Wild Need to Work On Beating Division Rivals.

Photo courtesy of the Facebook group "Calgary Flames SUCK"

We beat Phoenix on Sunday night to make it seven straight. I was mildly worried about the game since they were on a mild tear, but my worries were unfounded.

So last night we played the Flames, and that didn't go so well. Stupid Jarome Iginla, AKA Sakic's heir, got the Shootout winner. It was a night for the defencemen as Foster and Burns had the goals for the Wild. This is an important goal for Foster, since he still needs to prove that he can contribute so that Lemaire will put him in the lineup more frequently. I didn't actually watch the game, but TSN thoughtfully provided me with game highlights and a less than clever title. My boy Parrish was out with sore back apparently last night, and was therefore not getting any goals for me to gloat about. :(

Sherry, over at Scarlett Ice, has been nominated for this year's Canadian Blog Awards. You should go to her site and check it out, and then she has a link up so that you can vote for her. There are many quality entries this year, so I recommend voting for Sherry and then going and checking out all the other blogs.

Next up: The Ducks. Hopefully Mark Parrish will be back so he can break FCP again. That would definitely make my life if that were to occur twice. Now that S. Niedermayer is back, unfortunately they have gotten better. Earl Sleek, who writes for both Battle of California and AOL Fanhouse, will probably have some kind of detailed stats up about the matchup, because he is far better at that sort of thing than I am. Finny, of Girl With a Puck, will probably post something about the game if she is back from her vacation.

Teebz, the brilliance behind Hockey Blog in Canada, is having an essay contest with some fantastic prizes to celebrate the one year anniversary of having his blog. The questions haven't been posted yet, but you should check in often to see what they are. Or don't. That way my brilliant entry will have less competition. Congrats to you, Teebz, and good luck to all who take him up on his challenge.

**Edit** According to the man himself, the Hockey Blog in Canada essay questions will be up on Monday.

Back to back wins!

The Wild do love me! They are sending me off to hockey hell with two exciting wins over Detroit and Chicago. Zetterdouche, Triangle Head, and Kane have nothing on my boys, especially now that Koivu is back and playing almost 20 minutes!

The Detroit game was exciting right down to the shootout finish. I was watching the game while IMing with Steph, and I almost felt badly about gloating, but since the Red Wings have destroyed the Wild this season, I was quickly able to quash that guilt. Backstrom got pulled after four goals allowed, and Josh Harding was a rockstar in net for us. The Wings scored with just over a minute left in the third, and I freaked, but less than 20 seconds later Eric Belanger became my hero of life when he batted the puck out of the air and scored. Burns then spun him around in a circle. Gaborik got his first shootout goal, blah blah, we win! HOORAY! WE BEAT THE RED WINGS! Final score: 6-5 SO. Parrish's goal streak was broken. :( But on a lighter note, we beat the Red Wings, so I don't care.

The next night I was all excited because Koivu was coming back, and because we were playing the Blackhawks. We seem to have their number, so I was pretty much counting on them winning. (Bad karma I know, but I can't help myself!) Josh Harding was a rockstar again in net, and the Wild beat the Blackhawks by a score of 5-2. We played them hard, Veilleux really, really should learn how to fight better, but Parrish got a goal, and like I mentioned earlier, Koivu played 19 and some change minutes. It was an awesome game, and a nice win over a traditional rival.

I'm heading back to school tomorrow, so tonight I've had HNIC on, and the Hotstove segment was a howl. Talking all about the Leafs and their problems. The guys were practically yelling at each other and Referee Ron had to step in and shut them up so we could distinguish what exactly was being said by who. They then talked a bit about the new Wild ownership, but I'm sick of hearing about that until I see what happens. Now I will watch the Leafs possibly get destroyed by another west coast team...but for now apparently we only get to see Joe Thornton and his huge butt skate around in circles. Now I'm getting to watch Dominic Moore play with the Leafs for the first time. Lovely.

Also, Elise (18,568 Reasons Why...) pointed me to NHL.tv where there is a good clip with Mark Parrish under "What's New". Burns is also in a clip with a ridiculous hat talking about his zoo some more. She's my hero of life for the day, because as I'm sure everyone has now noticed, I'm a huge Mark Parrish fan...

Oh yeah, one more thing. We play the Coyotes tomorrow. My mom and brother will be at the game *sniff*. The Coyotes have been reasonably good lately, and for them miraculously good. According various CBC people, Turris will up with them before the end of the season. Playing the Coyotes always makes me a little bit sad, because I hate seeing Wayne Gretzky as Coach Gretzky. I liked happy, amazing, hockey playing Gretzky much, much better. That's all I really have on them other than that they beat Vancouver last night! (I'm tired and sick, what do you want?) For the Coyotes POV, I direct you as always to my fine HLOG sisters who cover the Coyotes at True Coyote Love, and Hip Shot Blog.

Wild Owner Bob Naegele is selling his share of the team

Rumours have been flying around the Twin Cities since even before I returned home that some sort of business deal was going down. Today I got an email in my inbox from Mr. Naegele confirming what we have all long suspected. Whatever. I don't have a whole lot to say just yet, so long as the new owners continue to try and build a good team and don't turn into Dollar Bill, I'll be fine. Personally, I wouldn't sell a team that's making so much money, because if you look around, everyone has a sweater, hat, t-shirt, puck, fake stick, picture, you name it in their hot little hands, but according to my mom, that's just how he does business. If you would like a copy of the open letter that he sent to the fans, let me know and I will forward it to you. I'm sure the whole thing will also be posted on the official Minnesota Wild message boards.
Thanks for helping us get a team back, Mr. Naegele, and I hope whatever business venture you invest in next is kind to you.

In other news, the Wild have been beaten twice since the last time that I have posted, and if that wasn't bad enough, they play the Red Wings tonight. Unfortunately it looks like both Triangle Head and Zetterdouche (or the Eurotwins as they are known over at NPI) will be around to taunt me and my fellow Wild fans. I watched the Preds and Stars games, but I really couldn't find anything that I felt like posting about.

Last night I watched part of the Leafs/Ducks game, and I feel a little bit sorry for Leafs fans right now. They should protest and start burning jerseys in the streets or something to let the owners know that they want a better team. If they don't stop handing over all their money, they ownership is just going to keep putting out a mediocre team because the fans don't care as long as it's the Leafs.

Mikko Koivu update: Some un-named player has been put on waivers, but not quickly enough so Mikko Koivu can't play until tomorrow's game vs. the Blackhawks. Mr. Koivu says he's ready to play, and Coach Lemaire is ready to have him back. I'll update when I know for sure who it is.

***EDIT*** According to TSN.ca, it's Dominic Moore that has been put on waivers. I guess DR likes to keep us on our toes, since everyone I know thought it would be Foy. Not really sure why Foy didn't go, since he's almost always a healthy scratch, and Mikko Koivu does not center the checking line, which is what Moore did. Somehow I feel like this is going to bite them, I just haven't figured out exactly how yet.

CANADA WINS GOLD!

Team Canada beat Team Sweden today to win their fourth straight gold medal at the WJCs. I didn't make a post yesterday because I was afraid that I would gloat too much and kill the precarious karma. Now I will start my extremely boisterous celebrating.

The boys aren't great singers, but they were singing the anthem, and they knew all the words, so props to them. I've heard that they didn't deserve the win, but I have yet to see the game, so I will reserve judgement until I watch the whole thing. I just saw the singing clip on Coach's Corner. Don Cherry is joining me in being really excited about the win. I'll look for the Coach's Corner clip and post that here, too.

I was there in 2005 when the gold streak began. That was the dream team with Crosby, Phaneuf, and Seabrook (among many others). The whole arena was filled with red, as we weren't too far from Winnipeg, lots of beer was consumed, O Canada was sung, lots of yelling, partying, and general merrymaking ensued in the streets. Sadly celebrations were much more subdued in my house today, but I'm sure later when I watch the game I will make enough noise for four people.

For even more coverage, check out TSN.ca.

WHOOOOO! It paid off...

Not only did the Wild win 6-3 vs the Stars, they dominated. Notably absent was Skoula, a fact that was greeted with cheers when the announcement was made. My mom didn't even yell at me for cheering and tell me to be nice, an event far rarer than Skoula being scratched. That was only the beginning. There was a very enthusiastic young man selling programs, and I bought one from him. He was excited when he saw me approaching, and when I handed him a five, he promptly reminded my the programs are only $3. When I told him to keep the change, he got so excited I thought he was going to explode. He thanked me right away, and then later added "Enjoy the game!". As I turned around to thank him, I could see him running off towards one of the parents waving the money like he had won the lottery. Wherever you are right now kid, you should know that you were doing a really nice job selling programs. I tried to tell him that, but I don't think he was paying attention. Oh well, I'm glad I made him smile.

On to the game. It was amazing right from the beginning. Four goals in the first period had the crowd all over the game, but there were a few close calls on some Stars power plays, and they did manage to get one goal, but I was ok with that. Marty Turco got pulled after the Wild's third goal, and he looked supremely unhappy about that fact. In the second period, I started to get worried. The Wild got a goal, but the Stars got two making it 5-3. The third period started off not so well for the Wild, but Mark Parrish added a nice goal around the middle of the period to make the final score 6-3. I yelled my fool head off for Parrish (he was quite excited about his goal, too), since it was my last game at the X for the season and I was wearing his sweater tonight. There were two fairly lame fights, and Steve Ott had to leave the game at the end for what we later found was a game misconduct and an abuse of officials penalty. Nick Schultz seems to feel that now he is captain he must check people, and even Marian Gaborik, yes, you read that correctly, Gaborik checked someone. Hard enough to make noise, too.

All in all some revenge was had, a program (complete with Mark Parrish poster) was purchased, a kids hockey program was helped, Mark Parrish got a goal, and it was a nice sendoff for me. The next time the Wild are at home is the 13th of January, but classes begin on the 14th for me, so I have a flight the 13th. It was such a good night that I can't decide what my favorite part was.

WJCs: Team Canada will play Team USA tomorrow at 12:30 ET (According to TSN). It's on TSN and the NHL Network and I will be watching that game. GO CANADA GO!!!!!!! The first game will be re-broadcast at 5 and the second and more important game at 10 in case you miss them.

Jarkko Ruutu owns Dion Phaneuf!

Hopefully this one will work. I could still watch this on a loop for hours. Nice work, Phaneuf.

Trap it Like it's Hot - Canucks Rap

I posted this on HLOG a while back, but I'm posting it here because it's absolutely hilarious. Enjoy!