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Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mothers out there who are reading this. Let’s face it, the vast majority of us have a mom or another great woman who raised us. It doesn’t matter if you were raised by an aunt, a grandmother, a family friend, but it generally takes a strong female to have raised us so that in general we turn out decently enough. So whoever that woman was in your life, give her a big thank you. My birthday was on Friday, and in the year that I was born, that was Mother’s Day. As the eldest of two, talk about a Mother’s Day gift. I like to think over the years that I’ve been more gift than trouble, but you’d have to ask my mother. As you can see by the above picture, even the National Hockey League has gotten into the spirit of the day. On the NHL’s Twitter feed, the accompanying caption to the picture is “Who needs a vase when you have the Stanley Cup?” As you can see, the best trophy in all of sports makes a beautiful and impressive vase for flowers. In fact, the Stanley Cup is rather utilitarian, as it has served various food and beverage over the years, bathed their babies, and has probably even served as a baptismal font at some point. With all of its uses beyond being a trophy, I think I like the idea of it being a vase best.
Friday night, I think the national hockey media finally woke up. They have finally realized that the “lowly” and “boring” Minnesota Wild are neither of those adjectives and are a team to contend with. With everything this team had to overcome in Round One, you would have thought the media would have come to this conclusion earlier, but alas that was not the case. Heck, it’s taken four games for the hockey experts to realize that the “mighty” Chicago Blackhawks weren’t just going to roll over Minnesota. It’s as if they somehow thought this year was going to be a repeat of last year’s playoffs. Clearly, they hadn’t bothered to take a gander at the rosters and compared them. The 2013-14 Wild is not the 2012-13 Wild. There are quite a few roster changes, changes for the better. And there also seems to be a greater sense of determination. Last season, the goal was just to make the playoffs. This season, just making the playoffs wasn’t enough. So far, they’re reached that goal by making it to the second round, but I’d like to see that greater sense of determination to take out a team the seems to be relying more on their past laurels and accolades. Plus, I’d like to remind everyone that adds “reigning Stanley Cup Champions” before the words “Chicago Blackhawks” that last season wasn’t a real season.
The Wild look like the team willing to put themselves out there and work their butts off. They knew this playoff run wasn’t going to be easy. And if you watch their celebration victories, there’s that true sense of joy. They don’t look like the team that expected to win. They look like the team that knows they can win if they work hard and work together. Teamwork has been the mantra all season. When they’ve gotten away from that, that has been when they’ve stumbled during the regular season. Minnesota has been the team in the league that has had to depend on each other more than any other. With the goalie-go-round (I’m going to have to trademark that term) the Wild have had to contend with all season, it’s forced them to be more dependent on each other. Adversity often builds character, and it has done so for this team. That is something that Chicago cannot practice plays for. Chicago may have the talent, but they cannot “out-heart” their opposition this round.
Minnesota will have to win at least one game on the road. Tonight is a great night to do so. Let’s further show the Blackhawks, their over-confident fans, and the hockey media that Minnesota has finally arrived.]]>
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