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   ;)