The presents have been open, the Christmas cookies have steadily disappeared. So as we pick up the wrapping paper and gather up the plates of the endless array of holiday leftovers, its time to reflect and be thankful. Thankful for family, friends and the chance to get together whether virtually or otherwise. Its kind of hard to believe we made it after what was a trying year for so many of us.
What is also important is context. When I thought of these six questions I would ask my panel of hockey fans, I wrote them up towards the end of October. Lots has changed since then and originally I had hoped to publish this 3-part series around Thanksgiving time as the league continued to contemplate whether it was going to try to start before the end year. Ultimately that didn’t happen so it got postponed until now, but some had submitted me their answers back in late November while others just submitted theirs a week or two ago.
So I have asked 6 fans, five of them are Wild fans and one non-Wild fan to get some perspective outside of the Minnesota Wild ‘echo chamber.’ I have asked each of these fans six questions and here are their responses to those questions in this 3-part series. I can’t thank these individuals enough for their time, energy and hockey passion in answering these questions. I have asked these fans to introduce themselves so you have an idea who they are to perhaps better understand where they are coming from.
2020-21 Wild Fans Speak Pre-Season Edition, Part 1 of 3
2020-21 Wild Fans Speak Pre-Season Edition, Part 2 of 3
Ricky – Hi I’m Ricky Sangha, a born and bred Vancouverite who is a passionate Canucks fan and lover of the game of hockey. I have owned Canucks season tickets for the last 5 years and I look forward to every trip I can make to the rink.
Jodi (@Jodi_halvy) – My name is Jodi, I have been a Minnesota Wild season ticket holder for the last 15 years with my dad. We share a passion for hockey, and even through the ups and downs of cheering for a franchise that tends to disappoint, we are still huge Wild fans! We both fall in to the trap of consistently being overly optimistic about this team and then watching them unravel at different points throughout the season, we will continue to show up for the State of Hockey though!
Aaron (@AngryFinn) – I am the former host of @3InTheBox and the man behind ZMODEM (link to bandcamp) and Gabber Nullification Project.
Justin (@deast2004) – My name is Justin Bakke and I am an avid hockey fan at all levels of the game. I grew up in Duluth watching Duluth East and the UMD Bulldogs play. I spent quite a few nights at the DECC watching UMD in the pre-championship years and love what the program has become. Also, don’t mention the 1996 State Tournament to me, it still stings. I grew up playing hockey which included playing in the Lester Park
and Duluth East system through Bantams. I was a North Stars fan before their departure when I was seven years old. I still have pictures of me wearing my Dad’s North Stars jersey as a kid. I became an
Avalanche fan because of Joe Sakic, but quickly switched my allegiance back to Minnesota when the Wild arrived in 2000. With this, I help run a few social media accounts. This includes the Kaprizov Kountdown, UMD Bulldogs Pipeline, co-admin of Wild Prospects & Young Players, and co-host the Sound the Foghorn Podcast. The Kountdown page ended up being followed by Kirill Kaprizov himself, and was featured in a Michael Russo article. Now I have a family that includes a wife and three kids. The
beginning stages of teaching my kids to skate have begun, as I look to pass on the passion and Minnesota tradition on to them, and hopefully instill the love of hockey.
Joey (@BravetheWild) – I’m 41 years old, and have been a fulltime hockey fan since the 1990-1991 season, particularly the North Stars magical run to the Stanley Cup Finals. Like most of us, I was devastated to see my favorite team in the world move away, and was equally frustrated by being teased with the possibilities that didn’t work out with the Oilers, Jets, and Whalers. June 1997 will always have a special place in my heart, as the original birth of the Minnesota Wild. I’ve always seen myself as a radio host and a writer, and I eventually got the Brave The Wild Podcast started in August 2008, and have been doing it ever since. I became a late bloomer when it comes to hockey writing when I joined Gone Puck Wild just this past fall, not sure what I was waiting for, but better late than never. I also proudly write for mnwprospects, covering the QMJHL and BCHL, keeping up with Wild prospects in those respective leagues.
Brian – I’m Brian Felska and have been a long time hockey fan at all levels. Growing up in outstate Minnesota in the 50’s and 60’s where it was tough to participate in hockey as a school sport. The only school teams were in the metropolitan area or in northern Minnesota. We did spend a lot of time at the rink skating, shooting, and playing pickup games. We had very little formal coaching but did have rec. teams from junior high on. Seasonal high school sports took the spotlight but I did manage to play some hockey in my senior high years. When I was in college the St. Cloud State program was in its infancy just switching from club to a varsity sport. Even then the players shoveled their own rinks. I was lucky enough to coach some peewee teams before starting a family. I have always enjoyed the speed and physically of sports so hockey was I game I loved.
Cam Talbot at age 32: .919 SV%, 2.63 GAA.
Devan Dubnyk at age 33: .890 SV%, 3.35 GAA.
Cam Talbot at age 33: We’ll see this season.Goalies are only as good as the players in front of them. Not saying Dubnyk should blame anyone but himself, just that all it takes is a single off-year to mean you get benched and then traded for peanuts. Is Talbot the answer? I doubt it, but we’ll see.
the best defensive cores in the NHL. As we know the Wild had some pretty terrible goaltending the past couple seasons. Stalock had a good stretch, but overall that was a big weakness of this team. Talbot tends to make the saves that he is supposed to and that is something we did not see at times with
Dubnyk and Stalock. That costed us some games. I do not think the moves we made will really off-set his impact. I say this in hopes that Kaprizov comes in strong, and players like Fiala pick up where they left off. I felt like a good chunk of what we lost was slowing the team down, even though I like the players that were traded or not brought back. Our Center position still looks pretty grim, which may play a role in a possible off-set. My hope is that Marco Rossi makes the roster out of camp and allows a player like
Marcus Johansson to be moved to the wing where he has been more effective.
Brian – I think the health of Dubnyk’s wife weighed heavily on him last year and rightfully so. It seemed to me that part of his problem before coming here was to do with off ice issues. We may have been lucky to get what we got from him while he was here. I think it was a good bet to save some salary and move on to another experienced goaltender in Cam Talbot. Even though our new coach’s style seems to be a little more up tempo I think our defensive personnel are still geared to protecting the goal tender. I think he will be a plus.
We would like to thank our panel for their outstanding well-thought out responses to all of our questions, so to Ricky Jodi, Aaron, Justin, Joey and Brian, thank you!
We’d also like to hear from you too, our readers! Send us your answer any of these questions on Twitter @CreaseAndAssist or in the comment section below and we’ll respond back!
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