The Check is … Against the Boards?

With a 5-4 win in overtime, the Minnesota Wild beat the Colorado Avalanche, achieving more than the trophy for teams that don’t end in “s”. They advanced to the next round of the playoffs, against the defending Stanley Cup holders Chicago Blackhawks in the resumption of an intense Midwest rivalry.

They also made a great stride towards the team actually breaking even this year.

As any true fan of the game knows, the playoffs bring out the fair weather fans – a term that in the hockey season applies far too literally. But there is a lot more to the game than who wins on the ice. There’s a lot of money flowing through the NHL, and I do mean flowing. Hardly any stays. It’s a great benefit to the city of St Paul, or at least my neighborhood on West Seventh Street, but how does a team stay on the ice? It’s almost amazing.

Let’s talk about the future of the NHL as the Wild has a pretty decent chance at bringing the Stanley Cup to St Paul for the next year.

Continue reading

Blood & Money, On Ice

No matter how bad it looks, those in charge find a way to make it even worse.  Like a pack of ravenous dogs, they are snarling over the last scraps of meat rather than get together to work things out.  It’s as if they don’t care that it’s all coming down to a dark, bitter end – each wants their own piece and damn the rest.

I’m not writing about the US Congress or anything so big.  This is the state of the National Hockey League (NHL).  The owners and players are in the process of taking a $1.87B per year league down to zero – for the second time in eight years.  Why they can’t just let them strap on skates and beat each other bloody to get it out of their systems before the real negotiations begin, I don’t know.

Continue reading