Wilderness Walk: Reader Appreciation Edition

Well, Hockey Wilderness, the time has come to say thank you for sticking with us through thick and thin. The playoffs are around the corner, and we’re all hoping for a very fun ride, but before that all gets under way, I want to make sure that the readers get their due. There have been good times and there have been bad times during the course of this incredibly memorable regular season, and before I get into silliness, which is certainly on the way, I do genuinely want to say how much I (for one) appreciate your continued support of HW. I’m new to the team, as you may know, but I’ve had an absolute blast doing this so far, so thanks for keeping us alive! We couldn’t continue to do this if we didn’t have people out there reading our work, so it really does mean a lot.

With the regular season drawing to a close, every team in the league seems to be doing the Fan Appreciation “Jerseys Off Our Backs” promotion, in which large, incredibly smelly men select random fans out of the crowd to thank for their enduring support by providing them with their soaking wet and equally smelly shirts. Nothing says “Hey Colorado fan, thanks for spending your hard-earned money to watch us be the worst team in the league all year” quite like being handed Francois Beauchemin’s dirty laundry. It got me thinking that there has to be something that I can do to say thanks for continuing to read my mindless dribble after all these games, so as a blogger, I will be sending individual keys off of my keyboard to lucky readers all across the Wilderness. Keep an eye on the mail! If you get a key that smells like beer or pizza, don’t be alarmed... That’s just how keyboards smell.

Super weird win last night, which Joe Bouley talked about extensively in his recap. A win’s a win, and Minnesota is once again finding ways to get it done, which is an enormously good sign.

With the season coming down to the wire, here’s Haim with a catchy little ditty about what teams hope they won’t do as things get a little tense moving forward.

Wild News

Wild revs up for the playoffs, matches team records with 4-3 victory over Avs
The Russo Recap. A strange game, indeed.

Linesman leaves Wild-Avs game after taking puck to face
Oh yeah, and this happened last night. Looked pretty ugly. Hope he’s ok!

Wes Walz resigns as coach of East Ridge hockey team
Say it ain’t so, Wes!

On Frozen Pond

Frozen Four: Harvard ousted on last minute goal, UMD to final
What a finish! Harvard hits the crossbar with a few seconds left.

Frozen Four: Denver throttles Notre Dame to reach title game
Down goes the host school in ugly fashion.

US and Canada advance to final in Women’s World Championship
Wouldn’t have it any other way!

Off the Trail

Halak shuts out Hurricanes, Islanders stay alive in playoff race
STILL?!

Ducks close in on Pacific Division title with 4-0 win over resting ‘Hawks
Resting is good, but losing is bad. Hmm.

Kyle Okposo in intensive care with illness; coach ‘very concerned’
Very scary stuff here. Wishing the fellow Minnesotan nothing but the best and a full and speedy recovery.