Yippee! We killed the Rangers!

Shot taken of the scoreboard after the game

Take that Rangers! You are not welcome in Minnesota, according to Marian Gaborik and Wild fans. The fans were all over that game, especially after Brent Burns hit that dude, making him fall down really hard. There really isn't a whole lot more to say about it. I believe Brendan Shanahan made some polite comments about how it was the game of a lifetime, etc, but I can't find them right now. He was denied hardcore several times by Harding as the Rangers tried to bring the game back. They way outplayed us in the third, but we were unstoppable. Too bad they didn't save a few of those goals for the Red Wings...

Even more entertaining than the destruction of the Rangers were the comments made by Coach Renney after the game. He got a penalty for "abusing the refs" the official penalty was called "abuse of officials". I didn't know they had those.

"I pride myself on how I respect the whole operation of the National Hockey League and the officiating therein," coach Tom Renney said. "I'm that way because I'm sincere about it. In the heat of the moment players will lose the handle too. I'm disappointed with the way things transpired. But it's no excuse."

Quote courtesy of TSN

WHOOOOOO! I'm back!

I'm back in Minnesota, and I went to the game last night. I got to see the Wild beat the Preds 3-2. The first two periods of the game absolutely sucked, but the third was good. The played like crap for a while, Josh Harding wanted to quit life, and Backstrom looked bored. It was Jacques Lemaire's 1000th game coached last night, which was really cool. He has more games coached than played, and has had a brilliant career as both a player and coach. Hats off to you Mr. Lemaire, and here's to many more games coached.

Tomorrow night we play the Rangers, and my mission that I have been forced to accept, is to get a good picture of Shanny. I suspect he doesn't wear a helmet for warm ups. Sakic didn't and Shanahan is vain, so my money is on no helmet. I'm not gonna lie, I haven't paid attention to the Rangers lately, so I really have no idea what's going to happen.

I have a bunch of pictures from Tuesday's game up on Facebook, but I'll post my favorite one here.

The Man, the Legend, doing one of the things he does best...he's a sharp dresser. Congrats Coach Lemaire!

Tonight we went to see Nick Schultz, and I take back some of the mean things I said about him. He was very gracious and polite, and he positively glowed when asked about his son. As expected, he signed his name in a tiny place so he could sign it on the number.

Sorry about the red-eye...I was too lazy to edit the picture apparently.

NHL Road Trip promo (Extended Version)

To remind you to vote for the All-Star Game...

Portland Needs a Better Airport

I'm currently sitting in the PDX International Airport using the slowest (but free!) WiFi internet connection known to man. I have two hours to kill, so I suppose it doesn't really matter how slow it is.

It has been an extremely stressful last few days, but the stress has been lifted, and in 9 hours I will be home on my parents' couch stuffing my face and watching hockey. It's a good day (minus the unfortunately long travel time).

Friday night I should have been studying harder than I was for my calc exam, but I really wanted to watch the game, so I made up for it on Saturday morning. Nothing makes me happier than FCP FAILING at life. Elly over at No Pun Intended has an excellent post up about why you should blame all of your problems on FCP. It's an excellent read, I highly recommend checking it out. Right, so the Wild schooled the Ducks 5-2. I'm kind of sad that I know they will improve once Scott Niedermayer takes off running (or skating) again, but it's ok. My reward for that is getting to watch him skate. In order to make room for the good Niedermayer, the Ducks ended up dumping Andy McDonald in return for Doug Weight, a prospect whose name is escaping me, and a draft pick. I have to say, I was hoping Burke would have to squirm around and make a bad deal. I'm bumming that the Wild couldn't have picked up Andy McDonald, because I think he would have been a good fit. Now that he is no longer a Duck, my liking for him has gone up exponentially.

Last night I recieved a set of excellent updates from my super awesome mom, because I had used up too much internet watching the Ducks game and couldn't watch a second game in 24 hours. There was also the part about how I had a final from 7-10 PM, which was basically the time west coast games run. Woot. I didn't bomb my exam, and the Wild didn't stink up the place, even with Harding starting back to back games. I was surprised to see Harding play, I had put Backstrom in for my fantasy team...and didn't find out until too late.

I'm especially sad that I missed the Early Game on HNIC. The Habs owned the Leafs (not like it's hard) 4-0. I heard rumblings that McCabe got hurt during all of this. I'm sure my Canadian friends either will either gleefully fill me in on the details, or tell me this as they are drinking it off. Anyone know who was on After Hours this week? Did I miss anything good? Stupid Saturday finals, I was home in time for After Hours last year.

Random Tidbits of life

The Wild against any remotely good team

So there was a game on Tuesday apparently. I went to a concert instead of watching it, and it sounds like I made an excellent decision. (besides the fact that it was an amazing concert) The Wild got destroyed 4-1 by the Sharks. Oops. C'mon Captain Grumpy( so named because his teammates call him Grumpy, it's written on his sticks and he's the captain for the month), you need to make a Wes Walz speech and kick the team into gear. We need some road wins.

Coming up the Wild will swing through SoCal, but I unfortunately will be studying for/taking an exam during both of those games, so I would ask you to seek out Finny of Girl With a Puck and Earl Sleek over at Battle of California for their takes on the game. For the Kings: kms2 at Purple Crushed Velvet, Ckim at A Queen Among Kings (she's going to be at the game), and RudyKelly also of Battle of California. These fine bloggers will give the enemy opinion on the games in addition to the Wild Blogosphere listed at right. I will be mostly MIA until Sunday when I fly home. I have calculated that I have an 11 hour travel time, so I'll be bored hanging around in airports. Here's to hoping that Scott Niedermayer doesn't make his season debut against the Wild.

Manny Fernandez will need knee surgery and is likely out for the season. DR, I know I give you a lot of crap and say that I think you suck at life quite frequently, but getting rid of Manny seems like a pretty genius move just now.

Joe Sakic is still out with a groin injury, and I'm really hoping this doesn't mean he's slowing down. I know he's the type of player that will retire as soon as he feels he isn't playing at the same level anymore, and I'd really hate to see him go.

Mikko Koivu looks doubtful for the SoCal swing, but I'm REALLY, REALLY hoping he will heal quickly and rejoin the team. They need him like nobody's business.

Photo idea borrowed from Elly @ No Pun Intended. Thanks!
All news reports used can be found at TSN.ca

Zetterdouche and win #2

So Friday night the Wild got murdered by the Red Wings. Zetterdouche (thanks, Margee!) got a hat trick, and the Wild lost 5-0. 5-0! HARDING, WTF? You are in the big show now for real. Get it together. Too bad we don't have Roloson. Back in the day, he OWNED the Red Wings. Manny Fernandez played much like Harding, only instead of the Homeless Swede paying him to let goals in, it was Brendan Shanahan. Just because you were brought in to replace Fernandez doesn't mean you have to BECOME him. I now dislike ALL Red Wings. Ever.

The announcers kept going on about how the Wild had only won once ever at the Blue Jacket's arena, and I kept pounding my head on solid objects thinking they were cursing the karma. Turns out I was wrong for once, and dumb and dumber actually didn't kill the karma. A 2-1 win keeps the Wild over .500 in their last six games.

I'm glad Mark Parrish is back, but I and the Wild of course miss Mikko Koivu.

Top Ten Reasons I Can't Wait to go to Minnesota

10.) It snows there. None of this typhoon powered rain for weeks on end crap. And sun, don't get me started on how much I LOVE the sun. I will tell you every reason I can think of that the sun is good.

9.) HOCKEY! Season tickets, here I come. Centre Ice on a TV that I don't have to murder someone to watch. (one TV for 200 people is not sufficient)

8.) There are food types that are not some variation of Asian.

7.) I don't have to do homework.

6.) Caribou Coffee and all my other favorite places to hang out in MN will be there waiting for me, plus I won't have to spend an hour trying to figure out how to get where I want to go.

5.) I get to see my friends/have my arm fixed by a real doctor that doesn't use words like suck, bummer, and tell me he couldn't get into the school I attend if he were apply today when discussing the fact that I think my arm is falling off.

4.) Hopkins is much less sketchy than Salem.

3.) I won't have to comb the internet for any scrap of information I can find about my sports teams, I can just open my front door or flip on the TV.

2.) I can shoot the breeze with random people about anything as long as it's sports or the weather.

1.) Did I mention snow and hockey? Really? Well I'm mentioning them again.