Nice costumes

To my knowledge, this has never been done before in a National Hockey League game, but our Minnesota Wild pulled it off without a hitch.

The Halloween spirit and festive mood displayed by our team was something very original and was a feat that should go down as one of the all-time greats. What am I referring to? It happened to be the Jacques-Lemaire-Wild-coached-team costumes that were worn last night by our current Wild bunch. It was a vintage old-time Wild game, if there is such a thing, as Minnesota stole one on the road with that old Lemaire-type spirit. The MO of several Lemaire led Wild teams in seasons past was to enter a hostile environment (Mellon Arena), get badly out-shot (35-15), and steal a victory by hanging on for dear life at the end (W 2-1).

It was classic, there is no doubt about it.

Road losing streak ends

With the win against Pittsburgh, the Wild snapped what was fast becoming their worst road losing streak in franchise history. As it was, the Wild tied that mark by losing 7 consecutive road games to start this season. But the teams victory last night assured that this is one record that will have to wait to be topped...it's bad enough that the current edition will be etched along side 06-07 version.

Our first winning streak

It looks as if our Wild need only 8 more consecutive wins to break that franchise record for longest winning streak.

Not likely, but the good news is that with the Wild's 3-2 victory on Saturday, combined with the teams 2-1 win last night, the team finally strung together a couple of wins. The games were very different, but most importantly, they had the same outcome.

A couple of observations from both: Niklas Backstrom proved in both games why he was deserved of a contract extension this past off-season, as he is still capable of stealing games for this franchise. For the two games, Backstrom faced 55 shots and allowed only 3 goals, good for a .945 sv %. Derek Boogaard, when given ice-time, can actually be an impact player more than a liability. He still only played 8:41 against the Rangers the first night and 6:48 against the Penguins last night, but considering he only averages 5:20 for his career, this is a step in the right direction. It was the 4 third period shifts in a tight game against the Rangers that had to have been a confidence builder. And finally, Eric Belanger is really proving his worth by becoming a warrior. It was not that long ago that he was quoted in the paper as saying that he thought he was a top-6 forward, which had many fans scratching their heads, thinking he was a 3rd liner at best. But lately, he is really coming through for this team. To date, his 12 points ties him for the team lead but it's the little things that he is doing, including being in the scrum in front of our net last night resulting in his blood spilling on the ice, that is separating him.

Home sellout streak still intact

But it's inching ever so close to being below capacity.

Saturday night the team eeked out another sellout at the X, bringing the franchise record to 373 consecutive sellouts, which includes pre-season, regular season, and post-season games. Against the Rangers however, in a game that was deemed as a 'premium' ticket by the front office, only 18,106 tickets were sold, their lowest this season. Yes, it is still a sellout, as the X's official capacity is 18,064, but it is dropping below recent averages. Consider that for the past two seasons, the Wild have averaged 18,568. And it has not been since the teams first season in 00-01, when the team averaged 18,239, that we have seen sellouts this close to capacity.

Back to the 80's

With my recent windfall of sports channels courtesy of DirecTv, I have had the chance to tune into MSG, the network that covers the Rangers, along with other New York major league franchises. The one thing that cannot be missed on MSG is hockey analyst Ron Duguay. Duguay, if you recall, ate up the lime-light in New York, where he was an icon to Rangers fans in the late 70's through the early 80's. He had an impressive career that spanned through the late 80's in the NHL, finally ending his career after playing a few seasons in the minors. Or so we thought...last March, Duguay played in two minor league games as a benefit for charity. At 50, and 20 years after his last NHL game, the hair was flowing as he played in two minor league games over a span of a couple of days...helmet-less. That's right, he signed a waiver allowing him to play without a lid.

That aside, the eye-catcher in the broadcasts is that he still has that girlish hair flowing, only now it is obvious that he has a hair stylist that primps, colors, and does whatever else they do. It's clear that 30 plus years later, Duguay is still soaking it up.