Bourne Blog: Rediscovering hockey love at its purest

This morning I find myself lucky enough to be on a flight to Minnesota -- not a sentence normally typed by someone leaving Phoenix in March, but my excitement comes with just cause. I'm about to soak in Minnesota's High School Hockey State Tournament in St. Paul at the Xcel Energy Center. And that folks, is the breeding ground for hockey love at its purest. My freshman year at the University of Alaska Anchorage brought me to that same building for the WCHA's Final Five, which afforded my teammates and I the opportunity to explore the confines of the Minnesota Wild's home barn. That was the first time I saw the unrecognizable jerseys that hung around the building. To clarify, they were unrecognizable to me. Not to anyone from Minnesota. Those high school jerseys pay homage to the state's true love of the game at its roots — they love their NHL team, but it's bigger than that. They just love the damn game, period. In fact, they love the game so much they've...