Two teams in seemingly opposite directions as the red hot Calgary Flames take on the stone cold Minnesota Wild this evening.  Many felt the move the Flames made to add Jay Bouwmeester to its already strong blueline would allow Calgary to finally make its move as one of the Western Conference elite teams.  Throw in [...]

Minnesota Wild (1-3-0) 2pts 5th in Northwest Division2/50 Goals per Game (19th in NHL)3.75 Goals Against per Game (26th in NHL)33.3% Power Play (5th in NHL)78.5% Penalty Kill (16th in NHL)Top 5 Scorers:1. #15 Andrew Brunette ~ 3G 2A = 5pts2. #25 Eric Belanger ~ 1G 4A = 5pts3. #14 Martin Havlat ~ 1G 4A = 5pts4. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 1G 2A = 3pts5. #5 Kim Johnsson ~ 1G...

Minnesota Wild (1-2-0) 2pts 4th in Northwest Division2.67 Goals per Game (21st in NHL)3.67 Goals Against per Game (22nd in NHL)46.2% Power Play (2nd in NHL)77.8% Penalty Kill (13th in NHL)Top 5 Scorers:1. #14 Martin Havlat ~ 1G 4A = 5pts2. #15 Andrew Brunette ~ 2G 2A = 4pts3. #25 Eric Belanger ~ 1G 3A = 4pts4. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 1G 2A = 3pts5. #17 Petr Sykora ~ 1G...

Back in the late 1980's, there was a boy band called New Kids on the Block. The group helped set the model for later boy bands like the Backstreet Boys, N-Sync and 98 Degrees. New Kids on the Block featured Donny Wahlberg, Danny Wood, brothers Jonathan and Jordan Knight as well as Joey MacIntyre were the teen-sensation of their late 80's early 1990's era. Amazingly...

Minnesota Wild (1-1-0) 2pts 3rd in Northwest Division2.50 Goals per Game (21st in NHL)2.50 Goals Against per Game (9th in NHL)44.4% Power Play (3rd in NHL)80.o% Penalty Kill (13th in NHL)Top 5 Scorers:1. #14 Martin Havlat ~ 0G 4A = 4pts2. #15 Andrew Brunette ~ 2G 1A = 3pts3. #25 Eric Belanger ~ 1G 2A = 3pts4. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 1G 1A = 2pts5. #17 Petr Sykora ~ 1G 0A...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...If ever there was a line from classic literature, none comes to mind as often as the opening line of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. The novel focuses on the cities of London and Paris during the time of the French Revolution. While the time period is different as are the events, the line very much applies to the...

It has been a whirlwind of activity throughout the Twin Cities and Minnesota as it seems to have one blockbuster event after the other. The Golden Gophers ended up coming just short on their bid to take back Paul Bunyan's Axe from the Wisconsin Badgers, while the Minnesota Vikings powered by the arm of Brett Favre managed to stave off a late-game comeback attempt to defeat their...

On a weekend where it is a pair of football games which feature the bitter border rivalry between Wisconsin and Minnesota where both the Badgers and Packers travel to the Twin Cities to battle it out for bragging rights. Gophers Head Coach Tim Brewster's squad gave a valiant effort against the Badgers and came up short 31-28. Meanwhile Packer fans salivate at the thought of...

Welcome back hockey fans. It seems like it's been an eon since the Wild last took the ice. But then considering how the season progressed and ultimately ended it has been a long time. When the end of the regular season finally hit, I was burned out and ended up watching very little of the Stanley Cup playoffs. However, I didn't avoid playoff hockey entirely this past...

"Lonely, Mr. Lonley" might be something that either Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom or Josh Harding may be singing to one's self with the new philosophy emphasizing an up-tempo aggressive forecheck. It wouldn't matter if you had "Mr. Lonely's" Bobby Vinton between the pipes, if your team doesn't play good defense in front of you, it could spell...

"Its 206 miles to Chicago, we have a full tank of gas, a half of a pack of cigarettes and its dark and we're wearing sunglasses....HIT IT!" I am not precisely sure why, but that is what I think of when I think of the St. Louis Blues. Either that, or sound of the organ playing When the Saints Go Marching In everytime the Blues score a goal. Names like Brett Hull, Adam...

In Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan, Ricardo Montalban plays the genetically enhanced villain, Khan and during the film he utters one of the most famous quotes in science fiction history, "There is an old Klingon proverb where revenge is a dish best served cold." That likely was the dish Martin Havlat enjoyed serving to his former team tonight as he lit the lamp twice in...

It could be an interesting reception for one member of the Wild today as he plays against his former team for the first time. For Martin Havlat, in the days after signing with the Wild were spent giving spurious updates via Twitter about some of the moves and culture of the Chicago Blackhawks, his former team. Shortly after a clerical error cost the Blackhawks millions as players...

"It can't last forever" is often the catchphrase of your tireless cynic or relentlessly optimistic. Well a streak quietly ended last night as the Minnesota Wild failed to sellout its first home pre-season game, for the first time ever. Now, in a lot of NHL cities the fact the home team failed to sellout would not even be a story. Yet in the State of Hockey, a place...

If you thought the Wild were finished making deals, then you would have been wrong. It also means that I would have been wrong as well. Based on past history, the Wild are a somewhat plodding team when it comes to making deals. I suppose we're so used to the way things were done under Doug Risebrough, that we are continually shocked. Of course after that shock, we have to...

As a quote from the Oscar-award winning film the Dirty Dozen goes as Donald Sutherland's character Vernon Pinkley impersonates a general who is assessing his troops looks over to Robert Ryan (playing the role of Colonel Everett Breed) and says, "your soldiers are very pretty Colonel, but can they fight?" Pinkley's fellow soldiers could hardly hold in their laughter...

When one thinks of hockey and training camp, one would hardly think of the classic Steve Martin movie, The Jerk. In the 1979 movie, Martin plays the eternal child-like character of Navin R. Johnson. Because of his unique childhood, Navin decides it's time to leave his childhood home and find himself. When Navin takes a job at Mr. Hartounian's service station, we witness...

A quick look at my latest issue of the Hockey News, discusses the status of attitudes going into the 2009-10 season. This time, the Hockey News tried to get a bit closer to the pulse of the fans by taking a small quote from the Wild blog 18,568 Reasons Why. In the article as well as the quote from the aforementioned Wild blog, it gushed about all of the changes the team has gone...

I know when I first took a look at the Wild's roster for this year's Traverse City, Michigan prospect tournament, I groaned. To me, I felt like it was proof of failed scouting and development of the Wild's prospects. Then to add insult to injury, with a majority of the players on the roster listed as 'tryout' players it felt like a slap to the face. Many fans...

If you're like me, and you think back to the final game of last season, you too wouldn't think we'd be where we are now. Many of us (sadly) expected more of the status quo, however that thought was quickly put aside. For a while, life amongst Wild fans was a whirlwind of change. Things had died down a bit, but it would have been foolish if any of us dared to think...

Derek Boogaard and defenseman Brent Burns sporting the new Wild 3rd jersey. Photos courtesy of Wild.com It is the ultimate team-related garment. Its the jersey or hockey jargon, the 'sweater' which was a reference to the days when the uniforms themselves were made of wool. Without question the jersey is often the symbol of a fan's passion for their favorite team...

Perhaps in some way I was inspired by David Letterman's Top 10 list, but I can't stand his show with his lists being the one redeeming quality of it. I know I've used that concept for a few post-season banquet speeches at the conclusion of a sports season and admittedly its a very effective delivery style. Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) and Garth Algar (Dana Carvey) of...

In Minnesota, the main talk is all consumed by the discussion over new (old) Vikings quarterback Brett Favre. While Brett and the media makes his decisions into its only mini-melodrama, I guess the discussion inspired me to want to change the subject and try to stir up some discussion on hockey and the NHL in particular. Why start with something mild, when you can start with something...

An old expression is the 'Dog days of August' where time seems to bog down as sweltering heat forces many to seek refuge to areas that have nice cool air conditioning. I know for myself, August means the start of football practice (High School) and many hours of coaching and working through offensive and defensive schemes. It is not the NFL, but still requires lots of study...

In a story that is somewhat familiar in professional sports these days, a player takes a minor dispute too far and gets himself in a lot of trouble by getting into a fight and then finds himself apologizing in front of cameras outside of a police station or courtroom. If I was to say this was an incident committed by a troubled NFL player like Adam 'Pac Man' Jones or Plaxico...