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I hate to correct the hockey guru of the MOB, but Chad\’s bitching commenting about the extra point that magically appears if two NHL teams go into overtime, while not incorrect, is missing a bit of historical context. With that historical context the rather asinine scoring setup appears slightly less ridiculous.

While I agree the automagical addition of an extra point just because the teams were too evenly-matched/incompetent/hesitant/trap-happy/french/etc is rather bizarre but it did have an actual reason for it at one point.

Basically that teams that went into overtime tied often stayed in overtime. The NHL in it\’s infinite possibly existant wisdom decided the reason that teams were scoring is because they were fearful of granting a two points to their opponent and nothing for themselves so they sat back on defense. So the idea being that if both teams have nothing to lose, in that they are both guaranteed a point, but only another point to gain, they\’ll try harder in overtime!

Of course, what was perfectly sound reasoning then was revealed to be much less so in real life. In reality, in a tight playoff race, that extra point for your opponent is still not a good thing to grant so in as much as that had any relation to how teams played the motivation to sit back on defense was still there. Plus the reasons why scoring has been extremely low is hardly limited to strategic point-mongering. Rather it\’s likely a complex combination of a massive number of reasons, all of which are currently archived in a huge complex of warehouses occasionally mistaken as Detroit.

Having not solved the problem they then changed the rules by adding a shootout, which destroyed the entire point for having a motivating factor to settle a tied game since there are no longer tie games.

So now we are left with the logical result. A point system that makes no sense, was ineffective even when it sorta did and low scoring which results in lots of tie games. That sound you heard was Bobby Orr farting.

Oh this young man has had a very trying rookie season, with the litigation, the notoriety, his subsequent deportation to Canada and that country\’s refusal to accept him, well, I guess that\’s more than most 21-year-olds can handle…..

….Chris Simon, the newest member of the Minnesota Wild. You may remember him as the guy that tried decapitation and amputation instead of icing the puke as a way to get a stoppage of play.

True, he\’s done his time, but he\’s a thug and that\’s about it. Of course, it means the Wild can now officially put the Hanson Brothers Line on the ice.

Todd Federuk as Jeff Hanson
Chris Simon as Steve Hanson
Aaron Voros* as Jack Hanson

Granted I like a good physical game and a good fight or three as much as the next guy. I mean without that you have….well, girls hockey, which is just like figure skating except with different skates.

But Chris Simon?? He\’s been suspended more games than he\’s played this year. I realize the Wild need a little spark, but trading for Dr. Strangelove is hardly the path I would have gone.

Let\’s see. We can\’t score. We need another center. Yes I can see how Chris Simon was the natural choice. On the plus side, we only had to trade a used puckbag for him.**

I set April 1st as the over/under data for his next suspension. Place your bets in the comments.

* Temporarily standing in for Derek Boogaard, who is on IR with….*shakes magic 8-ball*….back problems.

** My Slap Shot reference trifecta is now also complete.

Attended the Wild vs Rangers game at the Xcel Center this evening, figured it would be a good game but nothing like this.

If case you didn\’t already hear, Marion Gaborik scored five goals in the game, and he started off the streak with a natural hat trick. In addition he assisted one the one other Wild goal in the game. For a little bit of perspective, the last player to score five goals in one game was Sergei Fedorov on December 26, 1996 in a 5-4 win over Washington, almost exactly 11 years ago.

And here I thought the awesome smackdown by Brent Burns was gonna make the highlight reel.  Burns knocked Prucha off his feet with a great check.  When Tyutin tried to retaliate with a check on Burns, Burns didn\’t even budge and knocked Tyutin onto his back.  Happened just below our seats and you could see the astonishment on Tyutin\’s face.

Game had a little bit of everything, lots of scoring, some roughhousing, bizarre plays, and an extremely raucous crowd that laid into the Rangers all night long.  Good times at the X.

Close Circuit To Lemaire : Skoula still sucks, please end your love affair with this kid, he hasn\’t done a damn thing right since he was put on skates, tonite proved that.

Looking at the program guide for TV, I have three decent options…

1. What is sure to be a great matchup….Patriots vs Steelers
2. Vikings vs 49ers
3. A rebroadcast of the 1980 USA vs USSR game on ESPN Classics

Ah who am I kidding, it\’s not even a choice.

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

One of the hooligans over at the Fraters, recently linked to a very impressive hockey fight, which I had not seen yet, but it had all the elements. Mass confusion, two big guys, haymakers back and forth and blood everywhere. Just another attraction hockey provides.

This particular fight was Koci vs Chara, but I instantly remembered a local connection. Yet another Koci fight, but this time versus our own Derek Boogaard, in which Boogaard managed to land a pretty decent upper cut.

Not quite as graphic but I remembered seeing it live, and it came against our old rivals the chicago blackhawks. Most of you probably don\’t remember those days, as that goes back to the North Stars days.

Ok first of all congrats on learning how to win while playing on the road. 

However, I do have one minor complaint.  Can we please stop getting ourselves into situations where it takes Toronto 20 minutes to decide whethere we've won the game or not.  I mean sure it's worked for you so far, but it's been a real buzz kill.  

I mean consider it from the fans perspective.

Frantic Frantic Action.  Get The Damn Puck!! Pass!! No Not Him!! Pass!  Move!! Wheels Gabbie!!!  Go!! Shoot! Shit!  Shoot!!  Pass! Back Back!!!  Now Shoooooooooot!!!! YEAH!!!! We won….er, wait a second.  Damn it, it's under review. 

Hmmm….ok we get to watch the official talk on the phone….f-ing Toronto, what takes so long?!  F-ing Canadians.

* 20 Minutes Later *

Oh by the way we won.  Huh?  Oh, tonites game?  Heh, that's cool.

You got a day off now, so work on that for Tuesday's game against the Oilers.  Both Learned Foot and I will be in house to critique how you did.  We'll probably be yelling out drunken advice anyway, but if you have any questions, feel free to come find us.  If it's to punch us because of something we said, please punch Foot, his wife has a closet full of painkillers left over from her surgery anyway.

Just got back from a Wild 3-2 OT shootout victory over the hated Vancouver Canucks. For a game against Vancouver there was minimal physical contact and not a whole lot of scoring but still a fun game.

The Demitra/Gaborik combination is continuing to work wonders and I have to wonder how long the rest of the league is going to let us get away with it. My guess is a couple more weeks.

Rolston\’s numbers are gonna be down this year. He doesn\’t have much support.

But really the point of this entire post was Dupuis. How long are we going to go before we officially declare this little experiment a failure and trade the guy? He wasn\’t all that great to begin with and since his little contract hold out a couple years back he hasn\’t done shit. He\’s slow and he can\’t shoot to save his life. Mental mistakes are the rule. I\’m sure the local high schools has someone we could use that would be able to fill his place with equal skill, and for probably half the price. Although knowing our educational system they\’ll have closed the gap within two school years.

Please dump Dupuis….and take the shackles off of Boogaard. The guy is so anxious for a fight it\’s painful.

Well Gaborik has resigned with the MN Wild, which makes the Pavol Demitra trade look alot better. However, I still maintain that they have two to three years to really prove that this trade wasn\’t just short term hoping, long-term stupidity. However, how well these two work together gives me great hope for this next season. And hopefully Demitra can finally pull out that stick that has been up Gaboriks ass for the least two seasons.

Now combine that with recent movements the Wild have made on the free agent market. Parrish, Carney, Johnsson. Bringing back Rolston. Rolston could definitely use the help of Gaborik and Demitra. Parrish parking his skilled ass in front of the net doesn\’t hurt either. Carney and Johnsson help shore up a blueline that has seen some loses. And having Carney around to kick a little tail doesn\’t hurt either.

Resigning Bouchard and Foster keeps some of the young talent around. Fernandez presumably is gonna be able to tackle the net on his own. Although it\’s gonna be exciting to see Harding finally getting a few games.

All those moves combined with what can only be described as the dismantling of Vancouver makes one wonder if the Wild have finally made the decision to make a real run for the Cup this year. I\’ll say this…it definitely makes it easier for me to drop some hard earned cash on the counter to renew my season tickets for the next year.

Well another NHL draft has gone by and it appears the theme was something along the lines of \”A bunch of Minnesotans plus a few other guys\”. Johnson, Kessel, Mueller, Okposo, Sneep, Forney, Fischer, Medvec, etc. Four Minnesotans in the top eight, including the first ever Minnesotan taken as the first pick. Impressive.

Well with all that homegrown talent, how did our MN Wild do?

Well our first rounder (#9 overall) I guess I\’m not real familiar with to be honest. By all accounts he appears to be fairly decent. He\’ll probably sit in the minors for a year or two and then hopefully pop out. Supposedly he\’s a good shooter, which is good because it\’s what the Wild need….someone who can put points on the board. Although they need that NOW, rather than in a couple years…

…which brings me to my next topic…\”the trade\”. Hell, I don\’t have to even be talking about the Wild and people know what I mean. Pavol Demitra for Patrick O\’Sullivan plus the #17 pick. Wow. Ok first things first, Demitra is an excellent player in his own right. He\’s got experience and he can put the pucks in the net. He can help Rolston out tremendously. Plus he\’s not just another Slovakian….he\’s also a good friend of Gaborik, and I have a feeling this was to encourage Gabby to re-sign more than anything else. Now the downside….Demitra is…well, he\’s 31 and he\’s had a rash of injuries lately. He\’s on the backend of his career and we gave up not only a first round pick but also an EXCELLENT prospect in O\’Sullivan (who I was really looking forward to). In a couple years, O\’Sullivan will be just as good as Demitra is plus he\’ll still be young. So the Wild have two, maybe three years to make this trade worth it. And regardless, if Gabby doesn\’t resign, then we lost out on this trade.

Picking Apple Valley High School\’s Kyle Medvec was a nice nod towards the fans. Luckily I think he\’s a pretty decent player so far. He\’ll obviously spend quite a few years in the college level or the minors, and hopefully in a couple years we can see something special.

We\’ll see what happens, but it is nice to see the Wild management stepping up and spending a little money. Perhaps they\’ve decided now is the time to make a push?? I\’ve heard they were looking to spend a little bit of money in trades/free agency this year and we certainly have room under the cap for it. Pronger is asking to be traded, might there be room on the Wild for him? I doubt the Oilers would trade him within the division though.

So I suppose the real question of this weekend is, can we really hate the Canucks as much as we once did with out that punk Bertuzzi on the team??

Well the Canes won the cup tonite with a 3-1 victory in game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, which is easily one of more challenging playoffs in sports. I got to admit I was personally cheering for the Oilers, and it would have been great to see them come back from such a deficit and take the Cup. Especially after the big lose of Roloson, whose injury I\’m still convinced was the deciding factor of the whole series.

In any case, congrats to the Canes.

And the Wild better get off their ass next year and start putting some pucks in the nets.