Not sure what the weather is like where you are, but here in the Upper Midwest today is another glorious day. It’s in the low 70’s, sunny and breezy. After last week’s temps in the 90’s with high humidity, it’s most definitely welcome. Those kids who will be heading back to school, whether it be elementary, middle, high school or college, they should be hoping that the weather stays like this. With the thought of the return of school, the sport on most people’s minds these days is football. My husband who is a high school football coach and teacher has been busy these past three weeks in hopes of getting the team ready for their first game tomorrow night. Needless to say, the kids have to be loving the comfortable weather they’ve had these past few days.
With all the thoughts of the up-coming school year, I have to admit that those thoughts have taken priority. Unfortunately, hockey hasn’t been on my mind quite so much. I’ve mentioned this before, but with the way hockey is covered in the United States, once free agency dies down, there’s little thought or new hockey news until training camp starts. While training camp starts next month, in the sports world that’s still a long way off. News comes in bit and pieces, and unless you’re religious about checking the hockey websites out there, you just might miss something of interest. If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t have time to check multiple sites, I suggest you register at an active hockey message board, because there’s always someone there posting links to all the big news.
It was my reading the new messages at the Wild’s official message board (which should be converting to a new platform sometime soon) that I caught today’s bit of good news. On February 12, 2011 as part of the 2011 Hockey Day Minnesota festivities, the Houston Aeros (the Wild’s American Hockey League affiliate) will be playing at Xcel Energy Center. While the Aeros have been part of the Hockey Day festivities, this will be the first time that the team will play in Minnesota for the celebration. It won’t be the first time that they’ve played in Minnesota however. That last appearance was in March of 2005. That game against Grand Rapids featured familiar Wild faces of Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Mikko Koivu, Brent Burns, and Josh Harding. In this year’s AHL match-up, the Aeros will be playing the Peoria Rivermen, which is the AHL affiliate of the St. Louis Blues, whom the Wild will be playing later that same evening. The Wild will be announcing at a later a time a special double-header ticket package for those who wish to attend both the games hosted at Xcel Energy Center.
The Hockey Day Minnesota 2011 lineup is as follows:
Outdoor Games at Moorhead, Minnesota:
Game #1 ~ Wayzata vs Roseau
Game #2 ~ Moorhead vs Hill-Murray
College Game at Mariucci Arena (University of Minnesota):
University of Minnesota vs University of Denver
American Hockey League Game (Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, Minnesota):
Houston Aeros (Minnesota) vs Peoria Rivermen (St. Louis)
National Hockey League Game (Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, Minnesota):
Minnesota Wild vs St. Louis Blues
Hockey Day Minnesota is always a fun time to celebrate hockey at all its levels. If you’ve ever attended the outdoor portion of the event or watched it on television you will notice all kids of all ages taking part. While the outdoor portion features high school teams, you will see smaller practice rinks around the official rink where little kids are skating, shooting pucks, and playing pick-up games of their own. It is that kind of “free range” hockey that Hockey Day Minnesota is really celebrating. It is that unorganized hockey that many kids aren’t participating enough in, as mentioned in the independent documentary, Pond Hockey.
With news like this, it can help us start thinking about the upcoming 2010-11 season. Sure the weather outside doesn’t make us think of hockey, but I suggest you take advantage of the weather we have right now. Trust me, when it’s January and it’s hockey season and we’re snowed in or it’s too cold to go outside, you’re going to think back to days like today. Get out and enjoy it while it lasts, because like all good things they never last.
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