The State of Hockey is now a target

It seems as though our 'friendly' neighbors' to the north feel somewhat threatened by The State of Hockey these days. That's right, our Minnesota Wild have not only made a comeback of sorts by bringing their record against Canadian teams to 3-4-0 after a dismal 0-3-0 start to the season against teams from the north, but more importantly have handily brought down the countries two most storied franchises in Toronto and Montreal. Combine these events with the fact that Minnesota is one of the hottest team in the NHL, and you have one angry populous seething and ready to defend itself by any means available. The countries goal at this point seems to be to protect its national pastime from the State of Hockey.

In related news, a van that was carrying the Wild players equipment caught fire at the home rink of the Ottawa Senators, the site of the teams next game scheduled for tomorrow night. The fire apparently damaged some of the equipment but it is not yet known to what extent the damage is.

The release from the Wild goes as follows:

Minnesota Wild statement regarding equipment van fire in parking lot at Scotiabank Place today:

“There was a fire in an equipment van in the parking lot at Scotiabank Place this afternoon. No one was injured, but some of the Minnesota Wild’s hockey equipment was damaged. The Wild is in the process of taking inventory to determine the damage to the equipment. Minnesota is scheduled to play at Ottawa Saturday at 6:00 p.m.” The Wild had practiced earlier in the afternoon at the Kanata Rec Centre and were transporting some of the equipment back to Scotiabank Place.

It seems bad enough that a certain referee is apparently targeting Wild bruiser Derek Boogaard or that the Versus Network deliberately blocks some Tuesday Wild games from being broadcast locally even though they are not carrying the game themselves...now this, a unprovoked and unwarranted attack on a pile of smelly and moldy gear...

No word yet on the status of the game against the Senators but follow Russo's tweets for the latest updates.

Update...It looks as if the game will go on, as I just listened to Russo via AM 1500 KSTP. Wild owner Craig Leipold re-routed the teams chartered jet and a few of the equipment personal are flying back to Minnesota tonight and will undoubtedly be working through the night gathering any piece of hockey gear that they can get their hands on before a 5:30 AM departure back to Ottawa.

Should be an interesting game...