Meeting Dino, Ten Minutes

Hockey Hall of Famer - Dino Ciccarelli. 
That's got a nice ring to it, don't you think?  What a treat it was to meet Dino tonight before the game.  He's a down to earth, humble, "just so thrilled to be remembered here" kind of guy.  He was genuinely surprised by the turnout for the meet and greet event and thanked everyone as we went through the line for autographs.  He posed for pictures with an ear to ear grin each time and shook hands with all of us.  He was completely amazed at the memorabilia that some of the people brought for him to sign.  There were a couple of girls who had Dino's shower scene poster from way back in the day to be signed by him tonight.  I say girls, because there wasn't one of us females in attendance who didn't giggle like a high school sophomore when we met him tonight. 

Wild vs Ottawa Senators Recap
Ten minutes of beautifully played hockey in the first period followed by a 45 minute collective brain fart by the team followed by 5 minutes of too-little-too-late so let's pull the goalie and make it a total disaster to end the third period.  Yep, that pretty much sums it up.  After a fairly impressive road trip the guys came home to take a dump.  The power play was once again powerless and the penalty kill proved to be the death of them.  
The bright spots of the night: Bouchard - who knew he'd hit the ice running at top speed, including some gutsy shot blocks in the last couple of games.  Havlat - when he wants to play he is on fire.  Greg Zanon - that's Zanon The Warrior to you...  nuff said.  



Santa visited Vicki at the game tonight, bringing her a new Mikko Koivu jersey complete with the C on the front to make her crush on the Wild captain official .  Gee, it only took her 7 seasons to commit  ;)  That's okay though - it only took the Hockey Lodge staff two times to get the size of the jersey right before they hand delivered it to her seat in the third period.  Never underestimate the power of Vicki when she wants something done right.