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!

All-Star Randomness

I watched the entire All-Star game, but I'm just going to give one of my usual random game reviews on it.

Rick Nash had hat trick! He looked so happy, how did he not become the MVP of the game? It worked for Sakic in 2004.

Joe Thornton kind of looked at the camera and then went back to hearing his name announced. No smile, nothing, just kind of a curious look.

I got my hockey hating RA from Kansas to watch the first period of the game with me.

For an All-Star game it was pretty exciting. The West coming back to lead for .5 seconds was awesome, but the fact that the East won in the last 20 seconds was much less awesome.

There were some random dudes who came in and demanded that I explain hockey to them when I was trying to pay attention to things like interviews...or you know the game. For self-proclaimed sports buffs, they are really clueless.

Scott "I am really not a team player" Niedermayer had a goal. I started to be happy, then checked myself.

I missed seeing Joe Sakic at the All-Star game. I voted every day for him faithfully until they announced that he would be out for three months. This whole injury thing is making me a sad panda.

Super Skills-unfortunately I didn't get to watch the Super Skills competition as I was in and out all day taking care of things that I really should have been doing all week. I hear Marian Gaborik got cheated in the shootout creativity contest, and that Pronger fell on his face. Gaborik is on my list of people that should watch themselves for his disinterest in re-signing with Minnesota, and Pronger, well we all know how I feel about FCP.

Tomorrow: we play the Ducks at the Xcel Energy Center at 6 CST. (That's 4 PST to you Ducks fans/Minnesotans stuck on the West Coast.) Like always, it should be a good game. I'm a bit swamped right now, but since I don't have class on Thursdays, I will possibly write a real post then.

**EDIT** Go over and see Earl Sleek at Battle of California and read his Wild/Ducks gameday post. I don't like the actual prediction for tonight's game, but read the rest of what he has to say because he talks about karma and how we are due. It's an excellent post overall.

Chris Pronger interupts Corey Perry Interview; Falls

Hilarious. This absolutely makes the All-Star weekend for me.

Hey Look, They Listened!

The Wild beat the Avs tonight with a nice 3-2 win. Clearly injuires are taking their toll on the struggling Avs squad with the loss of Sakic, Smyth, and um, someone else important whose name is escaping me. Statsny maybe? Get better soon please, Joe Sakic, because if my arm continues to kill me, I'll be going home for spring break, and I want to see you play.

I was surprised to see that Backstrom was going to be in net, and about 10 minutes before gametime I found out and madly made some fantasy roster changes. He got me a nice W tonight, so a few past transgressions are forgiven. Parrish was still out with his foot troubles, and Boogaard's back appears to be acting up again.

The feed sketched out on me, so I relied on friends and what I could get of the feed to help me figure out what was going on. Goals by Fedoruk (I know, I was shocked too), Rolston, and Demitra for the Wild. Bruno *sigh* and Wolski (woot!) had goals for the Avs. I really, really wish Andrew Brunette had been signed by the Wild, but as much as I hate to say it, I don't know if he would have the same success with us as he has had with the Avs these past few years.

The Oilers won thanks to Jarret Stoll's two goals. That's what you get, Janessa.

I'm not sure I'll be able to watch the All-Star stuff on Saturday, but Sunday I've got the TV reserved. I'm still mad about the line-ups, but what can you do? Niedermayer played MAYBE 15 games and got added to the roster. Dude must have the ear of the Hockey Gods.

There were lots of games tonight, New York got a win for Brian Leetch night, Montreal made Marty Brodeur mad I'm sure, since he's so proud of how well he always does against them, and there is a game in progress that I will madly gloat about, but not now, I don't want to name it or say anything else for fear of cursing it.

More tomorrow...maybe.

Boo, Shames!

That game blew chunks. Massive ones the size of Joe Thornton's butt. The Wild even played decently against the Flames, something they seem to only rarely do (especially in the Saddledome). Usually the Wild are stellar on the second game of back to back games, but noooooo. Iginla was held scoreless, but sadly his teammates were not. Rolston has continued his now two game goal streak to get the media and a few fans off his back. Parrish didn't play because of a Salo shot to the foot (not broken), and Harding was solid. Burns had a goal that got reviewed and called off, and I had a heart attack when the school cut me off for using too much internet. That's pretty much all the game summary that I feel like writing.

Around the Blogosphere: I have been reading some new blogs lately, ones written by fans of teams that I usually hate quite a lot, but these blogs are fun and well written, and they make me feel badly about hating on their teams...until we play said teams. The Untypical Girls (Dallas) have switched to wordpress, the Humming Giraffe (Van) has the greatest picture of wildlife that I will ever see, and two of my HLOG sisters have created a NYR blog, Some Like it Blue. If you are procrastinating for any reason ( I don't judge, until this semester I procrastinated regularly), then you should check these and the many other quality blogs on my blogroll out. As always, if you have a blog you'd like added, email me.

Next game: The Colorado Avalanche on Thursday at 8 CST on KSTC. I'm bumming that Joe Sakic is out, because he is one of the main reasons that I enjoy Wild/Avs games so much. The Avs have suffered a lot of injuries lately, and have been in a bit of a slide because of it. Hopefully the boys will be all ready to go after coming off that tough loss to Calgary. This will be the last Wild game before the All-Star break, then they have a few days off before facing the Ducks. (ew)

espn commercial

Another reason that the NHL should be on ESPN.

Mikko Koivu Gets Revenge

Photo Courtesy of the Canadian Press

Clearly MK was taught the phrase "don't get mad, get even". Or maybe he wasn't. I don't know if they say that in Finland. His revenge against the Canucks game in the form of the GWG, and also a rather obnoxious goal celebration. What would have made the night even better is if he had beaten on the Sedins a little more, but I'll take a win. I think this means that Mikko Koivu can officially become my second favorite Wild player. He likes pancakes, revenge, pranks, loud music, seems to be reasonably intelligent, good hockey player, and he's Scandinavian. I hear those Scandinavian types are pretty effing cool.

In addition to the revenge, we had Pierre-Marc Bouchard rocking the taco. He had two goals and two assists to be a +3 overall on the night. Butch has been on fire lately, and last night he notched his 200th point in a Wild uniform, becoming only the second Wild player to do so. Marian Gaborik was the first. Brian Rolston snapped his scoring drought. He hadn't gotten a goal since December 29th. Overall it was a good night. The game was fun to watch, but I am sad that the Vancouver feed didn't show Koivu's celebration as well as the Minnesota one did.

Random notes:

My fantasy team cleaned up last night putting me up 8-0 for the beginning of the week.

It's weird being on the other end of the time spectrum. When I lived at home, I'd always hate West Coast games because they were so late, now I love them because the game isn't on during the dinner hour or when I'm still trying to do things.

The Wild are now first in the Northwest division. Hopefully a win tonight over Calgary will help us hold onto that title...hint hint, Hockey Gods.

Leafs GM John Ferguson was fired this morning. TSN has lots more on that story, and they will be having a video clip on the press conference later today. We all knew this was coming, it was just a matter of time. According to Cliff Fletcher, the interim GM, Maurice and his assistant coache's jobs are all all safe for the remainder of the season. The search for a new GM is on.

Tonight's matchup: The hated Calgary Flames. Hopefully we can get Burns to steamroll Iginla so he will stop owning the Wild. Game is on at 8 PM CST on FSN looks like.