I’ve been meaning to put up a random post for about 5 days now. Long layoff for the Wild gives me a chance to muse about things I normally wouldn’t write about. But alas, Wild play tomorrow, so here is said post.

Wild v. Lightning
I had no game recap for Saturday’s game v. Tampa Bay. We went to a  nice Oktoberfest party and I didn’t get to see any of the Wild’s 1st game v. Barry Melrose and Wes Walz. Apparently I didn’t miss much. The final was 1-0 Wild in a shootout, with Antti Miettinen scoring the SO winner.

Special Feature Coming Soon
I have family in the Dallas area, and my cousin Matt is a big Stars fan. We’re going to work on a new feature for this blog for the 4 Wild/Stars games this season. The Wild are in Dallas next Wed Oct 29th and Matt is planning to go to the game, so look for my recap as well as a recap guest post from him. We’ll try a couple other things throughout the season as well for the games v. the team that I believe should be our biggest rival. If they would just realign the divisions…

Gabby
Alot has been written in the mainstream media over the last few days about Marian Gaborik. Mostly the steam is that he is on the trading block because it does not seem that the team will be able to sign him. There are basically 2 sides to the Wild faithful on this issue…1 that says good riddance because he is an overpriced injury-prone prima donna…the 2nd that says we need Gabby in a Wild sweater to be successful.

I, like most under the Libra zodiac sign, tend to waffle. I see both sides to the argument and on any given day I might think if Gabby is gone we won’t score enough goals and we’ll miss the playoffs for the next 3 years. The next day I’ll be hatin’ on Gaborik and looking forward to the day the soap opera is over. But regardless of how I feel, Wild fans better get used to the idea of a Wild team without it’s superstar for the 1st time since it’s inception.

NHL.com
If you haven’t yet, head over to NHL.com and check it out. I have been very impressed with its redesign. The feature stories are interesting. In-game stats are elaborate on NHL Gamecenter. They do a great job of highlighting the game and its players. You can watch the highlights of every goal over the last 3 years, and the NHL Network Online application collects the best features from each team’s website. NHL.com is one thing I think the league is doing right in the marketing department.

KFAN’s Jeff Dubay
I’m not going to get into any speculation or anything here, but I did want to send out positive vibes to Jeff Dubay of KFAN’s PA and Dubay show. I have listened to PA and Dubay for probably around 7 or 8 years and I was disappointed to hear about the recent charges against Puff. I’m not going to pretend that I know what he is going through, but I do hope he pulls through OK and we can get back to hearing him on the FAN talkin’ hockey, Twins, and everything else Minnesota sports.

Tampa Bay Rays
Am I the only one rooting against the Rays in the World Series? The Twins should be the only under-achieving team winning in a bad stadium. FYI, they’re down 1-0 to the Phillies as of right…about…now.

Next on the Docket – Wild v. Sabres – Thurs Oct 23rd
Sabres are 5-0-1, Wild are 4-0. Something’s got to give…unless it goes to overtime. Should be a pretty fast-paced game. I’ll go with the Wild, 4-3.

Wild @ Lightning - 2-27-08 - A View from the Couch
Gutty 3-2 W for the Wild tonite. Could be the biggest win of the year in terms of confidence and timing. I was worried when I saw newly-aquired G Mike Smith in net for Tampa Bay, as he shut out the Wild earlier in the year, but the Wizzy played a solid game defensively, got a great game from G Niklas Backstrom, and threw in some strong driving to the net offense to get a couple goals. Goals came from Pierre-Marc Bouchard or Todd Fedoruk depending if they change the scoring, Pavol Demitra, and Brian Rolston. PMB's and Rolston's goals came on the powerplay. I think this one will go a long way towards regaining the confidence they had a week and a half ago.

Jots

• Thug Nation did nothing on a line with Todd Fedoruk and a couple different centers. Don't like that dynamic.
• Mikko Koivu was out most of the nite with Marian Gaborik and Pavol Demitra. Demo has mentioned in the past that he likes Koivu the best between them. They had some decent chances, and Demo scored off a nice pass from Koivu.
• Tough to expect Eric Belanger to score on a line with Branco Radivojevic and Stephane Veilleux. Also, with how much I've been down on Belanger lately, he's one point shy of his career high. I'll back off a bit...but I'd still like him to produce like he did early in the year.
• I'm not impressed with the recent play of Keith Carney or Sean Hill. One of Tampa Bay's goals tonite came when Carney was muscled off the puck behind the net.
• Wild took way too many penalties tonite. Obviously tired out the penalty killers and took time from the other skaters.
• It was nice watching the game tonite. My wife and I saw a game at St. Pete Times Forum last spring. It's an ugly, dingy arena and your feet stick to the cement when you walk, but the fans have a good time.

Fight to Hang the 1st Banner
The win brings the Wild into a tie with Calgary for 1st in the Northwest. Calgary is off tonite so both teams have played 64 games. So with 18 to go, we'll see where it goes. Friday Wild is at Florida, Calgary is in Anaheim.

Vancouver leasds Colorado 1-0 in the 2nd at the time of this post. If you read this in time, the game is available on NHL Network in the US. Former UMD Bulldog Mason Raymond has the goal for the Canucks. Adam Foote, Joe Sakic, and Paul Stastney are all in the lineup for Colorado. No Forsberg tho. Colorado is 2 points behind Vancouver for the last playoff spot in the West, so it's a big game.

Next on the Docket - Wild @ Panthers - Fri 2-29-08
In a game where we can watch the love we lost in Olli Jokinen (he was rumored to be coming to the Wild at the trade deadline), the Wild need to close out the road trip strong against another bad team. I look for a 2nd win in a row. Wild 4 Panthers 1