Game #22: Minnesota Wild vs Edmonton Oilers, Friday November 25, 2011 at 3:00pm (CST). Xcel Energy Center [GAME PREVIEW]

“Happy” Black Friday.

By the time some of you read this, you may have just gotten home from the insanity that is Black Friday.  Personally, I avoid it every year.  I do not have the patience to deal with traffic, lack of parking, and crowds, especially the stampede kinds of crowds.  I also refuse to be the kind of person who camps out in a tent outside of a store, days in advance, in the hopes of snagging a supposedly good deal.  On Thanksgiving, I slept in (on a very comfortable and warm bed), ate great food, and enjoyed quality time with family.  I refuse to give that up for the insanity that is holiday shopping.  This year however, I think the retail world has gone off their rockers.  Some retailers decided that Black Friday should start late on Thanksgiving.  To those retailers, I say “shame on you.”  I know people who either had to cut their holiday short or (even worse) skip it all together because they had to report to their jobs at 9pm on Thanksgiving and needed to sleep during the day.  Okay, enough angry ranting. 

Since I’m not out shipping, you may be wondering what I am doing.  This Black Friday, like many Black Fridays in recent history, I am spending part of it within the friendly confines of Xcel Energy Center.  Because I live four hours from the Twin Cities, my live game attendance is limited to when we happen to be in town.  The traditional New Year’s Eve game tends to be another that we can attend.  I like games around the holidays, as there tends to be an almost additional element of joy to them.  Sometimes (please note I said sometimes) it doesn’t matter the ultimate outcome.  This is because many of us have had wonderful gatherings with our families that if the Wild lose, it’s not such a big deal. 

In the case of the Wild, it’s almost as if Thanksgiving and Christmas have already been wrapped into one.  As Wild fans, we have so much to be thankful for.  For the most part, not one of us pictured our team sitting where they are right now in the standings.  With the way that the season started, we were merely hoping that they played a competitive game every night.  However, since the epic (and possibly season changing) games against Detroit, they’ve been essentially a new team.  Sure, they had a couple of hiccups, most notably the games in San Jose and Los Angeles, but they picked themselves back up.  Each game has become a new source of excitement and stress.  In fact, the game calendar is a bit like the traditional Advent calendar that many people have in their homes during the Christmas season.  Every day, you open the little door or window to reveal a hidden prize.  Each game is like that.  We don’t know what will happen, but we hope for something good.  Of course in hockey, Christmas doesn’t really come in June, and it’s for one team only, even though all 30 teams send their letter to Santa each year.

Today’s game is the same.  I truly do not know what to expect.  I know that I hope that the Wild players aren’t overly sluggish from their Thanksgiving dinners.  I also want them to demonstrate to the hockey world why they are the number one team in the league, that it is not a fluke.  Edmonton will make that difficult.  They too are a team that wants the league to realize that they’re new and improved.  In Edmonton’s benefit, their struggles over the years has given them some fantastic, young talent through the Entry Draft.  Minnesota on the other hand has had to develop mid-round or later picks as well as acquire the right fit in trades and free agency as well as coaching staff.  Both teams will be attempting to prove that they’re not the same versions of the Edmonton Oilers or Minnesota Wild from previous seasons.  I hope that alone generates an exciting game for fans.

It is now just after midnight on Black Friday.  I am once again turning in to sleep in a comfortable, warm bed.  No pounding the aisles of some store with the crowds.  I am going to enjoy my sleep much more than you will enjoy your shopping. 

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