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 suckage:

• 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!