Glad To Be A Wild Goon!

If I didn't know better, I would think it sounds like The Denver Post's Mark Kiszla woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I know the real reason for his bitterness, however, is that the Minnesota Wild are beating the Denver Avalanche in the Stanley Cup Playoff Series. The article he wrote wasn't as much about the actual game as it was how annoyed he was that Denver lost and Minnesota won. He took a lot of cheap shots at the Wild and their fans. Here are a few choice cuts:

"Let the mugging begin. It's the only way the Minnesota Wild can win."

"When playing this goon-it- up Wild bunch, hockey is a no-holds- barred battle of attrition, not skill."

"Minnesota, the land of 10,000 dead car batteries, has an inferiority about this hockey team. The Wild's style of play is as ugly and obnoxious as the uniforms, which look as if designed by a toddler who randomly pulled two crayons from the box of 64 and began scribbling."

"Anywhere the Wild goes, flowers wilt, the sky turns gray and beauty dies."

And let's not forget one of my personal favorites:

"The dark hockey arts are practiced by every member of the Wild. Even a player as remarkably talented as Minnesota center Mikko Koivu is not adverse to hacking and tripping when Colorado's Ryan Smyth is carrying the puck on goal."

"When scores are certain to be scarce and the mugging is beyond the control of any referee, what's the lone goal for the Avs now? Be the last men standing, and live to play something that resembles beautiful hockey another day."

Wow... He sounds truly morose and bitter! At least when the Wild lose, their fans don't cry foul on the other team. We acknowledge that our team messed up or perhaps didn't play so well, we don't blame it on the tactics of the other team. Besides, I watched that game, too, and I saw plenty of calls that were not called against Denver which should have been, particularly hooking. I also saw Denver starting the brawls just as often as Minnesota. One hockey team is not an "angel" compared to the other, fighting is a part of the game whether some people like it or not and in this case both sides were getting their digs. This is for a shot at the Stanley Cup, you know.

Brute force is sometimes necessary to win. To be the last man standing, and live to play hockey another day, you have to claim victory. To do otherwise, puts you in the off-season.