Another great venue

The Golden Gophers are finally 'home'. With the opening of TCF Bank Stadium, the Twin Cities has added yet another great sporting facility to its short but soon to added to list of newer sporting venues. In a day when funding for such big money projects are hard to come by, all credit goes to the U for putting together such a fine looking and appropriately located stadium. It is the one local 'franchise' that truly deserved a new home. And they did it right...I am not a big Gopher football backer, but even to the casual fan such as myself, I cannot help but be impressed with what I see in TCF Bank Stadium.

With new sports venues comes new and better facilities. We have been spoiled as of late and there is more to come. In the Twin Cities, it started with the building of the Xcel Energy Center on the site of the old and worn-down St. Paul Civic Center. And even though the X is coming into its 8th season hosting the Wild, it was recently named the 'Ulitmate Crib' in the NHL by ESPN The Magazine. In addition, the magazine also ranked the Wild second overall in 'Stadium Experience' when compared against all 122 major league sports franchises encompassing the NHL, NBA, NFL, and MLB, not the first time the X has been ranked nationally.

I would expect that the new TCF Bank Stadium will have similar successes when looked upon on a national level. Simply looking at the place gives off a very impressive view. And the good news is that this stadium will not be the last one to open in a twelve month period. The Minnesota Twins are set to move into their new home, Target Field, next spring with the start of the new baseball season. And I would also expect that Target Field will come with all of the bells-n-whistles as well.

Lastly, the Vikings, who have been searching for a new home for as long as I can remember. If ever the time was right for an owner of a major league sports franchise to self-fund a new staduim, ballbark, or arena, that time is now...

I cannot get over TCF Bank Staduim...kudos to the University of Minnesota and the Golden Gophers football program.

Pre-season schedule announced

To feed the appetite of those who feel the need to dive further into the Minnesota Wild schedule, they released the remaining games today, the pre-season portion. Now all we need is the good part of the schedule released...the television broadcast dates. Sorry, I am one of those 'ticket-less' fans...

DATE                OPPONENT                   LOCATION               TIME (CT)
Tuesday, Sept. 15    at St. Louis Blues        Scottrade Center       7:00 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 18     Columbus Blue Jackets     Xcel Energy Center     7:00 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 20     Chicago Blackhawks        Xcel Energy Center     5:00 p.m.
Monday, Sept. 21     at Columbus Blue Jackets  Nationwide Arena       6:00 p.m.
Thursday, Sept. 24   St. Louis Blues Xcel      Energy Center          7:00 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 25     at  Chicago Blackhawks    United Center          7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Sept. 29    at Philadelphia Flyers    Wachovia Center        6:00 p.m.
*Dates and times subject to change

Goaltender Dubielewicz signs

You might be saying, 'who?'...but if you followed the University of Minnesota Golden Gopher hockey program over the years, you know this player and the reason the signing interests me. Wade Dubielewicz was a stand-out netminder for the Denver Pioneers from 99-03. Even though he played only 4 seasons in the WCHA, he was one of those college players who seemed to have 20+ years of eligibility...you know the ones that come back year after year and never seem to leave. His record peaked in his Junior season, where he had a 20-4 record, a 1.72 gaa, and a .943 save %. I cannot recall exactly what happened to him during his Senior season, as he was on the short-end of splitting games with another standout in Adam Berkhoel...and it may have been a case of just that, losing his starting job to another standout. Most recently, he has mainly been a career minor-leaguer but does have 40 NHL games played in the last 5 seasons.

Hendrickson to coach

An interesting piece of speculation from Russo...with the loss of the Wild's video coach Matt Shaw, Russo threw in the name Darby Hendrickson as a possible replacement. You have seen Darby on the FSN Wild telecasts the past couple of seasons, as he retired from playing after a short stint overseas a few years ago. You may recall that Hendrickson was an original member of the Wild and in fact scored the teams very first regular season goal at the X. Now if you have followed me at Wild-Puck, you know that I am not in the 'one of us' crowd, but I am now putting on my homer cap when I say that it would be great to have him in the Wild organization as a coach. He truly has the 'minnesota nice' touch and would make a great addition to the team.