Charity Hockey

Holy crap, I am a bad blogger!  Seriously, I've dropped the ball this summer.  Oh well, moving forward.  I got a couple of posts planned.  I've been doing things!  Yay!!!  I'll start with the Defending the Blue Line charity game in Minneapolis on the 20th of June. (If you remember I've mentioned them before)  It was great, lots of nhl players played and I went with some awesome people. (A little (very) disappointed, I didn't get Ryan Malone's (!!!!) autograph.)  It was a good game, I was cheering for both teams, but mostly for Ryan Malone and against that guy from the Bruins whose name I conveniently have forgotten as well as the former governor from Minnesota.  Without further ado (or much commentary) here are my pictures!

Old((ish), but not really) Hockey Pics...

As you all know, I discovered a fun way to make pictures oldish, it was fun, and I've been hanging out there a lot.  Just playing around with some of my hockey pictures.  Once again, you had to know this was coming, as is the case with all the other crazy stuff somehow it will all be hockey related at some point.  So here we go, my hockey pictures with more creative twist. Orrrr not. ;)

Kings @ Wild: Kings and Traitors

I've been avoiding writing this post of a month.  Playoff hockey losses sting and the minute my beloved Canucks played my almost as beloved Kings (this would have happened had they played Nashville too) the Kings became the enemy.  So I wasn't going to blog about them during the series and in the immediate aftermath I was too upset to do it.  Fact, the Kings and the Predators will always be tied for my second in the west, I can't pick between them and I probably never will be able to. But a week or so later after I've realized I am more upset at the canucks for sucking than I am at the kings for finally getting it together and being the kings we thought they'd be at the beginning of the season.  So I forgave (mostly) them (the Kings that is).  So the last night of March, I went to St. Paul to see the Kings, and this is my story.

Seeing Sammy: Panthers @ Wild

I was awake for almost 24 hours on Thursday. Not that I'm complaining, it was a very eventful and fun day, but a little tiring for a variety of reasons.  Part of what lead to my long day was the fact that I went to St. Paul to see the Wild take on the Florida Panthers. This meant Mikael Samuelsson!! (And Tomas Kopecky and Ed Jovanovski).  I'd planned for weeks to come up with a sign for Sammy, and my Swedish tweeps translated it for me.

Flames at Wild or My Severe Fan-girl Moment

As you are all aware I don't hate the Calgary Flames and I have a crazy inexplicable love for Miikka Kiprusoff.  (Seriously, I can't explain it so don't even bother making me try.)  I went to St. Paul with my sister and two friends for the Wild Flames game.  And beforehand Jen wanted to know if I wanted to make a sign for Kipper in Finnish.  She is learning Finnish and got some of her Finns to give her something to put on it.  She drew it and I colored it.  It was awesome.  She had one for Olli Jokinen.  They were Finnish salmon jokes.  Mine said something to the effect of "No salmon in Miikka's fish trap".  I'm not sure what Jen's said but it was something about salmon.

Hockey Day Minnesota: Part 2

Hockey Day Minnesota.  Good time, fun was had.  And my sister and I went to see Minnesota's current team play Minnesota's former team.  (Norm Green sucks).  If there was one game I wanted the wild to dominate, it is this one.  There is always emotion when the stars come to town.  I was pretty little when the North Stars went south, but even I still have some emotional attachment to them.  The North Stars, not the Dallas stars, they do have some players I enjoy watching.  Kari Lethonen, Loui Eriksson, Eric Nystrom (scoring in his return).

Hockey Night in St. Paul! Sharks @ Wild

Josh Harding, stud.

There is nothing like a hockey game to get me blogging!  This time it was the Sharks @ Wild.  My sister and I headed up to St. Paul to see the game with a friend.  We had gone to the science museum earlier and in a kinda ironic (but not intentional) moment we saw Sharks on the Omniteater.  Adorable.  The other Sharks, not so adorable.  But hey, that is what makes for a good game.  And it was quite the feisty one. The Wild led most of the game, but seemingly fell apart with 10 minutes left.  The sharks pushed it into overtime and then the shootout.

In Color... ...Hockey Night

Rick Nash and some guy not named Rick Nash

You had to know it would happen after I discovered that I really like pictures in both black and white and color, that eventually, I'd be wasting my time going through my hockey pictures and giving them the Pleasentville effect.  I started with that Kipper picture and slowly figured out how to make it look better.  Some have just the player in color, others have the lines from the ice, or the crease for the goalies in color as well.

Randomness: Things in my room

Butterflies and hockey players... oh yeah!

Sometimes, when I don't know what to write about I do one of these take a picture of everything and call it random and post it.  With the hope that it will get my creative juices flowing.  I don't know if it does or if it just a cop out post.  But here goes, this edition of randomness involves the strange things I have floating around my room.

A Confession: Flames @ Wild

Yeah, so I have a confession to make... I don't think it is a big secret, I tell people all time.  So it is probably a big open secret that you all are judging me for and still likeing me in spite of.  Here goes... even though I am a Canucks fan, I don't hate the Calgary Flames.  Now, I don't like them either, I am quite indifferent towards them.  Honestly of all the northwest teams, I dislike the Oilers the most, and then probably the Avs.  Calgary has Brendan Morrison and I can't hate on him ever.  But here is the true confession, I adore Miikka Kiprusoff.  Welp, I said it, Kipper is my favorite of all the Finnish goalies in the NHL.  I can't explain it; as I told my sister, you don't pick your hockey players they pick you.  Go ahead, unfollow or judge, mock me mercilessly, or whatever I can take it. :-)

Wings @ Wild or 1,120 Pictures of Nick Lidstrom

This was probably the most exciting 1-0 game I've ever seen.  Both teams had their moment of utter brilliance and whatever the opposite of that is.  The story of the game was the goaltending.  It was stellar on both sides.  And that is always something fun to watch.  I like going to Wings games, not that I have a burning love or anything, but I bit of respect and I adore some of their Swedes.  The majority of these pictures are going to be of the Red Wings warmup.  Why, cause I already have tons and tons of pictures of the home team.  And well, Nick Lidstrom.  Seriously.

I like taking faceoff pictures

There are a lot of Red Wings after the jump.  If this is not your thing.  Read it anyways.  We look at it, there really is not much reading involved.  But anyways Josh Harding was a rockstar,  Nick Lidstrom has such an amazing presence.

Wild Home Opener: Blue Jackets @ Wild.

I like their green sweaters best!

Ok, so like a month ago, I was going to post the Wild Blue Jackets game.  I never got around to it until now.  No excuse, just didn't feel like it.  That is on the docket, and then it will be Wild Wings and then it will be the Minnesota History Center's Dia de los Muertos and the 1696 exhibit.  I believe this game was the Wilds homeopener,  That was fun.  They won, that is always good.  I like it when the home team wins their opener.  Warm fuzzies and what not.  I think these pictures are a bit more focused on the wild.  It helps that the seats are in their end for the warm up.

Pre-Season Pics: Oilers @ Wild

So a week later I went to see the Oilers play the Wild with my friend Andrea and her sister.  Once again we were up in the 200 level, but the seats were great.  The nice thing about preseason, is that you can spread out.  Elbow room is a great thing.  This was Andrea's second live game.  And it was a good one for her to see.  I accidentally jinxed the wild in this one.  All I did was say that the oilers had 6 minutes if they wanted to tie it up.  And that I wouldn't mind seeing the young ilers (Omark, Paajarvi, etc in a shootout).  And literally less than a minute later they tied it up.  then a few minutes after that, Darcy Hordichuk, yes that Darcy Hordichuk, scored a goal.  (It was actually pretty too)  But it was called back as an oiler (I think) took a penalty.  And then what do you know, the wild lost in a shootout.  My bad.

Pre-Season Pics: Blue Jackets @ Wild

Holy crap guys, I have been busy!  Yeah, I know not an excuse but it is a reasons non the less.  Well this means there is going to be a blog explosion.  You bet.  I have like 2 preseason hockey games, a walk around La Crosse and a regular season game to post about.  Who knows I might just be on a roll and get a couple more posts there!   We have to start at the begining so the preseason Wild V Blue Jackets is next on the docket.  I went to this game with my sister and mom, we were way up in the 200 level of the X, but I don't really mind those seats.  I like the birds-eye view a lot of for watching the game, but I do like being close up for pictures.  Nevertheless, I still took a crap ton of pictures of this game.  I think I am just going to do pics after the link, maybe some witty comments but since I am still me, I doubt it

2011 MN Wild Scrimmage

Wild Captain Mikko Koivu

So I was at the Wild open scrimmage again this weekend.  You might be asking yourself why me, a Canucks fan was at the Wild's scrimmage (by the way it was a 1-0 game).  Well, I'll give you three reasons.
1. I live in Minnesota (And I do enjoy the Wild, not near like I do the Canucks.)
2. It was hockey
3. As long as Mikko Koivu is playing somewhere in the NHL, I will support him (his team to a point), even if it were something horrible like Anaheim, Boston or god-forbid Chicago.

Silly Snow Leopards

So yeah, this post while hilarious to me, probably won't be to anyone but my sister, and I am fairly certain she doesn't even read my blog.  So yeah, oh and these photos were taken on the cell phone, so crappy they might be.

Come play with me!

So while at Como (I love that place) we wandered into the big cat area.  And naturally stopped by the snow leopards.  Where we were treated with quite the show from a rambunctious leopard and a rather stately one trying its best to ignore the other.  Which lead me to proclaim that we were witnessing the Mikko Kiouv and the Antti Miettien of snow leapards.  (Background story: It sure seems like Mikko Koivu demands that Antti be on his line all the time, and in videos, interviews etc it is alluded to that they are always together (much to Antti's utter dismay)

Maybe he won't see me

It started halariously enough, the stately (Antti) was pacing back and forth, looking adorable by the glass, when the other one (Mikko) decided he or she (honestly wasn't paying that close attention) wanted to play.  Took a run down the rocks and slipped on the snow and took a flailing leap (that sadly was not captured on camera as it was adorable).

Wait for me!

Then the Mikko leapard jump the other one, and tried to entice it to play.  Sadly, the Antti took off like a shot and went and hid in a little cave like area.  While the other paced back and forth trying to get his attention.  Then decided to play for a bit and entice the other out.  It didn't work, so naturally he had to go down and flush the other one out.  

Got Ya!

Antti leapt up on to the rocks and stood there as still as possible as if he was trying to ignore the other.  Who would stare at him, try to get him to play and then when all else failed, jumped him again.  It was hilarious and the look on the leopards face was a "just shoot me" face (the same look that the Real Antti has when ever he is sitting next to Mikko for an interview).  Eventually he shoves the other one away and escapes up the rocks.  We left the scene with poor Mikko sitting (and plotting) how to get the other to play.

Plotting

Quick be free!

Polar Bear Plunge!

So my sister and cousin did a Polar Bear Plunge over the weekend up in Minneapolis.  Crazy, I know, but hey it was for a good cause, and they did get to meet and plunge with Cam Barker (a Minnesota Wild Defenseman).  Like I said it was for a good cause, it would have to be, seeing as how my sister is not a water person.  So the proceeds benefit the Special Olympics.  Which is a worthy cause, and a special side note, my cousin Susie is a Special Olympian.  So it was extra special for both her and my sister, personally knowing who will benefit from this!

Susie

Blocks of ice taken from the lake

Kevin Gorg and my gorgeous sister Agnes!

Susie, Cam Barker, Agnes (Team Barker)

Barker and Nordy

Did I mention Cam Barker (name drop) was a part of this years plunge.  He was team captain for Team Barker Go Wild!  This was the team that Agnes and Susie were on.  Barker (who by the ways is so nice & way adorable) and FSNorth personalities Mike Greenlay and Kevin Gorg led plunge teams.  Team Barker was pitted against Team Greenlay and Gorg (or Team Frozen 5 Hole).  Friendly competition to see who could raise the most money.  Team Frozen 5 Hole was the larger of the two teams (probably about twice the size) but Barker's team was plucky!  Oh and Cam was matching all donations made to his team!   Not to mention his team had the adorable (yet unidentifiable) MN Wild mascot Nordy plunging too. (I have to think that all that fur would be awfully heavy when wet)

Waitin' to Plunge

Greenlay interviews Barker and Nordy

Frozen 5 Holes

So where was I when all this was going down.  Well, not plunging that's for sure.  Yeah, it is a good cause and all, but seriously I am not crazy!  Anyhoo someone (me) had to document this for posterity.  That's right I was taking pictures and of course live tweeting the event.  Seriously you can check out the hashtag FrigidBrigid for all the exciting updates.  Yep, that was me freezing my butt off on aluminum bleachers in 27F weather just for pictures.  And I had primo seats cause I got out there early enough, while everyone else was in the VIP tent warm and probably swilling soda and eating chili (or that is what I imagine at least) while my toes and fingers were freezing as I documented this for your enjoyment. (whine, whine, whine)

Team Barker!

And they plunge

Me and Cam Barker

Then it happened, the plunge, a bit of an interview of Barker by Greenlay and then they plunged!  It actually looked kinda fun, in that shock and awe sorta way.  And they got to chill in a hot tub, while I (and my mom who did the video- she joined me right before the plunge as she was with the other two right before) bolted to the VIP tent, where I warmed up and had some soda and chili.  Oh and did I mention that this is when I met Cam Barker (no big deal).  Yeah, he was handing out and signing shirts (Team Barker) and autographs.  Got a picture with him.  Somewhere in that search of #FrigidBrigid there is a pic of Susie, Agnes and Cam Barker.   And finally here is some video of the excitement!

Hockey Afternoon... Wild/Red Wings!

 
I live in Minnesota, so I hardly ever get to see my Canucks play (sad face), but I do get to some pretty good hockey games usually with my sister.  We have a good time, we both like the wild, she (has poor taste in hockey teams, but for the most part underneath it all she is a wings fan).

Let's Play Hockey

I may or may not be in love with Nick Lidstrom

More random action shots

Jimmy is on my fantasy team

But I digress, about Christmas time, we got an email from our cousin (my twin) Jenny.  She and her husband wanted to know if we wanted to see a hockey game with them.  Naturally we said "yes!!!!!".  The game was about a week ago- we went to was the Red Wings V the Wild.  It was a brunch game, seriously it started at 11:30 am.  We had club level seats, awesome view.  And club level has like no lines.... Awesome!!

View from our Seats

Two 1000th Game Club members

Random action shot

So it was Jenny and Jason's first live NHL game.  Jason is a flyers fan.  Jenny isn't much of a fan, but she had a blast.  She and I were in matching Koivu jerseys.  Mine is a white away and hers (my sister's) is a green third.  We felt it was fitting as we are twins.  The game was pretty exciting for a morning game.  Not gonna get into the nitty gritty of the game it was a good time.  Except the part where the wild lost in the shoot out.  That wasn't fun :(

More Random Hockey Shots

More Lidstrom

Hockey & Puppy Sitting

OK, so I spent the better part of a week in St. Paul dog sitting the most amazing Gunther ever!  He is an amazing dog and we adore each other so.  We puzzled, we lounged, we cooked, we lounged, we watched hockey among other things.  We lounged.  Seriously this was pretty much the week.  Oh and we took bunches of short walks.  Anyways fun was had by all (and by that I mean me and G).




So while up there I went to 2 wild hockey games.  I didn't get a lot of pictures but that is OK.  So the 2 games where on the 29th and 31st.  And let me tell you they were like polar opposites.  It was bad.  On the 29th they played a pretty talented (and gigantic) Sharks team, and played a pretty solid game and they scored a lot.  Then on New Years Eve they played the Predators, a solid team but not a super fab one, but hey do have a wicked defense.  And it was the lamest game in the history of lame games.  What was sad was that the Preds scored twice into an empty net.

But there were some pluses.  After all I got to see some good hockey in one game.  And I seriously think that the Sharks are a good 3 times the size of the Wild.  Especally Joe Thornton, that must be the reason they call him Jumbo... At least I hope so.  I didn't get to see Joe Pavelski as he is injured and I do adore him.  So that was sad.  But I got to see Antero Niittymaki (my 3rd/4th favorite Finnish goalie depending on the day) but he got lit up (sad face).  But in the Preds game I got to see Shane O'Brien, Pekka Rinne, Anders Lindback was on the bench... so it was worth it.

I adore Shane from his Vancouver days.  He was a decent D-man then, but a bit of a wild child.  Nashville has been good for him I think, and he has turned into a more solid, mature d-man!  I was impressed, even if I missed the play and goal he assisted on.  Pekka Rinne was pretty solid in the net for the preds, he is my second favorite Finnish goaltender (my first plays for a team that shall not be named as I should not like him as I do).  And Anders Lindback is my goalie crush of the season (it was supposed to be Khudobin, but the wild went a different route) so it was great to see him, even if he didn't play.


  And I rung in the new year watching a lame hockey game (so glad I am not emotionally invested in the wild).  Going back to my brothers, watching an awesome Canucks game.  And having the best date ever.  Even if he wanted to sleep at midnight.  Gunther was the best!  So I will leave you with one more candid shot of the darling.