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!