.

There was a boy from Sask who played for the Oil
He could really fire the puck
The next C he'll wear
The Oiler fans swear
Until he started to suck

And one about Cam Barker:
Cam Barker was drafted overall third
Whose play was increadibly absurd
He was supposedly the best
Even though there was the rest
He made Tigers fans say curse words

Don't forget to vote for your favorite NHLers for the All-Star game! I have a link up...use it! Backstrom needs some love, he's not doing as well as he could be.

Letter to Wes Walz

Dear Wes,
You sounded very unsure during your retirement speech and subsequent interview about how the fans view you. I just wanted to say a few things to make it clear that we adore and respect you as a player and a person. You have been one of my favorite players if not my favorite player for a long time. I am shocked to say the least, and I believe that you can still play very well in this league, but this is about you, not me.

Everyday you came to the rink and gave it your all. Off the ice you were very giving in the community, friendly with the fans, and always smiling. On the ice your intesity and passion were unmatched, and it showed. Even though many people have expressed thoughts that you still have it, I respect that you feel you are not playing at the level you used to play at, and it is most important that you be happy with your decision, one that only you can make.

I wish you nothing but the best in your life, and I hope you realize just how much you will be missed. Please don't be a stranger at the X or in the community. Take care and good luck. Like someone else said, it's a not goodbye, it's a thank you.

Sincerely,

Kirsten

Walz to Announce Retirement

Longtime NHLer and Wild veteran Wes Walz will announce his retirement tomorrow, December 1st. TSN, NHL.com, and Wild.com are all reporting this. I think I'm going to go and cry in a corner now. I am very sad that I did not get to see him play this season. He was my favorite Wild player, and has been since Brad Bombardir left. It was strange the way he left the team, but I respect him enough not to ask questions, and I'll leave it at that.

You will be missed, Walzy. All the luck in the world to you and your family in the future, and I hope you are content with your decision.

More tomorrow if I can bring myself to post something.

Time Flies

Time flies when you're having fun/stressing about a million things that you need to do before you leave school in less than three weeks...Thanksgiving weekend was super short. I have no idea where it went. That's fitting, because I have no idea what happened in the world outside Seattle, either.

Many things seem to have happened while I was hiding in Seattle and attempting to de-stress. I stuffed my face, avoided doing any homework, and watched a lot of mindless TV and movies. While I was "relaxing" my sports world was turned upside down.

The fantastic: Torii Hunter is now an Angel. So long! Hopefully now I won't have to hear you complaining every five seconds. I hope Justin Morneau hits a bunch of homers just over his head and makes him look really bad.


The good: The Yankees haven't managed to get their filthy paws on Johan Santana, and it's going to stay that way. The Wild won in Nashville on Saturday. That's also good news. Hopefully it means we don't completely suck.


The Bad: They haven't been playing well, and injuries are killing the Wild. I also read on TSN that we are no longer in the top 8. Crap!


The Ugly: Wes Walz is still MIA. We need him badly right now. MacT was talking about how he was happy when they got Mike Peca (2005), because the Oilers would finally have someone to play against Walz. He also talked about how he still appears to have all the skills, and he should worry about not being able to stop Malkin and Crobsy because " Heck, there might only be eight coaches left if we all decided we couldn't coach against Crosby and Malkin". Listen to MacT, come back, Walzy!


The Beyond ugly: The Riders beat the Bombers for the Grey Cup. I don't want to talk about it.


The WTF: Fedoruk? Why'd we get him? I'm still really confused about that one.