Disappointed, Disillusioned

Where The Hell Have I Been?
You'd think a woman who is savoring her last full season with her favorite hockey team would be boring you all to tears with daily posts dripping with emotions and memories from the last ten years.  You'd think that, huh?   
Trust me, I'm very well aware of the fact that there are only 3 home games left which means that Vicki will now have to bring a whole box of Puffs for me (not the lotion kind, please) instead of one or two lone tissues.  Nor will we be making much eye contact going forward because that will bring on the waterworks for both of us and then we'll be worthless for singing anthem(s).  Dave, either intentionally or by divine intervention will not be with us for the last home game.  That's just as well since I am UGLY when I'm crying and he doesn't need to be scarred for life by having experienced that.  We'll say our hockey neighbor goodbyes on Saturday.  I'll say goodbye to Cheryl on Saturday as well - and she'll need to take my love and best wishes home to her mom.  Cheryl and her mother have been across the aisle (with her brother and husband) from me for the full 10 seasons the Wild have been playing.  The thing about the Wild, until this season, is that it's been one big happy hockey family sitting in the stands with a renewal percent in the high 90's.  

And that brings us to the Wild's current dilemma - nice segue, huh?  Three years straight of not making it to the playoffs, preceded by two seasons of really embarrassing early exits from the playoffs has left the season ticket holders a tad bit disgruntled.  Russo's been laying it all out there in his Strib columns and blog.  I appreciate his being unbiased about it, at the risk of being shunned by the team and the management. 

I will tell you that I am most disappointed in the players and their lack of everything the Wild's marketing team has been shoving down our throats for the last few years: Passion, Integrity, Dedication, Motivation, It's In Our Blood and my all time favorite (dripping with sarcasm here) Fight To The End.  There isn't a player on the team who can honestly look me or his team mates in the eye and say they've given 100% of any the aforementioned attributes night in and night out for an entire season in the last three years.  It has nothing to do with who's been coaching the team.  It has everything to do with the players.  Players who have come to realize that playing for the Wild means easy money for little to no effort in exchange.  Management and Coaching coddles them, afraid to piss off an agent or have bad press in the sacred State of Hockey.  These are players who, with the exception of maybe three of them, on any other team in the NHL, would be benched, sent down, traded, allowed to walk away in free agency or bought out.  

We've got a snivel monster of a captain when the fans and media harp on the obvious - team suckage.  We've got overpaid, non producing players who were supposed to be The Answer: Nystrom, Madden, Cullen, Havlat.  We've got other overpaid players who would be third and fourth line grinders on any other team: Bouchard, Miettinen, Kobasew, Barker.  Then we've got our version of 'premiere-future-of-this-team overpaid players: Backstrom, Koivu, Burns.  These guys would have found themselves in very different favor with their coaching staff on any other team this season.      

Before any of you start in on me about Todd Richards, let me assure you that he's not blameless and I am certainly no fan of his.  He's lost on the bench and can't even speak to any of the plays from the game unless he's had a chance to 'watch the tape'.  He's got one answer for everything wrong with the team: 'we need to address it and we will address it.'  He sends out the wrong lines and refuses to match his lines to the opposing team.  He doesn't know when to pull a goalie or when to bench a player.  Richards is in over his head and he's out of his league in the head coaching position here.  That fact sticks out like a flamingo in a snow storm but you have to admit he hasn't had much of a player effort to work with during his short time here.  He's lost the room, if he ever had it at all.  When that happens, there's nothing much to do except send him packing on April 11th. 

With all of the negativity surrounding this Year Ten franchise you'd think I'd be happy to be washing my hands of the 42 home game experience going forward.  You'd be dead wrong.  This is my team and for better or worse they're the team I'll be following for the rest of my life.  My reasons for this are multiple and many of them have nothing to do with the actual game of hockey but good or bad, the Wild is my team.  I can't begin to tell you how my heart aches knowing I won't be in the arena to see this team being rebuilt over the next few seasons.  And now, you'll have to excuse me while I find something else to do before the tears come and I'm wrecked for the next couple of hours.  

         

And The Moron Of The Year Award Goes To...

I got a call from a friend today asking me if I'd read Russo's  column this morning.  I had.  I thought the article had some interesting points. 

1. The timing of the team's latest implosion is occurring during the season ticket renewal push for 2011-2012.  At least Craig didn't raise the ticket prices like he did last spring for this current turd of a season.  Thanks again to our owner for making me, the upper deck fan who has most likely been hit hardest by the Second Great Depression, carry the biggest financial burden in this, our much-ballyhooed Year Ten.          
2. Management has nothing of real value to offer for a high-scoring center during the off season, outside of Brent Burns...who incidentally is playing the absolute WORST hockey of his career right now with only 9 games left in the season. 
3. Chuck Fletcher doesn't have a clue any more than Todd Richards does.  Chuck doesn't think now is the time to "reflect on this season, look ahead to the summer or discuss the anguish felt during Sunday's seven-goal loss."  He's quoted as saying "I know what last night feels like because I've lived it for 24 hours."  Dear Chuck, If this isn't the time to ponder which players need to be sent packing and whether or not you and Todd have jobs come April 11th, then I don't know when a good time will be.  Maybe you can figure that out when you're recovering from the shock of having been fired.  This fan can only hope.
4. Chuck believes in the power of inconsistency - "There's a lot of pride in that room," Fletcher said. "I respect the players and how hard they played this year, and I know the character is that room."  Pride...huh?  Is it pride that drives these paid professionals to mail in games whenever they feel like it?  Is it pride behind the players who give up the minute a quick goal against is scored?  There's character??  Really???  It's character when the captain of the team repeatedly whines about the fans and the local media for taking the team to task?  It's character when a player publicly voices disappointment when nothing was done during the trade deadline...on a team with no cap space and the only Wild player of any value was one of the 2 or 3 only reasons this team was in the hunt at all at that point?
5. Of the following UFA's there's only one worth keeping, IMO: Andrew Brunette, John Madden, Antti Miettinen, Chuck Kobasew and Jose Theodore.  I'm sorry to all of you Madden Lovers but he's a bust with this team.  There's a reason John's always smiling out there on the ice - because he's getting paid huge money to do nothing.  Miettinen will find himself back in the Euro league after one more season on a different NHL team - if he lasts that long.  Kobasew is 4th line material and we've got plenty of young kids in Houston ready to make their debut for a lot less money.  Jose needs to be a number 1 goalie and I wish him nothing but the best for his future and his family...in the Eastern Conference ;) 
6. The following trade bait players should be packaged as one piece and offered up with a bag of used pucks for a bonafide scoring center: Brent Burns, Nick Schultz and Pierre-Marc Bouchard.  I'm sorry PMB, but Burns' terrible play lately makes it impossible to trick, er - I mean entice any other GM to make a serious trade with us. 

Close your eyes.  Picture a fork.  Now picture a roast: beef or pork, doesn't really matter - whatever your preference is.  Now picture the fork stuck in the roast.  That's the Wild, folks.  They're done - dried up - tasteless and overcooked.  A cheap piece of rump or bottom meat that's been asked to masquerade as prime rib.  Not that we thought a playoff run was anything but a pipe dream going into this season.  But, as a true fan of the team you love and live for...you catch yourself hoping against hope, in the back of your mind during those rare moments of great play on the ice that they just.  might.  do.  it.  Then reality sinks in as the team, who's only consistent mode of operation this season has been the curse of inconsistency, takes a collective dump at center ice.  And yet, Fletcher and Richards see the pride and character in the room of players who have worked so hard this season.  Somebody's been drinking the Kool Aid...

• The most valuable point Russo made in his article: 

"But before they can hit the links, it is incumbent on the Wild's paid professionals to show some pride and play the game the right way these final nine games...

Or, it will get really ugly around these parts."

In case Craig Leipold needs some help deciphering that - it means season ticket holders are ready to send a message to your wallet.  Do the right thing. 

The Wheels On The Bus Keep Falling Off

I could write a post filled with the F bombs but what good would it do?  I mean, really - if you think about it...the way the Wild have played all season and it takes all the way to March 20th before there's a total blowout game?  I'd say the team is pretty lucky. 

Let me take this opportunity to point out the bright spots of tonight's experience at the game:

• Double Anthem Night!  The fact that there were 18,000 Habs fans in attendance made for the most spine tingling rendition of O'Canada I've ever participated in.  And they all sang along for the National Anthem as well which made my eyes tear up.  The best part of this pre-game ritual for me tonight was when the camera panned the Wild bench and focused in on Eric Nystrom belting out the National Anthem.  Thank you, Eric.  
• Yep, that's it for bright spots.    

Not for the first time, I'd like someone to tell me what it is that John Madden and Eric Nystrom bring to this team - other than bloated contracts for dried-up, non-existent scoring?  Madden: 12 goals, 12 assists for 24 points.  Nystrom: 3 goals, 6 assists for 9 points.  These are two guys who were supposed to bring Stanley Cup experience and scoring to the team...I'm still waiting.  Good thing I'm not holding my breath, huh? 

Not for the first time, our defense STUNK IT UP.  This time they hung both of our goaltenders out to dry, in a single game.  Even my warrior hero, Zanon, had an awful game tonight.   

Not for the first time, our goaltending has proven to be Swiss cheese in critical games.  I'm a little more inclined to be lenient, to a certain extent, with Theodore and Backstrom because of the crappy team they've had in front of them all season long.  

Not for the first time, I've come to realize that our best players would be 2nd or 3rd liners on any other NHL team.  This is why we'll never get any other team to give us anything other than a 3rd round draft pick in return.  And that includes Brent Burns, thanks to his erratic play this season. 

Not for the first time, Russo will explain that this coming off season will not see huge changes to the Wild's lineup in terms of a high-scoring center.  The Wild are within centimeters of their cap - all being paid out to players who don't show up on any given night. 

Not for the last time, I'd like to see Todd Richards fired.  It's not his fault that players don't show up for games, but he's not blameless in all of this: waiting until Jose's let in 5 goals before pulling him, not  benching Burns for his horrendous play lately, waiting way too long to bench Miettinen.  After the game, John Madden was quoted as being embarrassed by the team's play tonight.  Mikko  Koivu was quoted as being embarrassed by the team's play tonight.  According to Russo's coverage: "By the middle of the second period, frustrated General Manager Chuck Fletcher held his chin up by his right hand.  Angered owner Craig Leipold sat in his suite with his arms folded."  Todd Richards...not embarrassed: "They're embarrassed by this and we'll be ready on Tuesday."  Richards doesn't think the team has given up...hmmmm, 0 - 5 -1 in the last six games.  I dunno Todd, I think you might need to open your eyes.  Todd did admit "I need to be better as a coach."  He did state the "players need to be better as players."  This one makes me really scared: "I trust the group, I trust the leaders."  Really, Todd?  Cuz left to their own leadership this team can't seem to find it's way from the locker room to the ice for the last 6 six games.  Todd trusts his players so much that Monday is a day off for them - after having embarrassed themselves at home in front of 18,595 fans Sunday afternoon and after having only picked up 1 point in the last 6 games.     

And lastly - not for the last time: Will Mikko Koivu please STFU about being held accountable by the local media for your horrible play?  My God, what a whiney-assed snivel monster he can be when we all start pointing out how horrible he and/or the team is playing.  Read Russo's post game blog - down towards the end of it.  Grow a pair, Mikko - or buy a pair.  Lord knows you're being paid enough by the Wild that you can afford a set of them.   

 

Trading Sleep For Sunlight, Rites of Spring

Spring In My Step
Yeah, yeah - we lost an hour of sleep having to set the clocks one hour ahead last week.  For some of you it's kind of a hardship and you're feeling a little off still.  For me it's like having been sprung from a dark, dank dungeon.  Having the sun still shining brightly until 7:30 p.m. makes getting through the last two months of winter almost tolerable.  My soul is starting to recharge after operating on backup power these last 4 months.  Spring is about rebirth and coming out of a deep cold slumber.  Spring is about all things green and growing.  Spring is for Easter and we all know what that means...



Or my favorite -


My absolute favorite thing about Easter is the return of PEEPS.  Everybody knows peeps are best consumed when stale, after having sat out in the open air for about 3 days or so.  I mean, anybody who doesn't eat their peeps stale is simply uneducated.  Check out what happens when peeps attack...



It doesn't get any better than peanut butter and chocolate, except when it's a chocolate Easter Bunny gettin' jiggy with the peanut butter...


And who doesn't know that the best Easter movie isn't about the Ten Commandments...


There you go, folks - a little something to get you smiling and thinking Spring! 

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The Good
Mikko, Clutterbuck and Stoner returned to the lineup for tonight's game in Vancouver.  Mikko gets a goal and 2 assists.  Stoner gets an assist. 

The Bad
Wild's play-off chances after going 0-3 in this 4 game road trip so far.  The team is now sitting in 11th place, 5 points from the 8 seed.  The Wild don't play again until Thursday...in San Jose.      

The Ugly
Niklas Backstrom's goaltending and the Wild's power play.

Rah, rah, rah...sis boom bah.  The homer announcers and Todd Richards tried to put a good spin on how terrific the Wild played after the first period.  The team, specifically Backstrom and our penalty killers, sucked so bad during the first 20 minutes there was just no coming back from it.  Not when you're playing the number one team in the conference who just happen to have the best power play in the league - and they proved it twice in the first period.  And if the Wild played so awesomely well during the second and third period how come they couldn't convert on six power plays - one of which was a 5-3?     

Return of Latendresse, HUGE Freakin' Win!

95 Points To Make Playoffs

Wild Total: 77 Points

Games Remaining: 15

Wins Needed: 10

First things first - another Chalk Talk session with Wes Walz tonight prior to the game.  Sally was along for this one and she got the full Wes Walz experience: from asking him a question to getting her picture taken with him to having her Wild sweatshirt signed by him.  All that and a really informative whiteboard session by Wes on how the Avs were expected to play and how the Wild needed to react.  The more of these I attend the more the lightbulb goes off in my head when I see how the guys line up for faceoffs and how they position themselves going up ice.  And the more I get to gaze at Wes with his salt-n-pepper hair and that melt-my-heart-smile and his utter candor when answering questions about himself or the team the richer I am for having experienced it.  

Game On!
Great first period by the Wild... I mean GREAT, as in Tony the Tiger!  Forechecking like mad men and applying pressure just like Wes said they needed to.  How freaking fabulous is it to have GLat back?!!!!  Love me some Latendresse hulking around the corners and taking up BIG space in front of the opposing team's net.  Gui put in 10 minutes worth of work in his first game back - I'd say he tested himself for sure.  How about the Wild scoring first for a change?  Talk about stoking the team up!  You could feel their energy all the way up in our seats, not just part way up - like to the club level where Vicki and Emily were sitting ;)   Having that 1-0 lead at the end of the first period earned the team cheers, hoots and hollers as they headed down the tunnel.  
Then came the second period and we watched as the Wild tried their very best - to implode upon themselves in typical Wild fashion.  The Avs tied the game on a sneaky goal that had to be reviewed in order to show it hit the in-net camera and bounced back out in a flash.  The Avs continued to outwork, outskate and outshoot the Wild and it paid off with the go ahead goal with four minutes left.  It looked like our guys were giving up.  Then, just when you really need him to, Bruno steps up and says that's enough of that crap - and scored the tying goal with three minutes left in the second.  There was a collective deep breath from the 18,000 plus fans and I'm sure the Wild players were doing the same thing on the bench - whew!    
The third period was glorious!  The guys got their act together during that second intermission and came out gunning for the win.  There were hard fought battles at both ends of the ice and it took until the 11 minute mark but John Madden buried a second or third rebound shot for the lead and the guys never looked back.  SPURGE! got his second NHL goal and his first 2 point game in the NHL (assist on the Bruno goal in the 2nd).  It's the little guys succeeding that make me so proud :)  Jared got himself the third star of the game for his effort tonight, and rightly so.  It took three tries in the last 2 minutes of the game but Kyle Brodziak finally potted the empty netter at 19:52 to make the final score 5-2.  Avs coach Sacco sent out his head hunter, Cody McLeod, with 3 seconds left in the game.  He heads straight for Zhidlicky and hits him up high in the shoulder AFTER the buzzer sounded for the end of the game.  McLeod got 2 minutes for roughing and 10 minute misconuct but I really think that Sacco should get fined.           

Side Note: Gui's new nickname going forward, compliments of Wes Walz: Diesel.  Wes spoke about getting Gui back into the game at this point and what some of the concerns are regarding his 'conditioning'.  Wes acknowledged that Gui is a big guy, compared to the 170 pound guys around him in the locker room.  He likened Gui to diesel engines, needing more time to come up to speed, due to their size.  I think he nailed it on the head.  Wes also said that at some point guys just need to get into the game in order to stop second guessing themselves about where they're at with conditioning and their confidence level.    

Hey Emily - hope your eye and cheek feel better soon!  Way to take one for the team ;)

Testament To Getting The Job Done:
Bruno - played sick tonight after being down for the count yesterday with the flu bug that's trying to make the rounds through the team.  Coach Richards said Bruno looked like crap after the game but said he wasn't surprised by Andrew's dedication to playing through it.  Bruno got the game tied up when we desperately needed to.       

Dave - look down, right underneath this sentence...see the word "comments" ?  Click on it!    

Numbers Game

95 Points To Make Playoffs

Wild Total: 75 Points

Games Remaining: 16

Wins Needed: 11

In the waning moments of this, the Wild's 10th anniversary in the NHL, the team finds itself having to play each remaining game like it's for the Cup - before ever getting into the the playoffs.  This is not unfamiliar territory for the team, in fact it seems to be their mode of operation.  The team's history and stats don't lie when it comes to seeing why they struggle to secure a playoff berth.  The Western Conference is tight and that's not just this year, it's every year.  Yet the Wild can't seem to figure this out, until it's way too late.  They're slow to pick up on the fact they've got to put in the effort night in and night out, for a FULL season, in order to clear the top 5 seeds in the Western Conference.  That's something the Wild just don't seem to be able to do, regardless of who the coach was, or is.  It has nothing to do with learning a particular style of hockey.  It has nothing to do with 'gelling' as a team.  It has to do with each and every player giving 100% of themselves, putting their very best effort out on the ice for every game.  It means coming to the arena ready to play your heart out, whether it's a road game or in front of the home crowd.  It means being able to say at the end of 99% of those 60 minute matches - we played the whole game and we played to win.

The Wild didn't play 60 minutes of hockey Sunday night.  The Wild didn't play good hockey Sunday night.  That pretty much sums it up.  Yes, the team rallied from a 2 - 0 Sabres lead to tie the game and send it into overtime.  Yes, one point is better than a total loss for the night's effort.  But there really wasn't an honest effort put forth by the Wild, was there?  It speaks volumes for where this team is at right now when a call-up player from Houston, Warren Peters, can put things into perspective so succinctly: "Moral victories, there's no room for those anymore, I don't think."


Nope, there's only room for 10 wins.

Russo tells it like it is regarding the Wild's standings and their lack of effort. 

Wild vs Hawks, Birthday Surprise!

*** Before anyone starts emailing me with Hobbit news - I already knew.  I follow Russo on Twitter.  I'll blog about it, and the other Wild moves, on Tuesday

Wild 2, Hawks 4

20 Minutes of Hockey Does Not a Hockey Game Make

Boy, where have you heard that before?  In classic Wild fashion, which I think we had all either blocked from our memories or at the very least hoped we'd never have to witness again, the Wild only showed up for one period of hockey tonight.  Granted, it was a fairly exciting period but it was not enough to put the guys back in the game.  Our guys were behind the Chicago players by a good step for every shift in the first.  They were missing passes, missing opportunities and generally just had the look of being out of it.  The Wild was booed, lightly, off the ice after the first period. 

Knowing how much the booing at home bothers Coach Richards, a Wild fan might expect that the team would come out with mucho gusto in the second in order to make it right.  One would think that, right?  Instead the Wild came out even flatter than in the first period.  They stunk.  They really stunk.  And I was in a funk.  A pretty big funk.  So much of a funk that when the team finally did make a drive to the net for a scoring chance I was yelling at them for going the wrong way...which they had been doing for almost 40 minutes up to that point.  Perhaps I was thinking we were still in the first period when Backstrom is in our end of the arena.  Perhaps the Wild's play was so bad up to that point that the 2 periods had just melded together for one bad dream sequence.  Perhaps I had a small stroke from yelling at the team for 40 minutes straight.  Perhaps it was the margarita I had for dinner before the game. Whatever the reason behind the Freudian slip, at least it was a comical highlight of the evening for the four of us and let's face it - the game wasn't going to provide any highlights worth cherishing afterwards.  I'm always game to be the reason for laughter among friends - if you can't laugh at yourself then you're not any fun to be around, right?  Too bad Vicki couldn't have caught Dave's expression as he was trying to figure if I had truly gone mad.

Back to the game...why, you ask?  Well, because I lived through it and so all of you have to now as well.  The Hawks take a 3-0 lead going into the second intermission and the arena ERUPTED into boos as the Wild went down the tunnel. 

Third period starts and it's like the Wild received shock therapy treatments while sitting on the bench.  Just 45 seconds in Havlat scores a breakaway goal on his way out of the penalty box.  This, by the way, is exactly what Dave said the team needed to do.  Message received, Coach Daggett!  The team made more of an effort and Burns did score on a 'never say die' drive to the net where he got his own rebound off of Crawford and buried the puck to put the game within 1 goal of a tie in regulation.  Now it's a 3-2 game and the arena has come alive - FINALLY, something to get jiggy about.  Wild go on the powerplay at the 16:38 mark and pull Backstrom for the extra-extra man advantage.  And then the air gets sucked out of the arena as Hossa gets a shorthanded goal - you know, the kind of goals the Wild owns the record for giving up the most of this season?  I hate that.  Too little, too late is the motto of tonight's game and just like that, we went from 5th place to 9th.  

Key notes from the game:

• Backstrom battled the puck all night and that second goal he let in shouldn't have happened.  He's now allowed 3 or more goals in two consecutive starts.  Take that stat for whatever you want to.
• Havlat, while getting his 20th goal of the season tonight, was a defensive liability for the other 59 minutes and 30 seconds of the game.  At one point he actually flinched and turned away from a Hawks player making a pass out of their defensive zone.  He's a cherry picker and a blue line floater and yet he gets all the praise in the world from Richards like he's the second coming of Ovechkin.  
• Eight players with a minus rating tonight, 4 of them were defensemen.  Zhidlicky not showing good form yet and it makes me wonder if his shoulder is really okay.  
• Staubitz showed bad form, judgement and timing when he checked a Hawks player after the touch up on an icing call.  Former Wild player Big John Scott beat the snot out of him for it - and deservedly so.
• Evidently the team was a little shocked and dismayed that GM Chuck Fletcher didn't make a significant trade before the deadline today.  WTF???  You mean to tell me our players aren't keeping up with their own team's salary cap numbers as well as who's out there for trade purposes?  Was Zanon willing to get shipped off for a high scoring center?  I'm guessing not, so STFU, Greg.  What on earth did these guys think Fletcher could with 2 old pennies and a buffalo nickel, an analogy of our cap space, FFS?       

We ♥ Dave!

Because embarrassing public displays of affection is just the way Vicki and I roll, you can imagine Coach Dave's surprise when we caught him off guard by celebrating his birthday a week late during the game tonight.  For those of you who are newer to the world of Dee-Icing via blog here's some history which will explain the bag of goodies Dave received tonight.  

I used to do this little rant in email format which would prompt some very entertaining 'reply-all' email strings and some great week long debates.  That's definitely something I miss these days with people's disdain, or perhaps fear, of leaving comments on the blog - subtle hint right there. 

Anywho - during one of my trips south in the early months of 2010 there sprang to life a string of email responses to one of my game reviews which went a little something like this:

Vicki: I'll take the hit for the team's most recent loss since I wasn't wearing my rally nails.

Bobbi: What are rally nails and where does one get them?

Vicki: One gets them at Target or Kmart with a bottle of green nail polish and a botlle of red polish and then paints them on.  

Dave: What would us guys have to do then in order to support the team? 

Tim: Perhaps paint our toenails or wear special socks to rally behind the Wild
Vicki: Yes, Dave, paint your nails as well! 
The actual email string was several pages long by the time I stumbled across it two days later when I signed into my email while in Georgia.  Here's my response:
Dee: Holy Hockey Hall of Fame, people!  I leave for a week and you stage a mani/pedi uprising??  I'd probably pay good money to see Dave and Tim with Wild Rally Toenails but I'm not sure their loved ones would understand ;)  And what's this about Vicki going Wild with her hair?? 

This tickled Dave's funny bone to no end and he still talks about this particular exchange from one of the game reviews as a highlight of hanging out in 'cyberland' with this group of passionate Wild fans.  Here's the contents of his birthday gift bag:

• Bottle of Red Nail Polish
• Bottle of Green Nail Polish
• Red and Green Argyle socks, in case polish on his toenails will undermine his bad-ass rep while refereeing.  
• 'Wilds' Rally Scarf, lovingly made by Vicki.  In case Dave didn't already know how much we adore him, this pretty much seals the deal.  It's a pretty elite group of people who get a Wilds scarf.

Happy Birthday, Again, Coach!  Thanks for putting up with us hockey chicks all these years!


Sporting that coveted Wilds Scarf - Very Nice!




The arena was full of Hawks fans tonight, grrrrr.  Okay, these folks from Fargo (ya sure dontcha know) were good natured - but I still couldn't get them to take Havlat, Madden or Barker back with them.  Curse you, Hawks fans   ;)