At Least the Ookies are Awesome

Booth pictures are from a random Google search. I suggest googling Scott Niedermayer if you don't believe the Ookies, Alix, or me.

So tonight I hung out in the IBP game thread, and had a lovely chat with many of the (ir) regulars, and some poo was flung...mostly by me, I have to admit, and mostly at Alix, writer of The Humming Giraffe. I'm sorry, Alix, I love the giraffe, and you are awesome. I'm just frustrated, and not looking forward to playing you guys 2,395, 573 times at the end of this month. The fact that Scott Niedermayer looks very much like the giraffe that adorns The Humming Giraffe was also discussed in the quest to find a name for said giraffe. I don't know about you guys, but I hereby vote for Scott as the name.

So the Wild lost 4-3 in a shootout to the Devils, and went 0-3 in said shootout. Earth to Brian Rolston, the slapshot thing isn't working any more. I think every goalie on God's Green Earth has figured out that you will try that...

Paul Martin (former Gopher) and Zach Parise (former UND player boo, but he's from MN) were in town tonight for the first time as Devils, as we haven't played the Devils in Minnesota since before they were born probably. (Which is not a knock on them, since they are older than me.) I'm sure they had quite a crowd there like Nisky did, but they play for a team I like better than the Stars. Martin Brodeur continues in his quest to look exactly like Gump Worsley, except he's too vain to play without a mask.

Anyone have any idea what this is? Google turns up some strange things sometimes. Apparently it's a hockey card...

Up Next: LA Kings. I'm a bad fan. I didn't know that off the top of my head, and I had to use my cell phone to light up my Wild wall calendar since it's A.) dark in my room B.) Faster than looking it up on the internet somewhere. So we play the Kings. Rob Blake is awesome, Dan Cloutier is not, unless he's helping us win playing like his normal self instead of super well like KMS2 mentioned. Game is on at *checks calendar* 7 CT, and that's the end of the useful information I have gleaned from this highly useful wall decoration.


This photo came up when I googled "Scott Niedermayer" The facial expression totally works.-------->

As one final, random aside, I just found out about the existance of a giraffe beetle while making this post. I don't know how you guys feel about bugs, but click on the link if you want to see the coolest thing EVER. Apparently they live in Madagasgar. I really, really want to see one now. http://images.wildmadagascar.org/pictures/dylan/Giraffe_Beetle,_Perinet.jpg

Methods of Consolation

So lately the Wild have been sucking, and my friends both hockey fans and non fans alike have been trying to help me think of ways to console myself. Here are some of their suggestions:
1.) Post lots of half naked pictures of Joe Thornton/Vincent Lecavalier. When asked how this would make me feel better, the submitter (Courtney) replied that it would make her feel better no matter what, and would probably make her forget all about the Oilers. I don't think that's going to work.

2.) Steph of No Pun Intended says that she " cried and drank a lot" when the Wings were losing, and made sure I did not forget the most important part of all: "oh and swearing. Don't forget about swearing." She also watched many AHL games, but that one is not feasable for me, especially since the only local hockey team (The Portland Winterhawks) is crappy beyond belief.

3.) Matt says that I should tell the Wild to eff off and become a dedicated Twins fan/baseball fan instead. Since the Twins do not have an actual starting rotation, I feel like this would just cause me more pain and stress.

4.) My roommate told me to go and hit something or be otherwise violent/aggressive, but with my arm messed up, that's maybe not a good idea.

5.) Several of my MN friends suggested that I transfer to MN somewhere where there are many other hockey teams to watch besides the Wild. Courtney says I should come to Edmonton and watch Sam Gagner the Oilers play. Tempting...

Any other suggestions? I feel like transferring schools might be a lot of work, but I'm open to anything else that will help me to dull the pain of this horrible month of March in hockey. Like Elise said "This whole Gaby as captain thing isn't exactly working out too hot. It seemed smart for about, oh, 1 game." She speaks words of truth, and she also writes them. Check out Wild.com or 18,568 Reasons Why for a link to her story posted on Wild.com! AMAZING stuff, folks.

Up next: The Devils. I will not try to compete with the -Ookies since they have a fantastic blog over at Interchangable Parts, but I will definitely make some kind of rude comments about Martin Brodeur (because it's SO easy), and maybe Zach Parise because he still owes me a fruitbasket. Boxworthy has fallen down on the job...I don't actually have anything intelligent to say about the team right now, so I'll just refer you to them and make fun of people.

A little shameless self promotion: be sure and check out Hockey Blog in Canada. Teebz gives some nice shoutouts, and mine is hilarious.

Mark Parrish Benched

Last night I was too irritated/tired to talk about this properly, and I will probably get flak for this, but whatever. Parrish was benched, and I was furious. I don't care if this makes me a bad fan with "rose colored glasses", Parrish is my boy, and I only want good things for him.

I blame Wild beat writer Russo (Minneapolis Star Tribune) for this happening. Last time he wrote an article about a player doing poorly, he got to take a seat in the pressbox. Russo writes a less than nice article about Parrish and look where he is next game. I'm half kidding, but at the same time...I definitely blame him for messing with Backstrom on gameday. You can't kill the karma like that, man. Clearly Mr. Russo was not an athlete back in the day, or at least not as ridiculous of an athlete as I am. Nik Backstrom is also more polite than I am, because I would have chewed him out for throwing off my gameday flow.

I didn't want to make a comment on Russo's blog because he wrote a post essentially dissing fans who were supporting Parrish telling them to "take off their rose colored glasses". As for his rant, he should have seen it coming. Like he said, Parrish IS very beloved here, and many people are going to be quick to defend him. Minnesotans (and people in general) tend to be very proud of where they are from and others who are from the same place. I understand that Parrish is not playing well right now, but neither is 80% of the team. Since lately my opinion has not been very welcome on Russo's Rants, I figured I would get blasted by all of the Russo faithful and get called a bad fan if I commented about this on his blog. I still might here, but it's my blog making it different.

Note: I normally mostly respect the work of Mr. Russo, but this one issue has rubbed me wrong. My mom told me to calm down about this, but calming down about things is really not my strong suit in life. This post was not intended to be rude to Michael Russo or anyone who posts on his blog. I have great respect for all of you, I'm just frustrated right now with many things, and it needed to come out somehow.

Minnesota Nice does not apply to sports

Memo to the Wild: See above. Helping other teams make the playoffs is not a good thing to be doing right now. You guys are sucking at life, and I want to know why. You blew a division lead in a week. LAME.

Calgary is on top of the division right now with 80 points. The Wild are tied with the Flames, but Calgary has a game in hand. Colorado is breathing down everyone's necks, and Vancouver is one spot out of the playoffs. With 13 games left, I expect this team to really step it up, but from I can see it looks like they are giving up. With three straight losses to teams that they should have been able to beat, and before that losing to teams like the Caps, it's really not a good sign in my mind. I'm not if full out panic mode yet, but I'm getting there. Jdoghooey mentioned that the sky was falling in the comments on 18,568 Reasons Why, and it might be a little bit. We need a Wes Walz to step up and peel the paint off the walls and get the guys going again. Carney, Hill, Schultz, Fedoruk, the stick boy, SOMEONE needs to do something. Rolston has been sucking at life. Parrish has been battling injuries, several of the young guys have disappeared altogether. Backstrom and Harding are getting bombarded every night, and players are having huge, costly brain freezes. Mikko Koivu seems to be the only player on this team really interested in playing right now.

All that being said, here's to hoping for an awesome game on Sunday and an interview with Joe Thornton by someone like Tom Reid so we will all be entertained. For an opposing viewpoint, you can check out Musings of a Radical Redhead or Battle of California.

Twins: HA! I am finally mostly caught up and have a clue what's going on. Sounds like the guys are ready for the season to begin, and Gardy is his usual self. I watched the Twins beat the Yankees the other day, and it was lovely. Once the Twins started winning, the announcers really had no idea what to talk about, since I don't think they know most of the players on the team. (Not that I can really say a whole lot about that.) I almost like not having Santana around for the one reason that I don't have to hear every three seconds about how he's going to the Yankees. The Mets are much more tolerable.
Margee will be doing a Squeeview of all the teams in MLB coming up soon, and Ckim, Finny, and McPhizzle have a new podcast up.

I interupt your regularly scheduled hockey

for this important announcement. BRETT FAVRE HAS RETIRED! Happy times in Minnesota, that's for sure. Bears fans might not be quite as pleased since the team seems to have had his number. TSN is reporting this, and I'm sure ESPN is as well. My grandma is probably going to have a fit, and it's not respectful to speak badly of sick people, but co'mon, it's the Packers. I loathe them and I'm not even a very good football fan.

On to more important news...the Wild beat LA 2-1 on Sunday, but not very impressively. Kms2 says we are welcome for the two points, and I thank my adoptive team for their support of the Wild's playoff quest.

Montreal lost last night, and that makes me very sad for them. They were in first place ( they might still be, I'm too lazy to look up the standings), and I hope they continue to stick it to the Penguins fans and keep their lead!

Up Next: Wild play Chicago at home tonight. It's a 7 PM start on KSTC tonight. I know Elise is stoked about the game, and I really hope they win and start a whole new winning streak against them to make up for the fact that the last game sucked. A lot. Mikko Koivu may or may not play, he had the flu in the very recent past. Josh Harding may be in net for this one. He seems to own the Blackhawks.

Twins: I'm pretty sure they beat the BoSox the other day. I've been trying to read up on the new members of the team so that I can be able to sort of know what's going on when I return home.

Joe Sakic and Adam Footer commercial

Just because Sakic and Foote are both back doesn't mean I hate the Avs any less.

This is Stupid

Gaborik should NOT be the captain! He's lazy, whiny, and only seems to play hard when he feels like it/plays on a line with his friends. The theory is that wearing the "C" will give Gaborik extra confidence. Really? If that's true, I don't think that's a good reason to give someone the "C". The best player on the team is not necessarily the best leader. The reason the team has to consider keeping Demitra this summer and run the risk of losing Bouchard is to keep Gaborik happy in the hopes that he will continue to play in Minnesota. Maybe I'm just angry with Gaborik about his comments during the All-Star Break, or maybe I've just really never liked him all that much. Whatever it is, I'm extremely displeased to see him get the "C", especially THIS month of all months. The one that when we make the playoffs, means they get to remain captain throughout the playoffs. A tradition started with Brad Bombardir, then Mark Parrish, both of whom are AWESOME. Long story short, I'm sure Jacques Lemaire knows far more about hockey than I do, but that doesn't stop me from being furious about his selection.

Anyways, the Wild won 3-2 last night on goals from Koivu, Burns, and Veilleux all had goals for the Wild. I got to watch the last 8 minutes of the game due to other commitments (too many early starts. Stupid East Coast bias.) , but Elise (18,568 Reasons Why...)kindly kept me updated. Thanks! I started to get really scared that they were going to blow the game and I was going to have to kill someone. Especially during the last three or so minutes when Backstrom had far too much to do. I flipped my calendar page today, and who should be there wearing the Captain's C? MARK PARRISH! WHOO!

Around the NHL:

• Montreal kicked some serious butt last night! Good for them! I'm not a fan of banana slugs, so it made me happy.
• Both Vancouver AND Calgary lost last night.
• Joe Sakic seems super excited that Adam Foote is back.

Next game: LA Kings on Sunday at the X. The Kings had a tough 5-4 loss to the Oilers the other day, so they might be out for blood. Ckim informed me that several members of the team went back to the minors to compete in the playoffs there. They are my adopted west coast team, so I will definitely be making time to watch this game, and it will be much easier since it's on a Sunday. Game is on 6 PM CT (4 PT) on FSN in MN, and I don't know what in SoCal. I'm looking forward to the game, and I'm sure kms2 of Purple Crushed Velvet, and Ckim of A Queen Among Kings are as well. RudyKelly, the Kings correspondent for Battle of California, will probably have something up as well.