Tucker is a douche

There's a little karma for you

Wow. I had to check up on the Avs game because as you all know, Joe Sakic is a LoLaH favorite. Instead of reading about how godly Mr. Sakic is, I get to read about how douchey Darcy Tucker is. I hate it that players like Tucker, Avery, and (as much as I hate to admit it sometimes) Raffi Torres take away from the game. They take away from its beauty with their crap. Cheap shots and disrespect. It's one thing to trash talk, but it's another to make threats and purposefully hurt people. That's not only disrepectful to the game, it's disrespectful to fellow men.

Elise has a write up about the incident, and the ever awesome Jibblescribbits does too. Check it out.

Tonight we play the Canucks. They have Willie Mitchell who used to be awesome, but now not so much. He's another one *coughParrishcough* that we maybe should have kept around. Shut up, he was awesome back in the day, ok? He couldn't fight, but whatever. He was still awesome. Alix will probably say a few words about the game, and I have several other Canucks bloggers on the blog roll. Check 'em out.

PS, did everyone see the AWESOMENESS THAT IS MARK PARRISH GETTING A HATTRICK? What now, DR? I hope you saw too.

I'm number 1 in the Wildbloggers fantasy hockey league this week! Whoo!

Fantasy Hockey

Nick in New York (Hitting the Post) has set up a fantasy hockey league to pit the bloggers against the readers. We have five people, but we need at least one more to draft since we need an even number! Anyone interested should click here and send him an email.

Oilers vs. Wild!

The Oilers are clearly ready to bring it on!

Since I love the Oilers so much, they get their very own post for pregame.

We've beaten them a lot in the last 18 or so games, but that doesn't really mean anything, because they slaughtered the Shames 5-0 the other day. (We're not going to talk about the BoA that happened in between, thank you.) The Oilers seem to randomly steamroll teams, and the refs seem to randomly disallow goals and call penalties. Earl Sleek mentions karma like that again in his latest post.

We should not go to a shootout with this team, or even overtime, because the odds are heavily in their favor, and hopefully the Wild will not do their "let's play at the level of the team we are playing" thing.

I have absolutely no idea who will be in goal tonight, but if anyone knows, please tell me, as I need to know for my fantasy team. Russo might have it up later.

The Oilogosphere is always informative. The boys at Covered in Oil might have something up, and even if they don't you should read their blog any way. Andy Grabia over at Battle of Alberta will for sure put something up, and you should definitely read his blog too. If I'm lucky he'll have a game thread up. Basically there are a lot of good Oilers bloggers out there. The Hot Oil ladies have the scoop on young Sam Gagner...

There are also many quality Wild blogs, and if you want a Wild game day thread, check either Russo's Rants, or there will be one on the Wild.com Boards.

Game will be on at 8 CT on FSN.

Two Wins, Fame, Fortune, and Schwag.

He doesn't look like a hero, but he's been tearing it up lately. What a goober. I have an even better picture of him on Facebook...sticking his tongue out at the Oilers.

The Wild had a good weekend to make up for their not so good week.

First off they had a 3-4 OT win over the "struggling" as we were reminded a million and two times, Isles. I felt that should have been a regulation win, but at least they didn't lose. It was fantasy goalie vs. fantasy goalie for me, so I was rather hoping that the Wild were not going to score 8 goals.

Today's game against the Blues was way more exciting than it needed to be, and had an unlikely hero. Who ever thought that Brent Burns of all people would be chosen for a shootout? Not me, that's for sure, but I take it back since he got the game winner. Demitra also had one in the shootout, and Gaborik had one in regulation. Kariya (GROSS) scored for the Blues making the final score 2-1 Minnesota. The Wild have now started a new Streak of Awesomeness, though Koivu has broken his by failing to score in the shootout.

I am famous! I submitted an entry to Teebz's blog, Hockey Blog in Canada, and am co-winner! I probably wouldn't have won if he hadn't decided to reward all that entered, as Ckim's entry was fantastic. Essay writing has never been my strong point, but I gave it a whirl and was rewarded. I'm going to be getting some schwag in the mail, and I absolutely can't wait to see what it is. He has my essay posted in it's entirity on his blog, and an excellent post about Hockey Day in Canada, which he attended in person. Check it out. I expect ESPN will be in touch with me any day now to write for them...

League notes:

• Zednik got cut in the throat with a skate. It looks like he will be ok, but it's scary all the same.
• Parrish is back from being concussed
• Ducks beat Detroit. I didn't see that one coming, either.
• LA won in a shootout.

Russo wrote a nice piece about Wes Walz today. You can go to the Star Tribune website and read it online.

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!

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.

Be careful what you wish for I guess

So remember in my last post how I complained that there was no Wild hockey? Now that there is, I sort of wish there wasn't. Why do we have to suck right now? Isn't it bad enough that ALL of my fantasy teams sucked last week? I have different players on all of them! What's wrong???

Avs: Paul Statsny has been billed as a possible Sakic Jr. and now I know why. He had a pair of goals against us Sunday night. Sakic only picked up an assist. Peter Statsny, Paul's father, was a mentor to Sakic way back in the day, and now Sakic is returning the favor by teaching his son all he knows about Wild killing.

Shames: My boy Koivu (who I just picked up for my struggling fantasy team) had a pair of goals, actually the only goals against the Shames. I was busy and missed most of the game, but it sounds like they played like crap the entire time, not just the part I saw, so I clearly didn't miss much. Husileus had a very late goal to end it.

Hopefully the boys newly in red will find a way to stop the bleeding. This isn't that pirate joke where the captain says "bring me my red shirt" but why Captain? " so that the crew will not see me bleed and have fear for me". If you guys don't start playing better, I'm going to need someone to bring me my brown pants. Bonus points for anyone who knows that joke!

On a final note, Avery and Tucker were both fined for their actions on Saturday night.
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=222807&hubname=nhl

Wild, Wild Northwest

Except it's not so Wild right now since we have lost three in a row to division rivals. Ooops. They really need to stop that if they want to make the playoffs. Kind of like the Twins absolutely sucked against division rivals this past season and therefore didn't make it. In order to stay on top of the division, it is necessary to grind the division into pulp and make them feel bad themselves. Clearly that is a lesson that still needs to be learned in Minnesota.

Last night's loss to Colorado disappointed me. Sure we may have been without our number one goalie, and Gaborik and his "special friend", but that doesn't mean our entire team should fall apart. In fact, the Wild had been doing quite well scoring without the help of Demitra and Gaborik. Harding is a competent goalie on his way to proving he can be a number one.

Whatever, we lost 3-1 to Joe Sakic and Ryan Smyth. Smyth had a goal and an assist, and Sakic had a pair of assists. Wolski added an insurance goal late in the game, and my fantasy team did well overall because of this. I had 7-8 players playing in that game. 7 normally, 8 if you count Backstrom who didn't actually play.

On a side note, I hear Grapes called Jagr out for whining about missing Nylander. If anyone finds the video clip of that, I'd be much obliged. Maybe I'll check and see if Antti over on the Wild.com boards has it up.

Also, go Oilers! Yay for beating the Ducks in a SO and making Giguere sulk. He's quite the poor sport about losing. It makes me giggle. Props to Gagner and Hemsky for getting goals in the SO.

Tomorrow night we play the Pens at 6 PM CST and 4 PM Pacific time. It's on VS, which is a channel the school actually gets, so I'll be watching the game on TV with Dillon, who is a Pens fan. He doesn't get as mean as I do about the other teams when we are playing them, so it will be interesting to see how shocked he gets. Something may be up about the game at some point over at No Pun Intended (see sidebar) from the Pens perspective. The Pens recently lost to both the Leafs and Habs, so they might be irritated about that, but the Wild have just lost three in a row to division rivals, so they had better be pissed about that. May the most pissed off team win!

HLOG Suckitude Fantasy Draft

Shit. I forgot to do the HLOG suckitude league draft/had other reasons not to be around for it, and I pretty much got a fantasy dream team. Unfortunately that was the opposite of what I was trying to achieve.
This is what Autodraft gave me:

Team Non-Domination
Round Pick Player Position
1.) 8 Dany Heatley RW
2.) 9 Roberto Luongo G
3.) 24 Evgeni Malkin LW
4.) 25 Alexander Ovechkin LW
5.) 40 Jaromir Jagr RW
6.) 41 Jason Spezza C
7.) 56 Vincent Lecavalier C
8.) 57 Dominik Hasek G
9.) 72 Chris Pronger D
10.) 73 Ryan Whitney D
11.) 88 Henrik Lundqvist G
12.) 89 Dan Boyle D
13.) 104 Philippe Boucher D

Whoops. My first matchup appears to be against HG. My money's on her.

Fantasy Hockey

So the HLOG league I'm in drafted today. Here is who I got:
C-Joe Sakic
C-Chris Drury
LW-Rick Nash
LW-Wojtek Wolski
LW-Clarke MacArthur
RW-Brian Gionta
RW-Ales Hemsky
RW-Brian Rolston
D-Niklas Lidstrom
D-Zdeno Chara
D-Brett Clark
D-Mike Commodore
D-Tom Poti
G-Niklas Backstrom
G-Vesa Toskala
G-Josh Harding
I'm pretty stoked about Lidstrom especially. I couldn't decide what do to about Niedermayer. I didn't want to get screwed over, so in the end I decided against him. MacArthur is finally getting to play with the big club. I love his style and have followed him since his junior days, so I really hope he does well. Sakic will hopefully continue to be ageless, and I'm hoping for a repeat performance from Backstrom. Should be a decent team, I'll have to see. I'm up against Sherry this week, and she has Spezza, Alfredsson, is a hoser and took Boyle, and has my boy Parise.