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.

Yippee! We killed the Rangers!

Shot taken of the scoreboard after the game

Take that Rangers! You are not welcome in Minnesota, according to Marian Gaborik and Wild fans. The fans were all over that game, especially after Brent Burns hit that dude, making him fall down really hard. There really isn't a whole lot more to say about it. I believe Brendan Shanahan made some polite comments about how it was the game of a lifetime, etc, but I can't find them right now. He was denied hardcore several times by Harding as the Rangers tried to bring the game back. They way outplayed us in the third, but we were unstoppable. Too bad they didn't save a few of those goals for the Red Wings...

Even more entertaining than the destruction of the Rangers were the comments made by Coach Renney after the game. He got a penalty for "abusing the refs" the official penalty was called "abuse of officials". I didn't know they had those.

"I pride myself on how I respect the whole operation of the National Hockey League and the officiating therein," coach Tom Renney said. "I'm that way because I'm sincere about it. In the heat of the moment players will lose the handle too. I'm disappointed with the way things transpired. But it's no excuse."

Quote courtesy of TSN

What now, Detroit?

They need to change the name of their restaurant...

St. Paul has officially been named the new "Hockeytown" according to Yahoo!.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news?slug=rm-saintpaul110107&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Oh yeah, and we play them tomorrow. Should be an interesting game to say the least. Steph, you and I are just not friends this week I see, but good job in getting Hemsky back. I appreciate it.

I may not have a lot of time to post until after tomorrow/Saturday/maybe beyond since it's finals week, so I invite you to check out all of the awesome blogs in my sidebar from around the NHL...

If you dislike Bucci : Check out A Queen Among Kings, or Hockey Blog in Canada

If you need to laugh until you hurt: Sportsquee, Barry Melrose Rocks, and Covered in Oil are good choices.

Eye Candy: Hot Oil is having their annual "Hot Off" to determine the hottest Oiler on the team.

Enemy opinions: Steph over at No Pun Intended will fill you in on the Wings, and Bethany at Bethany's Hockey Rants has the Blue Jackets covered.

If you are jumping up and down with glee because Scott Niedermayer is coming back, I'm sure Finny at Girl with a Puck, and Earl Sleek at Battle of California would love to join you in celebration.

And as always if you are bored (or procrastinating)...YouTube is your friend! If you are a really good person, you will vote for your favorite NHL players for the All-Star ballot.

I'll be sure and put up awesome posts once I'm back in MN and able to see the team in person, shoot the breeze with random people, talk to opposing fans, er I mean heckle them, and I won't be doing mountains of homework every day so I'll actually have time to surf the net and/or find something cool to put up.

Wildblogosphere: Wild Puck Banter has a new contributer who also likes Mark Parrish and Mikko Koivu. You should check it out. *nudge*