OLYMPICS!!!

If you couldn't tell by the title, I'm pretty excited about the Olympics. (To clarify, the Olympic Games. My internship advisor is a forester and thought I meant the coastal mountain range in Washington state, but those mountains/rainforest are full of banana slugs and non-stop rain in the winter, so no.)

I have to admit, I've spent a lot more time doing homework and studying for midterms than I have watching the Olympics, but I've made time to watch all of the men's Canadian hockey games, and some of the others as time allows. By far the best hockey day was Sunday, or as my friends back home called it, "hate day". In Oregon we can't use words like that, so I called it "rivalry day" while explaining the finer points/major points of hockey to the revolving door of people who watched with me.

Stream of consciousness:

-I really enjoyed the U.S./Canada game...even if I did not enjoy the outcome.

-Thus far I have managed to get my roommate on the path to addiction to hockey, and have gotten the majority of my good friends out here to stop making fun of me for liking hockey

-I'm a little disappointed that it's pretty much a three team competition.

-Less than excited for the Russia/Canada match today, mostly because I have to write at least 5 pages during it

-Ski jumping seems like a really bad idea on so many levels

-People who do not come from a wintery place do not appreciate just how little there can be to do in the wintertime outside. They are not very kind to the more obscure winter sports

-The biathlon is really cool

-Sidney Crosby needs to stop looking like a petulant child every time the camera is on him.

-Professors do not accept the Olympics as a reason to extend deadlines.

-The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, however; does accept the Olympics as a legitimate reason to move a deadline.

-Google Calendar and iCal are friends, and this is extremely useful.

-It still freaks me out when there are flowers and trees blooming before Valentine's Day.

-Canadians do not seem to judge what medals they get, as long as they win. Case in point: my Canadian friends were all quite excited that the Canadian pair won gold for ice dancing.

-Caribou Coffee still REALLY needs to have a location west of Denver. Preferably in Salem.

-Canada should focus less on curbstomping teams they know they can beat, and more on beating Russia and the U.S.

Hope everyone is enjoying the Olympics and watching something new and interesting. Soon I'll probably write something pertaining to an actual Minnesota team. At this point, the Twins as well as the Wild are fair game, because BASEBALL SEASON IS STARTING SOON!

Summer updates

First of all, I'm sorry I have failed and disappeared. First school was crazy, then I accepted a job with the DNR in northern MN, and the internet is hard to find up here. BUT, I did take up golfing while up here, and I'm getting a good tan, so it's not all bad.

Second, I'm pleased that we got Havlat...I think. I'm hoping he stays healthy for us. He Twitters, so he can't be THAT uncool, right? (I got sucked into Twitter. It's more fun than I thought it would be...)

Third, the Twins are picking it up? They blew it yesterday, but I'm hoping that was a fluke. Someone just mailed me a crapton of Twins baseball cards from the mid 80's to present, so if anyone wants a baseball card, give me a player name and I might be able to help you out. I have a lot of random ones including a bunch of Kirby Puckett.

All of you should read Gillies' diary on Wild.com about the prospect camp because it's really funny. He's definitely my new favorite player on the team, and even though I think he's awesome, I think going to the AHL for a bit would really help him out. Playing will help his development more than sitting.

Lastly, Ron Schara is awesome and gives the DNR love. Dennis Anderson...not so much. Moral of the story: Ron Schara is clearly much cooler.

If anyone is headed up north, I can easily get you a fishing report and maybe even think up something fun for you to do if you are looking for ways to have fun without spending a ton of money. Working for the DNR seems to require you to not only know things about nature, but also about the local tourism industry.

Updates

Lake Natomas, where I'll be. Not my crew, btw. We have crimson oars with a gold stripe on the end of the blade.

Well then. I haven't posted in a while, because I really haven't had a lot to say, also no time to say it.
Uninspired play by the Wild? Check.
Professors trying to kill me? Check.
Mini mental meltdown? Check.
Going to Cali to row next week? Check.
Trying to find a way to make hippies do useful work? Check.



Maybe that's why I haven't had time to post. Sorry guys.



Anyways, the WCHA Final Five is this weekend, so that's exciting, I'm sure I'll recieve many text updates about that, and I'm pretty stoked. I have to get a lot of things done before I leave for California for the week, so I probably won't have to much time to follow the tourney on my own, but it should be good. Many bets have already been placed.



I'm ready for baseball season. If only the Twins were opening in Seattle instead of the other way around...that would be sick. This Twins season is going to own. OWN.



All I have to say about the Wild is they had better win tonight, because co'mon. The Avs have been horrible this season. On that note, pleased Hockey Gods bring Joe Sakic back. He's too cool to leave.

I just thought I'd write to say...

Dear Captain Koivu,
That C looks awfully good on your chest. I agree with you. You should be the captain permanently. Congrats on being named two months in a row! Now you can be a cool kid like Bomber. Keep up the good work, and remember, I'm pulling for you, we're all in this together. Points to anyone who can tell me what that's from...
Stoically,
Kirsten

Dear Shep,
I know you've been having a rough start to your season, and you are probably starting to think that coach is going to kill you. Well, from my experience with coaches, he probably is, but that's beside the point. There seems to be a sophomore curse on the league. Toews has had a slow start, Sam Gagner is invisible, and Matt Niskanen is having some struggles against every team not from his home state. Even I had a rough start to my semester, so I can sypathize. Don't give up, and please teach Josh Harding right from left so he can learn to play the guitar.
In solidarity,
Kirsten

Dear Goober,
Please beg the coaching staff to keep you at defence. You as a forward brings back memories of your first year in the league, and it's just better for my overall mental health if that doesn't happen.
kthx,
Kirsten

Dear Baby Walz,
Even though no one seems to show you any love yet, I still think you are like Wes Walz, so therefore according to the casual poll I've taken of MN hockey fans *by wearing a Walz sweater/having someone else wear it and letting the compliments on the sweater pour in*, someday they will show you great love. It just might take a while. Hopefully Coach Lemaire will let you live long enough to find out. PS, I'd learn to sleep with one eye open if I were you and living with Brent Burns.
Optomistically,
Kirsten

Dear Justin Morneau,
I really hope you win the MVP title. You are MVP of the team and of Joe Mauer's heart, but there's nothing wrong with winning even more trophies, right? Maybe Wayne Gretzky will send you something cool this time around.
Hopefully,
Kirsten

Just like the good old days...almost

This new crop of awesome players reminds me of back in the day when I had like 8 favorite players. Bomber, Walz, Wiemer, Mitchell, Roloson, Bruno, Johnson, and Dupuis. Those were the days. The playoff run, the skills competition, the general good times before I knew we could be better. The Twins were legitimately bomb and had a lot of players I really liked too. The same thing has happened, I miss my old crew, but I've got a new one. Clearly I just have a pattern that I follow with fanship.

For a while most of my favorite players left frequently, and I was hard pressed to find ones that I liked. Walz (obvi) and Parrish filled in nicely, but beyond that I struggled a little bit. The same thing happened with the Twins. When Koskie left, I was heart broken. One by one my boys started leaving me, and I didn't know what to do. To cheer me up, my mom suggested that Justin Morneau might be a good replacement for Koskie, and it went from there.

Now there is a new group of players for me to do the same thing with. Burns, Bouchard, Koivu, Harding, Backstrom, Foster, Bruno (he's back!), Shep, and maybe Gillies (if he turns out to be as Walz like as promised). Burns and Bouchard were here before, but they were just young'uns and I had not yet seen their potential. Now they have grown into their potential and can join the magic circle.

The Twins example goes as follows. Old school: Koskie, Jones, Bradke, AJ (before he became quite so douchey), Eddie G (he's back!) , Silva, and Lew Ford. They were my boys.

In the middle there was Tyner and assorted others who did not stick around.

Now I've got : Redmond, Cuddyer, Morneau, Slowey, Blackburn, Span, Punto, sometimes Harris, and I'm keeping my eye on Buscher.

I miss the good old days with the Twins and Wild, but at the same time, both teams are now infinitely more talented than they were back in the day, so maybe it's good to move on and just remember back in the day fondly. The best part of all this is, Eddie and Bruno are back, though I'm hoping Bruno's return will go better.

Sorry for the nostalgia, I just thought about this today and thought I'd quit slacking off and write a little bit.

Quick update

I'll add more later, but I just wanted to say good job to the Twins fans out there. Justin Morneau is one of the six finalists for the Man of the Year award, and now his fellow players will vote to see who they think deserves the award.

I have a huge pile of Twins/Wild news to catch up on, as well as a couple of copies of the Hockey News. At least I'm not behind in school, right?

MVP! MVP!

So when I went on the Twins website to look up the starting pitcher for tonight (shut up, I still don't know the rotation since the All-Star Break...I just know that Blackburn and Slowey are the last two.), I saw an article about Justin Morneau maybe getting another MVP. Of course I had to stop everything and read. Basically it talks about how he's got another long shot at becoming the AL MVP. That's what they said in 2006, too. The article is here.

As always I'm pulling for him, and I will show my support of his MVP bid on Facebook. He hasn't had a million home runs this season, but he's been consistent and clutch. This team would be in trouble without him.

Also, Morneau has been nominated for the Man of the Year award. You can vote for him here.

The Twins source of greatness is all in the hair

So I thought about this the other day. The two best players on our team can clearly trace their awesome karma to their sideburns and curls. Next, I had a great idea of what I wanted to do with Paint, but unfortunately Paint and Flickr have conspired against me tonight to not let me use their pictures, OR scribble all over said pictures with lime green. Life is sad.

Justin Morneau used to have golden curls, the kind that make old ladies try to pinch your cheeks and tell you what a handsome young man you are(or youngster, since that seems to be Bert's new word). In fact, that's probably the actual reason he cut them off. (Much to the sorrow of the female portion of Twins Territory)

Taken just before he cut off his curls and became the MVP with some prodding from Gardy.

Justin Morneau is too good for hair, and he doesn't care if he looks like a monkey while hitting 500 Moose Antler (Courtesy of Bat-Girl) home runs over the fences.

Because I can. He just wishes he could grow facial hair. Unfortunately he still tries. It'd be so much manlier if he didn't try, if he just let everyone think he doesn't CHOOSE to grow facial hair.

The above picture leads me into my next subject.

Joe Mauer's sideburns. He's never shaved them off that we know of...but like Elise said, if he did, his career would probably be over. Are these sideburns in the making? Hard to tell.

This being said, much as I hate to admit it, Joe Mauer has never been brutal. He has always hit consistantly well, even if he's not swinging for the fences like his former roommate. Clearly it's all in the sideburns. Or maybe it's really the confused look? Either way, Joe Mauer's sideburns are clearly somehow powerful. Even Joe Mauerasaurus has them. You don't get to be the batting champ without something helping you out.

So basically if Joe Mauer didn't have awesome sideburns and Justin Morneau hadn't cut off his curls, the Twins would probably be losing an awful lot more than they already are.

You guys should click on all the words that you can, because those are the best pictures yet.

Also, did you know that Kevin Slowey had better than a 1400 on his SAT's? That's back in the old days when they were out of 1600.

Favorite player update:

Thank you all for your suggestions, they will be taken under careful consideration. I'm still accepting reasons to choose one player over another, up until such time as I make an official decision and announcement.

Please note: Marian Gaborik is not an acceptable suggestion for any reason. Also, if it helps, my three favorite players have been Brad Bombardir, Wes Walz, and Mark Parrish.

Elise must have listened to the conference call thingie with Shep and Bruno, so I'll refer you to her if you want to get a quick summary.

Pitching!

The Twins have AWESOME pitching. Baby Bradke (Kevin Slowey) had a complete game shutout in his last start, and now Hot Mauer (Nick Blackburn) pitched 7 shutout innings giving up only three hits. Slowey also gave up just three hits. Baker has been pitching sort of well, and he was good the other day. Boof got demoted to the bullpen. Hernandez got roughed up the other day, but usually he has pretty good run support. For some reason I almost NEVER see Perkins pitch. Anyone know if that's a good or bad thing?

Monroe: A lot of people are down on him, and his number aren't great, but I like him a lot. He's been great off the bench, and the Twins are 7-0 in games where he gets a homerun. He hits a lot of homeruns with people on the bases, only adding to his awesomeness.

Stupid Red Sox fans outvoted Twins fans in support of Justin Morneau. Apparently the power of the sideburns has extended to the east coast, though, because he was winning the All-Star race the last time I checked. It might have something to do with the fact that I can't name the Red Sox catcher, but I can name most of the rest of the team. Mauer just got lucky. (No, I'm not at all bitter about Morneau not being a starter.)

Reasons I like baseball

Before I only watched baseball in the summer, but this spring the playoffs made me mad, so I watched a lot more baseball. I'm really starting to like the game a lot more now. (Minus Carlos Gomez) The Twins have been super up and down this season, but whatever. In my never ending quest (similar to Margee's football quest about football) to get people to not think baseball is boring, I present to you some reasons I like baseball.

1.) There is nothing better than sitting outside in the sunshine on a nice afternoon stuffing your face and watching a game. I like watching the Saints, and soon the Twins for this reason. For those of you over 18, 19, or 21, I hear sitting around knocking back a cold one is a good perk also.

2.) TWINGO, cotton candy, and yelling, are three of my favorite reasons to go to the Dome. Sadly I was one play away from getting TWINGO before all the prizes were handed out, but it's fun anyway. I also enjoy getting a scorecard and doodling all over it. My friend Matt FREAKED out when he left his scorecard for me to mind while he got up for a sec, and was extremely upset to find that I had doodled all over it. He takes his scorekeeping very seriously.

3.) You don't have to freak out if your team loses a game. With 162 games in a season, you can kick back, relax, and just enjoy the game at hand. Watching the division leaders change every week is fun too. Especially if you are a fan in the central division.

4.) Dick and Bert. Dick and Bert are like the Twins version of Tom and Bob. Tom and Bert are both colorful pranksters, and Bob and Dick both know tons about their respective sports and remain reasonably unbiased. Bert circles people and counts down to his birthday while telling stories about how he likes to light stuff on fire.

5.) You can leave and come back, and in three highlights, you're all caught up. It's fantastic. Equally fantastic are the highlights that they show. Awesome catches, sweet hits, outfielders from the other team running into each other, it's hard to pick just one usually.

6.) Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer, Mike Redmond, Kevin Slowey, Chipper Jones, Raul Ibanez (I think his name is funny), Bradke, Corey Koskie, Matt Guerrier, all my favorite players. I like them because they entertain me, give back to their communities, smash things, and make awesome plays. It's like my favorite hockey players only less sweaty. Smell those hits!

7.) Twins fans. I love that anywhere I go in Minnesota I can sit around and talk about the Twins with random people. The kids I teach all tell me who their favorite players are (usually Joe Mauer), random dudes in Twins hats chat about last night's game with me. It seems to be a Minnesota thing.

8.) Making fun of Joe Mauer. It's just SO easy and entertaining. He runs like he has a pole shoved up his butt, sits around with his mouth hanging open, and his really unfortunate hair.

9.) The Twins commercials are SO MUCH BETTER than the Wild commercials. If you don't believe me, you can either go to the Twins website or YouTube some of them. Hilarious.

10.) Summer is lazy, baseball is lazy...it doesn't require nearly as much energy to watch, which suits me just fine in the summer time.

Why do YOU like baseball?

Baby Hockey Jesus 2; Sidney Crosby 0

I wonder if this is the Untypical Girls at work. In their original post about Baby Hockey Jesus, Sidney Crosby was the sacrifice. I'm thinking that this is Baby Hockey Jesus collecting on that offering. Thank you Baby Hockey Jesus for your brilliant timing.

Meanwhile over at No Pun Intended, Elly is attempting to make herself feel better with Knob Hockey and alcohol, and I'm sure Steph is off somewhere gloating about the 2-0 lead and the fact that the Twins got owned 19-3 over the weekend. I really, really don't want to talk about it, Steph. The game tonight will be telling. If the Pens lose at home, they are screwed. Obvi, right? If they can't win on the road, and they can't win at home, I guess they would not win anywhere and therefore get swept, but sometimes I need to lay things out so that I can understand.

In keeping with my theme, right now it seems to be Baseball Gods Five bajillion; Minnesota Twins -.500

The Twins fans are complaining about a lack of power, but I really think they need to be complaining about the fact that our bullpen kind of sucks, and so does the fielding of certain players. *coughyoungcough* Other stupid people are complaining about the fact that Justin Morneau isn't playing as well as he should be, but really, he's been hitting pretty consistantly, getting plenty of RBIs, and he seems to be pretty capable of catching the ball. On top of that, he is not arbitrarily deciding when he will and will not play. Gomez, I've got news for you amigo, you are a rookie and in hot water for some of your fielding decisions. You should not be trying to tell Ron Gardenhire what you feel like doing, because judging by his umpire wars, he's not afraid to tell you what HE feels like doing. Think Red Foreman.

Joe Mauer may not be playing long ball (I wonder if that will hurt his fan club, as the ladies love the long ball), but he's getting on base, and in these times of barely .500 baseball, every little bit helps. That being said, he does not have ANY homeruns this season, and even Everett has one. Really, Joe? I have often wondered why Gardy doesn't have him hitting 1 or 2 instead of 3, but like I said before, I don't think it's wise to tell him how to run his baseball club/he knows more about baseball than I ever will. Cuddyer is doing the best he can, and I admit, he's had some struggles at the plate with just one homerun, but he's been making up for it on the field, and seems to be providing veteran leadership in the clubhouse and helping to keep things loose and fun. Besides, he has not run into a wall and broken his throwing hand, nor has he made an error in judgement that cause the opposing team to tie up the game in the 9th inning when the game was 3-0. I'm looking at you Gomez and Young.

We have a completely different infield for the most part, and I think they are still doing some shuffling around trying to see who fits best where. The fact that they are all getting injured is really hurting the team. The AAA club was getting really annoyed with the fact that they had no players left in the infield because the Twins had called them all up.

Lastly, the bullpen has not been stellar. Jesse Crain has been brutal this season, and I freak out every time he is put in the game, especially since he has been in towards the end of the game a lot. This does not give the team time to recover from him WALKING IN RUNS, SOMETIMES MULTIPLE RUNS IN AN INNING. Juan Rincon is totally off his game this season, though he's not anywhere near as bad as Jesse Crain. I only cringe a little bit when he's put in. I usually figure we just lost the game when Crain is put in. Joe Nathan was mad at Delmon Young last night, but he gave up a bunch of hits to allow all of those people on the bases, so he should be more forgiving and doing some apologizing of his own to Mr. Nick Blackburn. Blackburn has been pretty good for us this year, and he pitched really well for 8 and 1/3 innings last night. Mega shout-out to him, even if he does look alarmingly like Joe Mauer when he has a ball cap on.

If you made it all the way through that post that you thought was about hockey but was really about baseball, good job, and Go Twins!

Summer break

Taken off Sand Island in the Apostle Islands

This is just a note to say that if I'm not around much, it's because I have a summer internship 40 hours a week, a job soon, and then whatever else comes up. My summers tend to be kind of spontaneous.

I will be at the Wild Road Tour final stop in Rice Park on June 12th. I'm bummed that Mark Parrish won't be there this season, but he's probably chained to his house changing diapers right now to pay his wife back for all of the road trips of the season. Everyone should come, it's a really fun event, and the best part might be watching the players play street hockey with five year olds.

I will also be at the Minnesota Twins Autograph Party on June 21st. You will probably find me in line to see Kevin Slowey, Bert Blyleven, or Justin Morneau. The event costs $30, but all the proceeds go to charity. You can collect all the autographs you can get, as long as you aren't in Joe Mauer's line, in which case you will get like three total. I would recommend getting your ticket early if you are going, because they sell out every year.

I'm still cheering for the Red Wings in the finals. I'm predicting this series will either be a five game massacre for the Wings, or a seven game battle with the Wings coming out on top. Last night seemed to point toward the four-five game annihilation with the Wings winning the game 4-0. I'm sure my friend Dillon is ignoring my gloating text right now.

Tony Granto has been re-hired as the head coach of the Avs. Jibblescribbets is really upset about this fact, and frankly I can't blame him. That's almost as horrible for the Avs as Iron Mike being hired for the Flames was. Almost.

I feel a smackdown coming!

vs.
Both of them have a bad case of "Malkin face".

So lately I've been hearing from multiple sources that they think Malkin is better than Crosby. This news makes me smile like there is no tomorrow, because I can't wait to hear what Sidney Crosby has to say about this once he hears. I bet this could get good, and I can't wait to be entertained by the fight I am envisioning ensuing. I will be horribly disappointed if Crosby is his usual, boring self and just says that it's good for the game or whatever.

The Stars are getting murdered by the Red Wings, but they showed a little bit more life last night. There was also the Ribero/Osgood incident at the end of the game, so I'm guessing some of the Wings *coughMcCartycough* might be out for blood. Specifically Ribero's blood, but I wouldn't be surprised if he went after Turco to retaliate. I wouldn't do that if I were him however, as Marty Turco strikes me as the type to fight back, and fight dirty.

Random Twins ramblings:

The Twins are currently playing the BoSox. They won the first game, dropped yesterday's game, and now have been doing pretty well thus far in the game *knock on wood*. Justin Morneau is doing much better than he was last series, and he gave a great shoutout to his mom today complete with actual smiling, a rare thing from the stoic Canadian. OOH, he's up to bat and he has a pink bat. NICE hit. He's now 3 for 3 with a hit right up the middle that practically made the pitcher piss his pants. He smashed that ball.

Joe Morgan is a good baseball announcer, but whoever he is working with NEVER, EVER shuts up. Like seriously. He knows more random facts about the Red Sox than anyone has a right to, and he seems to have a burning need to impart all of this wisdom to me in the span of this ball game. Stupid ESPN, I miss Dick'N'Bert.

Blackburn seems to have a hard time sealing the deal. He gets two strikes, then seems to try too hard or something to get the third. I still maintain he looks a bit like Joe Mauer with a hat on. Must be the sideburns and dark hair.

On an even more random note, now that the Twins are back at home, I don't have to hear them mention that they are on the South Side of Chicago every three seconds. I was starting to count how many times a game they mentioned that fact. According to Tenisha, the south side is not where you want to be.

Justin Morneau almost fell on his face he just stopped and backed up so fast. The third baseman just bobbled the ball off his nuts. The announcer made tons of excuses for him, why doesn't he do that for the Twins players? LAME I say.

Wild:

If anyone caught the interview on KFAN with Mark Parrish, I'm sorry. It was amusing when they weren't taking advantage of the fact that he's too nice to tell them all to eff off and stop asking him such rude questions. He answered all of their questions very politely, but he didn't sound happy about most of them. Unfortunately they spent a lot more time talking about the fact that he had a poor season than the fact that next year is a new season, we won the division title, and we have a lot of players who REALLY improved this season. Oh well, such is journalism I've found. Parrish sounded like he's doing a lot better after his concussion, which he said was brutal. It's really good to hear that he's feeling better, and that his little girl and wife are both doing a really well. All the best to ya Grumpy, the fans still love you, even if the media doesn't.

One last thing: Jacques Lemaire has annouced that he will be back for another season. This is good news for everyone but the opposition. I'm pleased that he's back for another season, and I'm hoping that they will play a little bit better for him this coming season. The Strib and Pioneer Press are all over this story like white on rice, so you can read more about it there or on Wild.com.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL MOTHERS EVERYWHERE!

Twins update and third round predictions

A friend of mine emailed this picture to me, and it makes me giggle.

The Twins just lost to the White Sox, allowing them to take 2 out of 3 in the first series I've been able to watch. Slowey had 4 1/2 great innings in his first outing since April 3rd. Joe Mauer did not trip over the base and eat it, but he did have a pretty good series, since every time I turned around he was on base.

Justin Morneau did not do as well as Mauer, but he advanced the runners quite a bit and made their outfield look stupid at least twice.

Redmond played yesterday and it was awesome. I love Red. Cuddy did well for himself and made several great plays in the field.

New dudes: I got to see some of the new players play, and beyond CGo hitting for the cycle yesterday, I was not really impressed. Young didn't impress me either, but I really liked Tolbert, and Harris, Everett, and Lamb seem fairly competent.

Nick Punto (is not a new dude) managed to save his own skin yesterday after making a glaring mistake at the play, he turned in a career high 5 RBIs.

Don't forget to vote for the MLB All-Star game! I always vote like mad and never watch the game, but you should still go and vote for your favorite players, or if you don't have any, my favorite players.

http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080428&content_id=2603915&vkey=allstar2008&fext=.jsp

Third Round:

Stars vs. Red Wings:

Red Wings in 6. I don't really see how the Wings will not win this series, sorry Stars fans/Matt Niskanen.

Flyers vs. Pens:

Everyone knows how much I like both of these teams, but sadly one of them has to win. The Flyers might just take the Pens apart with their imitation of the Broad Street Bullies, so I say Flyers in 7 games.

Before the weekend starts...

So I am helping to run a huge music festival on campus that will take place on Saturday. I probably won't emerge from the craziness until Monday or so, but there are a few things I wanted to make sure get addressed.

My second round picks:

Montreal vs. Philly

Montreal in 6.

I don't know if the city of Montreal can handle another game 7 right now, and this series will be tougher than I previously thought.

Pittsburgh vs. NYR

Rangers in 7

I hope to God the Rangers win. Not that I like the Blueshirts by any means, but I'm SO sick of the Penguins.

Detroit vs. Colorado

Detroit in 7

Colorado is playing pretty well right now, but I don't know if they are playing well enough to knock off Detroit. The thing Detroit should be worried about is that they are not completely steamrolling along, hence the non-sweep of the last series.

San Jose vs. Dallas

San Jose in 6

This series will be hard fought, too. Dallas seems to have recovered a bit from their pre-playoff slide, but then again they played Anaheim, who had all of two players really playing hard for them. San Jose barely won their last series, so we'll see.

Twins: Let's not lie here, I have watched most of a regular season game (the opener), and about half of a preseason game so far this season. I really don't have a clue as to what's going on, but in 11 days I will, and I promise I'll talk a bit more about them then. Anyone who would care to fill me in on what I have missed should feel free to shoot me an email, I'd be happy to read your thoughts on the season thus far.

Habs won in overtime tonight, and Detroit almost blew a 4-1 lead, but still managed to hang on for the win. Those were the only two games tonight, so I'm sure there will be a ton of games tomorrow and Saturday nights. As always, if there is a specific team you are dying to know about (or even mildly curious about), check out my blogroll. I think I have all the blogs labeled by team...

I don't really want to speculate about what will happen in the offseason, but perhaps I might ask Baby Hockey Jesus to help DR make good decisions this offseason, and to go and find his balls from wherever he left them after the Doug Gilmour trade.

I hate the Flames part 7

So everything was looking really good for a while in the game. Pouliot finally did something useful and scored a pair of goals. It all went downhill from there. Iginla had a hat trick, I fould out that Calgary has ice girls (causing me to lose respect for them), and Lombardi scored a goal at the very end of the game because Sean Hill is a bum. Johnsson had 2, count 'em TWO, goals last night. Final score: 5-4 Shames. We lost our three point lead over them obviously, which is bad since they have a game in hand.

In other news, the Oilers beat the Avs 7-5 yesterday, with my boy Sam Gagner getting a pair of goals and earning the first star of the game. Sadly Joe Sakic did not get a goal, but was named the third star of the game. AWESOME. Oilers are still rollin' and are now three points behind the Avs...I bet HF is ready to explode right about now.

Habs beat the Bruins 3-2 in a SO to complete their series sweep of the B's. Way to go Habs!

Right now I'm watching the Twins game, and Bert is wearing rabbit ears. How cool is that? Liriano is starting, but he's not looking as good as I would have hoped. Maybe he just needs a season to get his mojo back? Joe Mauer just threw someone out at second base, and Dick sounds quite amazed to have seen happen. BUUUUURN. They are playing Baltimore, btw.

The Kings beat the Stars 4-2, which is useful to the Wild, because it means that Minnesota is catching up to them in points.

The Leafs beat the Sens 5-4, even though last I heard the Sens were killing the Leafs.

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.

Baseball is coming!

Ok, so normally I don't care about baseball until hockey is done, but I'm still a little bit excited anyway for the beginning of Spring Training. Pitchers and catchers report today! I'm super depressed about the fact that we don't really have a starting rotation, and we don't have anyone to play on the left side of the field, but you know what, maybe it'll be ok. Maybe this will be the year I get circled by Bert!

PS, I used to have a Twins Territory sign up on my door, but it got lost at the end of freshman year. If anyone knows where I could get another, I'd be eternally grateful.

Justin Morneau re-signs with the Twins!

He's the one on the right, in case you didn't know.
Photo swiped from BatGirl's blog. Thanks, BG!

Our 2006 AL MVP winning first baseman is back for at least one more season, according to the Canadian Press and TSN. He's going to be making $7.4 million US for the year to hopefully bring us some more MVP numbers. What I really hope is that he doesn't play in the All-Star game again. Morneau had 28 homeruns before the break last season and three (I think) after it. I am superstitious enough that I will never vote for him again. I would love to see him signed to a long-term deal, preferably before 2010, when we have the potential to get really screwed.

Guerrier, Rincon (who I could have sworn they traded), and Cuddyer are still eligible for arbitration.