Not only was yesterday the official "Hockey Day in Canada" (8th annual), it was also officially "Hockey Day Minnesota" (2nd annual). And what a "Hockey Day" it was. With the wife and the baby girl out of state scrap booking, the boys and I celebrated the coolest game on earth by not doing a darn thing and taking in 12+ hours of nothing but hockey, hockey, hockey!

We started the day, appropriately, at the rink for the 5 year old's mite game. When we arrived back home, the first game of Hockey Day Minnesota was already under way (Lake of the Woods vs. Eveleth-Gilbert high school game which was played outdoors on Baudette Bay, near the Rainey River I believe). The reported wind chill was -42 degrees. Yes, that's a minus sign in front of the number. 42-freaking-below zero!!! And the cool thing was: there were fans in the stands and kids sliding down the hill by the outdoor rink. With weather like that, sometimes I think that we are simply the southern most province in Canada. We certainly take to their national past time with what appears to be similar passion. The second game of the day was played inside at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul between two private high school power houses (St. Thomas Academy vs. Hill-Murray). Both teams were neck in neck coming in to this game and the winner would be the odds on favorite to win the conference championship for the regular season. This game did not disappoint. Down by one goal and trailing the Cadets from St. Thomas Academy, the Pioneers of Hill-Murray pulled their goalie and scored in the last 30 seconds of the third to force overtime. The Pioneers pulled off a dramatic win in OT and crushed the Cadets hopes of another conference championship. Last year, both schools were co-champs. Interestingly, St. Thomas opts to play in the small school division for state playoffs, while Hill-Murray has a long history of big school State Tournment appearances/championships. Apparently, both the Wild players and the Islander players, who hit the ice immediately after, took in the OT in the runway to the benches. We were then treated to the final period of the second game outside from "up north". The Blaine Bengals were taking on last year's big school champions, the Roseau Rams. And the Bengals were skating right with last year's champs. The game was knotted at zeros going into the 3rd. A tight period and a pretty goal by the Rams was all it took to wrap this one up. And then it was on to the Wild game.

Wild v. Islanders thoughts: Boy Rick DiPietro is AWESOME! I loved the way he roamed and played the puck. Every goal that was scored on him was not his fault at all. A couple of screens and a rebound game winner in OT by Burns off of a Gaborik chance, none of which he could have done more to stop. Hats off to the Islanders for not giving up and giving it a gritty effort. Too bad the Wild didn't show up for the first couple of minutes in the 2nd and 3rd periods and gave them chances to get back in the game. And how much fun was it to see former Wild players Richard Park and Andy Sutton. Those two bring back some good memories. I was encouraged to see the Wild come back in the 3rd being down to tie the game on Rolston's goal. I was psyched when Burns netted the OT winner.

Hockey Day Minnesota ended with the once glorious Golden Gophers from the University of Minnesota getting pounded, as they have been all year, this time by the University of Denver Pioneers. Hmmmmmm. Perhaps the Wild beating the Islanders was some kind of karma for their team stealing Okposo from the Gophers? Or perhaps it was payback for the Mets' fleecing of the Twins in the Johan Santanna deal? Hmmmmm!

My "Hockey Day" ended when I was on CenterIce that the Colorado Avalanche were killing the Cancuks. However, when one has CenterIce, every day can be "Hockey Day".

On Sunday, I kept my eye/ear on the Penguins-Flyers tilt (gotta love the intra-state rivalry) while getting a bunch of work done that I thought I might be able to do the day before (yeah right). Then I took in the Ducks-Wings game. Too bad a horrible call by the refs in the 3rd period ended that one. As that game ended, the Wild vs. Blues game began. And yet another game where the Wild never really seemed to show up consistently until the 3rd period. And, another workman like performance by the Wild which led to another win they were lucky to escape with.

Given the last week, I'm not sure which scenario I liked better: the Wild playing very well, but losing to the Red Wings and Stars; or the Wild playing not so well and escaping with two overtime wins. I'll take the points, but....... If we allow teams to hang around too long, we will be coming out on the short end of the stick sooner or later.

Sometimes it feels like the Wild are playing up or down to the level of their competition. But again, hats off to the Blues for coming back with a very solid effort after getting pounded in Dallas the night before.

Harding was in nets for the first time in a long time and was rock solid. Gaborik simply needs to start finnishing so that these games are not as close. In both days' games, he had excellent chances but either couldn't finish or was simply shut down by two very good goalies. He needs to learn how to beat even the best of goaltenders for this team to have the kind of success we all are hoping for. Burns was the hero yet again for the 2nd night in a row with a great defensive game and a SWEET shootout goal. This one is worth looking up the replay on the internet folks! Both Gaborik and Rolston had chances to win it in the 3rd and/or shootout, but failed to do so. Besides Burns, the player I've been most impressed with as of late has been Pierre-Marc Bouchard. The way this kid dangles!?!?!? Easy to see that it's a contract year for him. He has some magic hands and dancing feet as he dangles every game through the opposing team in the Wild's offensive zone. DR better get his check book out and resign this one and soon before he get's an offer sheet the Wild can't afford during the offseason.

That being said, it is now roughly two weeks until the trade deadline. The question becomes: who do you want the Wild to get by/before then? That then begs the question: who or what do you give up to get whoever it is that you want? There has been some talk about the Wild being interested, like every other team, in Forsberg and, much to my surprise, Forsberg being somewhat interested in the Wild. Must mean that he thinks we have an outside chance at doing something special in the playoffs. The real question for Wild fans, however, is what will Risebrough do or not do?

The Wild continue to play well and, most games, well enough to pull down at least one point if not two and not allow the other NW teams chasing us to ever catch us. Will that continue the rest of the year? Who knows. Right now, it's all about riding momentum as we now travel to Edmonton on Tuesday and Vancouver on Valentine's Day. This trip may clue us in to whether or not the Wild is maturing into a team of champions or not. As for the rest of our NW rivals, here's what's on tap this week.

Colorado: Ducks at home on Tuesday and St. Louis at home on Thursday;
Calgary: in San Jose on Tuesday and in L.A. on Friday;
Edmonton: Wild at home on Tuesday, at San Jose on Thursday and at Vancouver on Sat;
Vancouver: at home against Chicago on Sunday, Wild on Thursday and the Oil on Sat.

Should be an interesting week in the NW Division. Go Wild!!!!!!

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