Random Thoughts...

The Boogy Man cracks

For the type of role Derek Boogaard fills, he is usually one cool customer. He has always played a much disciplined game, which is somewhat of a surprise considering the type of player he faces every night. And he has never been looked upon as a liability, penalty wise, because 9 times out of 10, Boogaard is the player who has had the cooler head and actually is good at drawing the penalty. But as we saw in the Wild's last two games, even he can crack, as his level of discipline has dwindled. Rewind to the Wild's 3-2 SO victory over the Edmonton Oilers this past Sunday. Right before a face-off in the first period, Zack Stortini of the Oilers and Boogaard where jawing back and forth, so fans knew something was about to happen. And sure enough, as soon as the puck was dropped, Boogaard laid into him with a stick across the mid-section. The call from the referee was a slashing penalty and victory to Stortini for holding back. Then last night against the Colorado Avalanche, with the Wild holding onto a 2-1 lead, Boogaard apparently had some unfinished business with the Avs Darcy Tucker. Again, right off of a face-off after a jawing session, Boogaard again displayed his undisciplined side and took down Tucker, drawing a double minor for holding and crosschecking. The Avs subsequently went on to tie the score. Boogaard only averages 4:52 a game and my thought is that will be dropped to zero if he continues this type of play...

Cal, the multi-talented athlete

Our rookie hitting sensation, with a league leading 208 hits, apparently excels in other sports besides hockey. He displayed his soccer slide-tackle-goal scoring, or his baseball slide into the catcher at home plate technique, whichever way you want to see it, last night against the Avs. With the score knotted up a 2, Cal Clutterbuck went after a loose puck that was sitting in the 5-hole of a kneeling Andrew Raycroft, in the Avs crease. Instead of simply diving stick-first to poke the puck in, Clutterbuck decided it would be best to slide skates first into the pads of the goaltender. Yeah, the puck did go in and was initially ruled a goal, but it was subsequently waived off after a short review. The only explanation I can come up with as to why he would slide this way into the goaltender, was that maybe he was having a flash-back to his youth, on either the 'pitch' or the 'diamond'.

FSN extra's

I hope I am not alone on this one...but I really cannot stand a few of the segments that FSN airs during Wild telecasts. The first segment is what I believe they call the 'face-off', between color guy Mike Greenlay and reporter Kevin Gorg. And for those of you who have not seen this before, the two are given a series of NHL and hockey related questions, one at a time, and they have 30 seconds to give their best answers. The viewing audience then selects the winner by text messaging their pick. This has to be the most wasteful use of Wild broadcast time that could be spent on player interviews, game highlights, stat analysis, or pretty much anything else. I almost feel embarrassed for the two of them as they plead for votes from the teen text-happy crowd. The second segment that is almost as useless, comes after the game and involves a couple of former players trying to re-live their past...I'm only kidding about this because former Wild player Darby Hendrickson is usually involved and I believe he is a first-class individual. It's the segment where they go on-ice for a demonstration of a play that occurred during the previously aired game. Give the fans more in the way of maybe wrapping up the nights NHL games with highlights and stats. Or how about a good preview of an upcoming game...anything but Gorg showing us why he, as a player, was the one who was stuck in goal.