Game #28: Minnesota Wild at Anaheim Ducks, Sunday December 12, 2010 at 7:00pm CST, Honda Center [GAME PREVIEW]

By now, I can imagine everyone’s shovelling skills are top notch.  If they’re not, that means one of two things.  You either don’t live in the Upper Midwest or you do and you pay someone else to dig you out.  Some of us have had to start our love/hate relationship with our shovels earlier than we might have wanted to.  If you’re like me, you have a four-legged friend who needs to get outside and are finding hard to do so.  Our dog Fergus is probably wishing he was a Great Dane or a Irish Wolfhound right about now.  Instead, the Basset Hound that he is, is wondering how the heck he’s going to get out snow drift once he gets stuck with his stumpy legs.

This weather has caused all sorts of logistical nightmares all across the Upper Midwest.  And sports are no exception.  With the incoming storm, the University of Minnesota postponed both the Men’s and Women’s hockey games for today.  However, the even stranger (and more headache inducing) nightmare belongs to that of the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League.  They were scheduled to play the New York Giants today.  With the storm, the visiting Giants were only able to get as far as Kansas City.  At that point, they were simply going to postpone the game until Monday.  However, things took a turn for the worse.  When heavy snows are expected, the facilities team at the Metrodome, deflates the dome a bit.  However, that deflation even couldn’t hold off the inevitable.  It appears that couple of the fabric panels that make up the dome, failed, and snow has fallen on to the field.  With the tears, it also can’t inflate.  Now, not only has the Vikings-Giants game been postponed, it will now be relocated to Ford Field in Detroit.  Considering what football fans pay for their tickets, one can only hope that they get at least a portion of what they paid back.

With all these postponements and relocations, it makes me think of an interesting bit of hockey history.  On January 13, 1983 the New Jersey Devils were scheduled to play the Hartford Whalers in Hartford.  A heavy snowstorm blanketed New England, making travel difficult.  Due to the weather, officials Ron Fournier and Dan Marouelli were unable to get to Hartford Civic Center on time.  However, linesman Roy Foyt as well as both teams were present.  Foyt then deputized a player from each team to act as linesman and he would be the referee, based on then NHL Rule 35(k).  The men who got the honor were Whalers defenseman, Mickey Volcan and Devils forward Garry Howatt.  At the time, both were nursing minor injuries so weren’t going to be in the lineup.  Eventually Fournier and Marouelli were able to get to the Hartford Civic Center and take over their assigned duties.

While snow won’t be an issue for tonight’s game in Anaheim, it may cause difficulties for the team getting back to Minnesota.  As you can imagine, with the amount of snow that fell, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was shut down.  There will be a log jam of flights trying to get in, both ones that were cancelled and those scheduled.  Thankfully, the Wild won’t play again until Thursday at home against Ottawa.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the Wild stay in California for an extra day, and perhaps beg some icetime from their hosts to hold a skate in the case that they can’t make it home right away. 

It’s definitely winter, other wise known as the season that’s not road construction.  Just like we’ve done for years and years, we deal with it.  While it might not feel that way now, spring will eventually come.

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