Empty

A rare view of empty seats in the Excel Energy Center arena.

Xcel During Intermission

Took this photo during the intermission of one of the Minnesota Wild's hockey games. I was trying to capture all of the team flags, but with so much hanging from the ceilings, find that perfect shot was next to impossible.

Big News In Minnesota Wild Land

Minnesota Wild coach, Jacques Lemaire, will be stepping down as the coach of the Wild hockey team Monday morning. Which really puts the entire team for next year in question. Who will replace him? What kind of system will he run? What happens to number 10, Marian Gaborik who says he will test the free agency market? Was this his final game in a Wild uniform?

Today's photos are from fan appreciation night, the final home game of the 2009 season, where the Wild were victorious by a score of 8 to 4. Once the game was completed, the players signed pucks and tossed them into the crowd. The surprise of the aftermath came when Gabby stayed on the ice the longest, with a smile on his face, motioning with his hands for the crowd to cheer louder. He would then toss a puck their way. Perhaps he too was wondering if this was his final skate in front of the Minnesota fans. I do hope he stays put, his offensive talent will be hard to replace, there is no doubt.

   

Final Home Game For Wild

Tonight is the final home game for the Minnesota Wild hockey team. They are three points out of the playoffs and need a lot of help to make it with only two game remaining in this season. It's been a so-so season unfortunately. Many ups and downs, actually more 'downs' that the previous couple of years. I will be at the game for the last day of 'Fan Appreciation Week' rooting them on.

Behind The Glass

Niklas Backstrom of the Minnesota Wild

Behind The Scenes Of Hockey Day Minnesota

Just a few photos of the fans, the announcers, and the view from the camera men. When the Minnesota Wild hockey games are broadcast on FS North, the TV station will host their game coverage from the Xcel Energy Center. I always love watching the people behind the announcers. The things that some of them do are priceless. I tried to get the guy leaning over making faces behind the announcers from a better angle than I was able to get. He was going on and on for three to four minutes with his creativeness. These photos were taken on Hockey Day Minnesota 2009 at the end of the Wild vs Anaheim Ducks. The game was near the end of a full day of hockey programming, including a segment from the solders in Iraq from Duluth and St Paul divisions in a game of floor hockey. That was a great idea to include those from Minnesota in such an unusual place to host a hockey game.

 

Finally A Win

After a six game losing streak, my Minnesota Wild finally earned a victory against the New York Islanders. This has been a tough stretch to watch all of the losing outcomes. The Wild finally got Marion Gaboric back from his annual "lower body injury" and from what I've seen in his first two games back is a team that once again has offensive chances of goal scoring. Gabby brings a different level of offense to the Wild and it quite the difference maker having him in the lineup. The opposing team is force to worry about his presence on the ice and what he can do with the puck. In the past two games, the Wild offense has had many more opportunities to score than they've seen in quite a few games.

An Earned Rest

Standing between Gilies and Belanger is Head Coach Jacques Lemaire. He has been the coach of the Minnesota Wild since day one. My normal seats when I am at a Wild hockey game is directly across from the bench, so the view for this photo is quite different from what I am used to seeing.

Center Ice

Some friends of ours invited us to sit with them in their seats as the couple they normally attend the games with could not make it. Having partial season tickets to the Minnesota Wild and normally sitting across from the Wild players bench around the left blue line, this view was quite a different perspective. Being dead center on the red line, at the height I was at, I felt like I was playing a game of hockey on one of those games with the domed plastic covering, stick hockey players, you know the game I'm talking about right?

Minnesota Wild Win Home Opener

Starting the season off right, the Minnesota Wild was victorious tonight against the Boston Bruins by a score of 4 to 3. With nine new faces on the Wild's team, there are some familiar faces, number 9 is still Mikko Koivu who was selected 6th overall in the 2001 NHL draft. Returning to the team is number 15, Andrew Brunette. He signed as a free agent with the Colorado Avalanche after the 2004 season completed, but has returned to the Wild after signing a three year deal. New to the Wild is number 11, Owen Nolan, he has played in the NHL since 1990. Last season, James Sheppard was number 15, but with Brunette returning to the Wild, his previous number was 15, so Sheppard gave up his number and is now number 51.

   

What A Wild Week

Now I'm normally not a watcher of Wall Street, but the past few weeks have certainly captured my attention with the wild financial crisis, let alone this week's wild ups and downs in the stock market. My oh my, what a wild ride the stock market took today by itself seeing the greatest margin between highs and lows in the Dow Jones. With that said, will I get many groans, if I post a photo today marking the opening day of the Minnesota Wild's 2008 hockey season? Do you see it, the sign in the upper left that reads 'Welcome Back Hockey Fans'? Now I will not be at tonights game, but I will be there for the second home game later this month versus Buffalo Sabers.

Game One, NHL Playoffs, Wild versus Avs

Despiting skating and playing really good, the Minnesota Wild found themselves trailing 2-0 after two periods of play. I was in attendance for Game One of the series. I split my Wild season tickets with two other people, and we are alternating the playoff games. The crowd was very energetic, very loud, very enthusiastic during the contest. Down by two goals, the Wild rallied to tie the game with goals by Rolston and Fedoruk. The game went into overtime, but Colorado scored the game winning goal at almost the half way point in the first over time period. A tough loss, a fun game, time to work harder for Game Two.

The main shot was taken between periods, the smaller middle shot was after a Wild goal, the camera shot was a behind the scenes look at the camera crew from my seats.

  

Thank You Minnesota Wild

Tonight the Minnesota Wild clinched their first ever Northwest Division Title. What an exciting game and you have no idea how awesome it was to be there as it happened. I brought my camera to the game to take some photos for the Twin Cities Daily Photo site. Wouldn't you know it, I had dead batteries in my camera. I want to thank the couple that gave me their batteries as they exited their seats so I could take a few photos.

Tonight was fan appreciation night. The Minnesota Wild gave away a lot of prizes, plus the players gave their game jersey's to selected fans. You got to meet the player and he signed the jersey for you. It was a night to remember.

  

Minnesota Wild Fan Sites

Wild View From Section 216
Hitting The Post
Wild Puck Banter
18,568 Reasons Why....

Minnesota Wild

This is my third season as a Minnesota Wild season ticket owner. I split a pair of seats with a co-worker of mine. I've sat in the same seats in section 103 game after game. Well, I didn't have tickets for tonights match up versus the Vancouver Canucks, but I wanted to attend. At the last minute, I decided to head down to the ticket office and see if I could get one seat to the contest. With a bit of luck, I found myself in the Club Level seats, in one of the stadiums corners. A much higher perspective on the game, but I was able to see the plays develop at this level. I found myself watching all of the players intertwine, but would constantly miss the big check into the boards. From the lower level, I could anticipate what was going to happen during the game, but find it much tougher to see the plays develop. I guess there is a trade off at what level you watch the game from.

Unfortunately for the Wild, they didn't play so well at times. Had the lead for most of the game and should have won, but Vancouver earned a tie, then ultimately won the game in overtime. I'll take the point.

  
My Daily Photo Favorites: Larchmont, New York | Oslo, Norway | Chicago, Illinois | Seoul, South Korea

Interesting Links Of The Day: Total Lunar Eclipse today starting at 7:45 CMT | Find out if you'll see the eclipse today

When Dinosaurs Ran Wild

Thursday marked the open night of Hockey for the Minnesota Wild. Tonights match up was from the Windy City, Chicago Blackhawks. The Wild were victorious with a 1-0 score. This photo was from this past Saturday's pre-season game. Outside of the Minnesota Science Museum, there sits about a dozen painted dinosaurs. All painted with a different theme. I've seen photos posted of the dino's on the other local photo blogs [St Paul - Kate, St Paul - Kate, St Paul - Carol], but until last Saturday, I had never seen any in person.

My 3 Daily Photo Favorites:
St Paul, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Joplin, Missouri

Enforcer Boogaard Signs For Three Years

Fan favorite Derek Boogaard #24, resigned with the Minnesota Wild for a three year deal on Wednesday. This is good news for the Minnesota Wild hockey fans. Boogaard is the teams enforcer, his main function on the team is to protect the players from dirty play from the opposing team. This photo was from April 17, during game 4 of the playoffs versus the eventual Stanley Cup Winners, the Anaheim Ducks. It was taken during the pre-game warm ups. Game 4 was Minnesota's only victory against the Ducks. A little over three months until the hockey season starts up once again in October.

My 3 Daily Photo Favorites:
Little Rock, Arkansas
Dubai, UAE
Hong Kong, China

Wild Win Game 4

Photo I took this evening before NHL Western Conference Quarterfinal playoff Game 4 started between the Minnesota Wild and the Anaheim Ducks. The Wild were victorious tonight at last. There was a towel placed on each seat back for every fan in attendance at the game. We arrived fairly early and I was able to get this shot before the people started filling the seats.

Playoff Hockey Time

I am a big fan of the Minnesota Wild. Tonight is their first game of the playoff season and I wanted to post a photo during the intermission of one of the games I attended this season. The Zamboni had just cleared the ice, the lights were dimmed and the Wild logos were dancing on ice.