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 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?

• 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.

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…

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…

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!

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!

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…

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…