Remember that obnoxious goal siren and god-awful red flame I wrote about in my last post? Yeah, got to see that 4 times tonite, as the Wild are dominated by the Calgary Flames tonite, 4-1. The Wild are absolutely terrible in the Saddledome. The lone Wild goal was a token goal from Marc-Andre Bergeron with only a couple minutes left in the 3rd. There’s not much to talk about in this one from a Wild fan standpoint. Hopefully my UMD Bulldogs will beat UMTC Gophers tonight, in a game that I know has ended but I will be watching on tape delay. Go Dogs!

Boogaard Has Got to Go
Tonite did provide further proof that there is no reason to have Derek Boogaard on this team. I continue to have no clue what value he provides. Late in the 3rd he was on the ice…why I can not fathom…and came in late and hit Flames F Brandon Prust high with an elbow. It made quite the sound into the boards, and Prust went to the ice. As Flames D Dion Phaneuf and Jim Vandermeer went after Boogaard. That prompted Wild play-by-play and analyst guys to babble about how Phaneuf and Vandermeer were cross checking and punching and slashing Boogaard, as if he didn’t deserve it. Seriously…WHY IS EVERYONE SO INFATUATED WITH DEREK BOOGAARD?!?!?! Drives me insane! He’s terrible!

(Hopefully I still have some Wild fans reading this blog after I made that statement…)

Fight to…Make the Playoffs
Starting play the Wild were in a 4-way tie for 7th place in the West. The other 3 teams in that tie are off tonite, so that will be the story tomorrow night as well.

Next
Wild play game 2 of the NW Division leg of this road trip tomorrow night in Edmonton. We’re quickly approaching “biggest game of the season” time. The Oil is one of the teams in that 4-team tie for 7th, so it is a very big game. The Oil are 1-3-1 in their last 5. But they also have an obnoxious goal siren, so that doesn’t bode well for my favorite team.