After a long, long hiatus...

I might be back. At least for a little while, if for no other reason then to profess my great love for the Winter Olympics.

I took an unintentional break from blogging to write most of my senior thesis, take some hard classes, be a good Greek, apply for summer internships, start applying to schools for a B.S. in environmental science, have many surgeries, and just generally get my life together. Fortunately my life is coming together just in time for me to have small amounts of free time to watch the Winter Olympics which are currently practically in my backyard up in Vancouver, B.C.

The only events I've been able to watch thus far are a couple of short program pairs figure skating performances, two speed skating races, and a mogul skiing race, but thus far it's all been excellent. I heard the Great One does not appear to like the rain, the Opening Ceremonies were highly Vancouveresque (AKA you have to be on drugs to fully appreciate them), and the torch malfunctioned. I also hear from reports on the ground that it has been pouring rain pretty much the whole time. Oh well, still excited. My thesis draft is due at 2:15 PM on Tuesday, and after that I fully intend to sit on the couch and watch until 9ish.

I also hear that the new management wants me to be nearly as angry with them as the old management. Johnsson? Really? When you could have gotten rid of Zidlicky? At least Barker had the decency to score a goal in his debut or I would have been even more upset. Now we just have to work on getting Patrick Sharp and teaching Shep that he should stop trying to fight.

As a side note, I'm really digging the new, streamlined Team Canada hockey jerseys and the awesome red mittens. No wonder my housemates all think I'm a traitor.

As a second side note, there is a really cool, free iPhone app that tells you what events are on TV that day and what channel. It pops up right away in the app store on the iPhone...

Dear Baby Hockey Jesus,

I know it's been a while, and I hope you had a nice summer working on your tan and drinking celebrating at all the Wings' parties. There are a few issues that have been brought to my attention that I was hoping you could help me out with.

First off, this whole injury thing needs to stop. Rolston and Demitra don't play for us any more, so I thank you in your wisdom for making sure of that so we didn't get screwed. I'd really like to see a healthy PMB, though. Also, new Czech sounding defenceman. He should probably stay healthy too. Else how will I get to know more about him? Gaborik, well, that brings me to my next topic.

I need you to do me a favor. I know you know people who could help me take care of the Gaborik problem. I know at least 18,000 people who would chip in to help take care of the costs. At the very least, please make him healthy for long enough that we can send him packing and get some good, healthy players in return. I'd totally be willing to send Pouliot with him. Gaborik clearly doesn't want to be here any more, so I say the hell with him. Let him be overpaid somewhere else. I'm sure the Rangers would sign him if they had the cap space. Pouliot just strikes me as lazy. I need your help with him, too Baby Hockey Jesus. Either light a fire under him, or make some other team verrry interested in him. Preferably a team I already like to laugh at.

Also I need you to look after Gillies. He's a big, strong kid with a lot of potential, I think he's just maybe having a rough adjustment time. Maybe he could borrow the spirit that Walz has? Walzy doesn't need it any more, he's coaching in Tampa. Barry Melrose is fired up enough for all of us.

Here is a list of tiny things I would like to see:
-I'd still like you to smite Skoula
-Help Mark Parrish to make the team where ever he chooses to go
-Put a protective bubble around Mikko Koivu
-While you're at it, I wouldn't mind if Burns had one too

Lastly, on a more personal note, I need you to help me figure out a way to get my mojo back, Baby Hockey Jesus. Lately I've been pretty busy, and I'm feeling a little disconnected from Minnesota. It feels like I've been living on the west coast forever, and it's been kind of hard to really feel this season. I've had a lot of writer's block, and not a lot of time. I know it will get better once I get back to Minnesota, but I'd like it to get better now.

Thank you, Baby Hockey Jesus. I promise you, the Wild would throw much better summer parties...just something to think about as the season progresses if you know what I mean. We have a much younger, hipper team, you know.

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.