http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/sports/hockey/derek-boogaard-a-boy-learns-to-brawl.html

I was shocked and saddened to learn of the death of 28-year-old Derek Boogaard yesterday in Minneapolis. The 6-foot-7 enforcer played five seasons for the Minnesota Wild (2005-2009) before signing with the New York Rangers last year.

The Boogeyman was a fan favorite and my family loved him. We had the opportunity to meet him in person several times and his off-ice personality was a complete opposite from his tough-guy fighter image during games. Kind, soft-spoken and great with kids, his personal appearances were always well attended and appreciated by all.

A few personal memories:

• The player appearance at the old Hockey Lodge at the Mall of America (above), when both of my kids got personalized autographs and had a chance to chat with him after the lines died down. The kids loved his pink glasses and I’ll always remember the image of him tucking a Wild Monopoly box under his arm and walking away alone through the Mall of America rotunda.
• The night I went to Buffalo Wild Wings in Savage to get a signed “Get Well Soon” card for my daughter, which he happily signed, along with a “tell her I said I hope she feels better.”
• Watching the video of his goal against the Caps, breaking his three year scoring drought (234 NHL games). Made me smile all day.
• Hanging the life-size poster of Boogey and Butch in my office, which became a daily reminder of just how big he really was.
• Watching him pull up in his black pickup truck outside the restaurant in downtown St. Paul where the team would usually eat lunch on game days, leave it running in the cold Minnesota winter, wolf down huge amounts of pasta, then hop back in the truck and take off.
• According to the New York Times, Boogaard had 70 career NHL fights. I don’t know if I have a favorite, but here’s one against the prettiest man in the NHL.

The wonderful Star Tribune beat reporter Michael Russo has written an emotional blog post that has more insight into his life and the impact he had on those around him. My heart goes out to his family members, who I feel like I know after reading all of the Russo stories the past few years.

Rest in peace, number 24.

It wasn’t under the greatest circumstances, but I was offered the chance to watch the last three Wild home games in my aunt and uncle’s seats. He suffered a stroke last week and had to spend most of the week in the hospital, but is now home and doing better.

The first two games, Phoenix and Atlanta, were frustrating losses. I felt the Wild played OK in both of them, though, and deserved at least a point both nights.

Sunday’s game versus Vancouver more than made up for it, with the Wild earning a 6-2 win in front of the third largest regular season home crowd ever. Kid two and her best friend were “bench buddies” before the game and got to sit on the Wild bench during pre-game warm-ups (pictures in the private section of the photo gallery).

The addition of Cam Barker was a surprise to me (Kimmy and our first round pick?), but I’ll give our new GM the benefit of the doubt. I don’t know what I’d do if I were him now – the playoffs seem like a long-shot, but I don’t think I’d go into sell-off mode either.

The Olympics stuff at the beginning of the game was nice. I was especially impressed that people applauded loudly for all of the Canuck Olympians, despite the intense rivalry (and general hatred) of that franchise. Minnesota fans know (and appreciate) good hockey players when we see them, even if they do play for the Canucks.

I know the Red Wings aren’t having their best year, but I’ve always admired the organization and it’s always a treat to get to see them play the Wild in St. Paul. I wrangled a last minute ticket from my aunt and uncle and got to see the return of Brent Burns to the Wild lineup. I thought he played pretty good for a guy coming back from missing 29 games. Gotta love his fitness quote in the Strib too:

“I can wash your shirt on my abs right now.”

We were one of the first 6,000 at the X who received the towel pictured above. I don’t really remember anyone waving them, but the start of the game was a little hard to watch. Harding was playing really well before he got hurt and it was extra painful to watch Bertuzzi with the breakaway goal.

As we’ve learned this year, never leave early. I usually would be happy with the loser point in this situation, but the Wild had so many good chances to win in the OT and shootout, that it really felt like a letdown.

Not much else to report – parking was a little harder to find for some reason and the pretzel I ordered was a little stale and way too salty. Oh yeah, I still long for free wi-fi in the building – will that ever happen?

Last night’s Wild game against the Nashville Predators was some good entertainment. The second period was a bit of a drag, but the rest of it was great. Some random thoughts:

• The yellow team kicked butt during the first intermission, so our side of the arena won free oil changes at that tire place.
• I tweeted during the game about Havlat appearing drunk – not sure if he was winded at the end of a long shift or what, but wow did he look dazed and confused for a while. He had an assist, though, so I guess he can coast again for a few games.
• My uncle and I looked for some new food and ended up with mini donuts. I wish there was a little more variety on the upper concourse.
• Koivu’s post-score dance celebration was awesome. It sure would be nice if that power play unit was so smooth all the time.
• Speaking of Koivu, the non-call in the third, followed by the hooking call with 2:20 left, was frustrating. Especially since the rest of the game was relatively event free from a penalty/ref standpoint.
• Boogaard came this close to getting that elusive goal in the first period.
• Ebbett’s game-winner was great, but I was more impressed with the 80% face-off win percentage. Not bad for a little guy!

Thanks again to my aunt and uncle for the invite.

Last night I took my friend Phil (above) to his second ever hockey game at the Xcel Energy Center to watch the worst team in the west play the second worst team. Now one of them is only the third worst team, and unfortunately it isn’t the Wild.

I don’t really know what to say about how the Wild have started the season. On paper, I like our team and the changes that were made in the off-season. The reality, though, has been total suckle:

• Complete lack of ability to clear the zone
• Out-hustled to the puck all the time
• Way too much standing around and waiting for the play to come to them
• No chemistry from any of the lines yet
• Burns at -13, Koivu at -12 and Havlat at -10? How is that even possible?
• Our leading goal scorer is Andrew Brunette with 7, then it drops down to 3 (Koivu)

The three goals in 1:47 was amazing, but only one shot in the remaining 17:42 of that period? And I agree with Russo – how do you scratch Sykora and play both Scott and Boogaard? On defense, I wanted Skoula gone as much as anyone, but Zidlicky and Hnidy seem to be battling for the new crown of Wild defensive goat. Zids and his turnovers make me cringe and Sheriff Shane can’t seem to hit an outlet pass to save his life – it’s either a turnover or icing almost every time.

As Mr. Fletcher said during an interview in Chicago, “we’re still trying to get on the same page.” I was hoping that would have happened during training camp and the pre-season, but here we are 12 games into the season and the Wild sit in the western conference cellar with none of our “stars” hurt. Maybe that’s it – Johnnson and Butch are the secret sauce we need to turn it around.

If only it were that easy…

Thanks to the Wild’s youth hockey donation offer, I picked up a free ticket to tonight’s home opener versus the Ducks. I’ll be in section 114, row 16 – should be a nice spot to watch the Koivu brothers mix it up. Late start (8:15PM), but the Twins game will be on in the X starting at 4PM.

I haven’t written much about the preseason here, as there are now so many good sources of local hockey news. I rolled up all of my Minnesota sports into this one (including Hockey in Minnesota), so I haven’t had a pressing need to write just for the sake of having something new up. I will post when I go to games and hopefully have something unique to add to the Wild blogosphere. I’ll probably keep the @hockeymn Twitter account going this season too for some occasional in-game commentary.

For good hockey coverage this year, check the links in the sidebar for the sites and people I read regularly. Also, if you aren’t following these people on Twitter, you need to add them ASAP:

• Bill Robertson, Wild VP – @mnwild
• Michael Russo, Star Tribune – @Russostrib
• Fiona Quick, Minnesota Hockey Journal – @QuickFacts
• Nathan Eide, Hockey Wilderness – @hockeywildernes

There are a bunch of others, too, but I’m finding it’s becoming increasing easy to get overwhelmed with information (and a lot of repetition via re-tweets). Hell, between the team’s own PR group (which gets better and better all the time) and the superb work of Mr. Russo, you pretty much get all you need to know.

UPDATE:
Well, that turned out to be fun. Everyone in the arena was focused on the Twins for the first period, so I didn’t really notice how we got to a 0-0 tie at intermission. The second period was just horrible. I knew as soon as John Scott and George Parros lined up in the third period a fight was going down. People around me didn’t know why I starting clapping right away, but the coach said during the post-game interview that was the turning point of the game. I’d also like to thank Mr. Wisniewski for letting us have the extra point without having to go to the shoot-out.

Not much new to report from the arena experience tonight. Everyone got a team wall calendar, the sell-out streak is apparently over, they played the Twins rouser over the PA and the starting lineup sequence and national anthem were a little different (but that might just be due to it being opening night). Craig Leopold sat by himself in his suite for most of the game. I ordered some teriyaki chicken wings, but they are now Brakebush, not BWW (I think this actually changed last year). I think there may be a few new food items available this year, too.

Wild are away from the X for like two weeks now…

Tonight I was invited by my uncle to the second Wild pre-season home game against the Chicago Blackhawks. Normally, these early games that no one wants to pay for (or attend) are devoid of most entertainment value. This game was an exception to that rule for me.

Martin Havlat seemed intent to make an impression against his former team, scoring 86 seconds into the game by burying a nice pass from Pouliot. He added a second goal in similar fashion in the third, this time from Clutterbuck. His buddy “Siki” scored the third and final goal of the game with 2:57 left. I hope Havlat and Sykora stay healthy all year and get to play on the same line – seems like good chemistry there.

Chicago stars Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews were scratched, so you can’t take too much from the shutout part of the game, but Backstrom seemed strong in his two periods of play. Khudobin got some work in the third and made me feel a little better in the event we lose Harding this year to the trade pool.

There were five (!) fights in this game, and all were fun to watch:

• Dowell vs. Smith
• Bois vs. Scott
• Lalonde vs. Cuma
• Fraser vs. Sifers
• Johnson vs. Kassian

Attendance was never announced (that I can recall), so I wonder if the streak is over. The first 5,000 people received the magnetic season calendar (pictured above), but it doesn’t indicate which games will be in HD. Food seemed to be the same – the Davanni’s stand sold us two garlic cheese bread orders and two regular soft drinks for $15.50.

Should be an interesting season – Go Wild!

You know it’s almost time for hockey hibernation in Minnesota to end when you start seeing Wild players at the state fair. This year it was Derek Boogaard modeling the new third jersey and signing autographs last Sunday in the new Fan Central building.

Much has been written already about the new design and I’ll just say that I think it will grow on me, but it doesn’t knock my socks off. There are so many font styles battling that it seems a little disjointed (and that capitol “M” seems…weird). I guess I was just a big fan of the original Wild logo (that now only appears prominently on the white jerseys).

The new season is only 13 days away – let’s play hockey!

I made it down to the X for the first half of the scrimmage. Couldn’t stop laughing at “Coach Burns” and how he and Clutterbuck kept going back and forth. Classic.

There are a bunch of pictures I took that I uploaded to the Hockey in Minnesota photo gallery. This was the first time I was allowed to bring in my 80-200mm lens, so I wasn’t really sure how well it would work. Still need more practice, but there are a few OK ones in there.

Another funny note – I thought I saw Boogaard sitting in the stands behind the bench, but after reviewing my photos, turns out it was Russo:

I’m not sure who will find that funnier – Russo or Boogaard…

Last night we went to the 2009 edition of the Wild Select-A-Seat season ticket holder event and had a blast. I’ll write more on this over at Hockey in Minnesota soon, but I just wanted to link to the photos in the private section of the 7 Minute Miles photo gallery.

I didn’t write many blog posts here the past few weeks, as I mainly used Twitter (@hockeymn) to write about the end of the Wild season. 140 characters at a time was about all I could manage then.

I’ve had to scrap this post several times in the past few weeks, as the news just keeps flying fast and furious. The three exciting final games, our slim playoff chances dashed, the departure of our only coach and then what I thought couldn’t possibly happen, the firing of GM Doug Risebrough. Lots of uncertainty everywhere in the organization now. Hell, we might not even have two newspapers covering the team by the time the 09/10 season begins.

The original title of this post was going to be “If I Owned the Wild,” but then Mr. Leipold stepped up and took charge. Until this week, I was going to ask how the State of Hockey ended up with a cheesehead owner who moonlights as a Republican delegate. Apparently he heard from enough armchair owners during the season to figure out what needed to be done to prevent the pitchforks and potential loss of revenue.

Some random thoughts:

• Thanks, Jacques, for all you did here. I thought it was very interesting he knew nothing about the upcoming Riser events.
• Thanks, Doug, for all you did here in the beginning. What you did then was great, but the organization needs different things now to bring a cup to the State of Hockey.
• If half of the Burns concussion news is accurate, the medical team needs to go too.
• I’d still like to see Gaborik return under the new regime, but I’d only do an incentive-laden contract. The days of long-term, guaranteed money NHL deals may never return – or shouldn’t (do you hear me Detroit?).
• We probably can’t afford it, but if the new GM can get Mikko’s brother and Mr. Cammalleri to play in St. Paul, I’d be a very, very happy season ticket holder.
• Hey NHL, having non-stop NHL games on every night in HD for free is the best. Could we have this during the regular season somehow too? Pretty please?

I won’t be writing here much during the playoffs and during the draft (see Golfing in Minnesota and Run in Minnesota), but I thank all of you who visited during the past year. I’m planning to do much more next season, so please stop back and see us again soon…

The best hockey of the year is underway at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

Follow us on Twitter for the latest (@hockeymn) and enjoy the excitement!

While the hockey operations part of the Wild is struggling these days, other parts of organization still have their act together. My kids have been members of the Wild Kids Club for a few years and we’ve found it well worth the cost. Two really nice recent things: the life-sized poster of Boogaard and Butch and a cool birthday card. Bravo!

The Wild gave up a loser point and then the extra point to a Kings team they should have slapped all over the place. The first period was so boring, I might have left if my daughter wasn’t with me. I probably should have, as I got a nice little $25 present on my car from the St. Paul Police Department that was placed there around 9pm. More on that in a minute…

The second period at least had some scoring, including the beautiful short-handed goal by Miettinen off the pass from Koivu. I’m pretty sure the Kings goal was scored by Johnsson, which ended the Wild’s long penalty kill streak. No goals in the third, although the Wild had a few chances. I am so sick of single digit shot totals in a period – what is up with that? Both teams seemed tired in the OT and just seemed to stop skating. I’m starting to hate the shoot-out even more now (and not because the Wild lost the last two I’ve witnessed). It’s a skills test, yes, but lately hasn’t really showcased a lot of skill. And please, Coach, keep Burns on the bench during shoot-outs for the rest of the year.

Now on to the real thing that made me mad tonight. I drive a MINI Cooper that used to fit just about anywhere in downtown St. Paul. Then the city put up signs that said no parking from here to corner. I’m fine with that. At the corner of Smith and Chestnut where I parked at tonight, though, there was no sign. Plenty of room for a MINI to fit. The curb was covered with snow, so there weren’t any markings I could see.

At 21:06, an Officer Lee decided that I was violating statute 169.34.1.a.6 – “Prohibitions – stopping, parking within 20 feet of crosswalk.” $25 fee – just enough to really not make it worth my time to dispute. So word of warning Wild fans – don’t park within 20 feet of a crosswalk, even if there are no signs or visible markings. Grumble, grumble.

Wild are off now on their six game road trip, which starts Friday in Calgary – 8pm start on FS North (no HD).

OK, so now you know just how far behind on things I am. Here is a scan of the holiday card I received from the Wild for being on the warming house season ticket waiting list.

Happy (belated) holidays!

Thanks to my “real job” nightmare, I haven’t had much time to focus on this site or on hockey in general. It’s hard to miss the general state of despair of the Wild online community, though. Russo thinks the Wild are toast, Hockey Wilderness is totally pissed and threats of season ticket holder revolts are flying left and right.

Yes, the Ottawa game was a massive choke. Yes, the Wild are uber-inconsistent this season. Yes, the Wild can’t string three wins in a row to save their lives. Yes, the upcoming stretch of games against top-ranked teams will be challenging. And, yes, 14 out of 17 games on the road is a bitch.

But you know what? I’m not ready to stop watching or call for Risebrough’s head on a platter just yet. Our beloved GM’s statement that “there are only four or five good teams in the league and the rest of us are all the same” is pretty much dead on. The Wild could very well stink it up for the rest of the season, but they also have a very good chance at any of the lower half of the playoff seeds (assuming San Jose, Detroit, Calgary and Chicago are locks for #1-4).

There is plenty of time at the end of the season to call for blood, but right now I’m excited to see what this crop of players can do. Hell, I’ll even give Dougie the benefit of the doubt at the trade deadline. History has shown this time of year isn’t exactly a showcase of his negotiating skills, but Mr. Leipold won’t let mistakes go on forever, right? Maybe he can redeem himself with the Gabby and Backstrom situations after all…

It cracks me up when I read posts from places like Detroit that can always find something to complain about. As if 82 points isn’t good enough, eh?

This clever ruse about consecutive sell-outs needs to end, though. I’m 99.9% sure all of those seats aren’t sold every game. Any insider informants out there that care to spill the beans? Leave us a comment or drop me a line at dk@hockey.mn.

Thanks to a last minute invite, I got to head down to the X to watch the Wild play a rare game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. We met some nice Leafs fans last week in Vegas, and as they bluntly told us, “our team sucks.”

This was the type of game the Wild is suppose to win (and usually don’t). I still hold the theory that if the Wild get in to the playoffs as the number 8 seed, they will win the cup. They can beat the best teams in the west and have dominated almost every eastern team they have played this year.

The Maple Leafs are struggling right now, but I don’t imagine that will last too long. Check back in a year or two and see what Mr. Burke can accomplish in the fish bowl that is Canadian professional hockey.

Thankfully, the Wild took advantage of poor Justin Pogge. The minor league goaltender was up for only his second NHL start and knew he was going to be sent back down tomorrow. Stats in this game were misleading: Toronto had more shots on goal (28-21) and dominated face-offs (60/40), but poor Justin let in six goals and was serenaded with the sieve chant by the team of 18,000.

A few other notes:

• Fans received boxes of Hot Tamales on the way out that had a donation request for the Salvation Army’s HeatShare program. Text “Army” to 90999 to donate $5 to the program.
• There were a ton of empty seats (and lots of ads on Craigslist today with very low prices). I’m beginning to think that the Wild are buying seats to keep the sell-out streak alive (just like other teams are doing to earn their league revenue sharing money).
• Boogaard just couldn’t get Brad May to dance tonight, despite multiple invitations. Probably a smart move, Brad, but wow do you look bad when you run away.
• Clutterbuck is starting to become our own little mini-Ovechkin: skates all over with passion, hits everything in sight and now is displaying a nice scoring touch. Nine hits tonight.
• Johnsson was a +4. When was the last time we had anyone be a +4 in a game? Nice job, Kimmy! Can you teach some of those skills to Skoula before you get traded?
• The Bethel women’s hockey team was selling game programs tonight and several of their players sat next to us after the first period. Nice kids.
• New singer tonight for both of the national anthems – I believe her name was Lauren Redpath. This blog says she auditioned to be the singer in 2007, but I’m not 100% sure this is the same person. Her last name was Redpath, but she looked different to me.
• Congrats to Andrew “Iron Man” Brunette today on his 500th consecutive game. After running into him at The Nook a few years ago and seeing him crash knees first into the boards four games ago, I would have never guessed he’d make it to this milestone intact. Too bad the Wild didn’t make a bigger deal out of it tonight.

The Wild’s next game is at Edmonton on Friday night (8PM on FS North, no HD), followed by another away game the next night in Vancouver (9PM on FS North, also no HD). That will be followed by a four game home stretch against the Ducks, Preds, Oilers and Avs. We’ll be there for two of those four, so stay tuned for more full Hockey in Minnesota blog entries.

I’d also like to thank all of the new people following us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/hockeymn). I really enjoy getting other people’s quick hockey updates via Twitter and hope you like our little contributions to the online Minnesota hockey community too.

Attending tonight’s Wild-Red Wings game at the X was sort of a last minute decision for me. My aunt got fed up with the team after the Chicago game and wanted to boycott, so I filled in for her in section 216.

The first period was a return to the bad trends of December: Detroit scored the first goal and the Wild got shut out. Shots stayed closer than I expected, though (11-8 Wings), and it was refreshing to have zero penalties on either team. I didn’t see Samuelsson’s goal very well, as it was at the other end, but I did see my buddy Skoula standing over Josh after it went in.

It was still 1-0 Detroit at the end of two, but the Wild ended the period with a 5-on-3 that carried over to the third. Somehow they also managed to out shoot the Wings in the second 16-8, although it really didn’t seem like it to me.

The third period started off with a bang, with new assistant captain Owen Nolan deflecting a Brent Burns blast from the blue line, quickly followed by a quick wrist shot by Antti Miettinen 16 seconds later. It was the aggressive play of Cal Clutterbuck that created the second goal, giving Clutter-butter his first assist of the year. Slim night for Cal on hits, though – only 3.

I have yet to see the disputed Franzen goal on replay. That goal was also at the other end of the arena from us, so I couldn’t really see anything. The ref that was standing right there with the perfect angle immediately waved it off and play was about to begin when Toronto decided to study the issue further. I’ll withhold further opinion until I see what the war room saw. Falness said on the post-game that he thought it was the right call…

I do have to say that the appeal of the shoot-out has faded for me. I now agree with those that say it’s a tricked up skills exhibition that awards an extra point instead of “real” hockey. One part of me wants a return of ties with no extra point, while another part of me wants to have them play until someone wins, like in the playoffs. Four-on-four, three-on-three, I don’t care – make them work for the extra point for real. They are professional athletes that get paid a lot of money – let’s see the show.

Not much else to report from the arena experience tonight. AT&T was handing out those packs pictured above, although I’m still not sure what’s in there. The Wild also had tables set up to hand out the mugs that didn’t arrive in time from one of the December games. I’m guessing they will have a bunch of those left over, as you needed a voucher and I’m sure a lot of those got lost.

The Wild travel to Denver to play the Avs tomorrow at Pepsi Center (7PM, FS North HD). I’ll be curious to see who starts and how well they bounce back from this game. Jacques said they would get pillows for the guys with big ice time (Burns – 33:33, Johnsson – 30:18, Skoula – 27:55). At least Colorado is dealing with some of the same issues we have right now (key injuries, on the outside, looking in, etc.).

This game was at least fun to watch:

• Gabby was sluggish and noticeably holding back his effort, but still was a big factor.
• The reaction from the crowd when he hit the ice was mixed from where we sat – boos mixed in with cheers.
• I’ve always felt Boogaard is more of a liability than an asset, but tonight he was awesome. A great hit and a great punch.
• It’s really fun taking people to games that have never been to the X before.
• The Wild seemed to be in control most of the time, but still have trouble winning battles along the boards and showing any break-out speed. Is there a need for better conditioning?
• Another current weakness: holding the zone at the blue line.
• The game winning goal by Bertuzzi was amazing, despite causing us to lose the extra point.
• The Wild emailed warming house members a coupon for 25% off at the Hockey Lodge, so I bought a new soft helmet hat that will cover my ears when I need to shovel again later this week.

Just checked the calendar and I don’t have tickets to another game under March. So sad.

With a 1-5 start to December (and the start of the Koivu captain curse), the Wild have plummeted down the Western Conference standings. While it’s too early to abandon all hope, it would be nice to see a little more fight from the guys. Sunday’s game against the Ducks could get ugly if we don’t see some urgency to return to the win column. Like Miettinen said after the 3-1 loss to the Kings, there is more wrong right now than just the lack of scoring.

Hockey in Minnesota will be live tweeting the Ducks game tomorrow (@hockeymn) and will be at the next home game versus Calgary on Wednesday.

Hopefully the Wild bring us some holiday cheer sooner rather than later…

If he gets more ice time with Koivu (and the refs don’t screw him over), it won’t be long…

Here’s to better days ahead for Nik (and a new contract)…

The Wild lost last night and I’m feeling OK about it. I didn’t realize I actually had tickets to the game until the day before, so it was nice just to be there.

Despite the loss of two points to a hated rival, I enjoyed watching the game. In some ways, a 4-3 loss is more entertaining than a 1-0 win. The bounces just didn’t go the Wild’s way last night – C’est la vie.

A couple of notes from our experience:

• The first free mug was handed out after the game, featuring Mikko Koivu, Moose Goheen, Mike Modano and Doc Romnes (see above).
• It’s fun reading Twitter feeds on my phone during game breaks, especially @hockeywildernes and @QuickFacts.
• I set up a Twitter account for Hockey in Minnesota (@hockeymn), but don’t like doing in-game tweets – too busy watching the game.
• Somebody really needed to level Avery when he was in Backstrom’s face.
• The scoring change from Skoula to Bruno was the talk of our section – “all is now right with the world again.”
• I took a bunch of photos during pre-game warm-ups from the side of the rink (instead of behind the goal) and got some unique shots.
• At the risk of sounding like an elitist, the Team of 18,000 needs less homers and more people with hockey knowledge.
• Speaking of 18,000, they announced a “standing-room only” crowd of 18,568 last night, but apparently my old single seat season ticket hasn’t been sold and is continually empty every game (even for an in-demand ticket like Dallas).

Next game for me: December 17 versus the Flames.

Mikko Koivu during pre-game warm-ups before the 4-3 home loss to Dallas, 11-26-2008.