Minnesota Wild (0-2)
3.0 Goals For (10th)
4.50 Goals Against (15th)
20.0% Power Play (9th)
85.7% Penalty Kill (6th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #11 Zach Parise ~ 0G 3A = 3pts
2. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 0G 3A = 3pts
3. #2 Charlie Coyle ~ 2G 0A = 2pts
4. #20 Ryan Suter ~ 1G 1A = 2pts
5. #6 Marco Scandella ~ 1G 1A = 2pt
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #8 Cody McCormick ~ 14 PIM’s
2. #11 Zach Parise ~ 2 PIM’s
3. #9 Mikko Koivu ~ 2 PIM’s
Top Goaltender:
1. #35 Darcy Kuemper (0-0) 0.00GAA 1.000SV%
2. #30 Ilya Bryzgalov (0-1) 4.85GAA .822%SP
Vs.
Colorado Avalanche (2-0)
4.50 Goals For (2nd)
3.0 Goals Against (7th)
14.3% Power Play (11th)
80.0% Penalty Kill (8th)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #26 Paul Stastny ~ 3G 4A = 7pts
2. #29 Nathan MacKinnon ~ 1G 6A = 7pts
3. #92 Gabriel Landeskog ~ 3G 0A = 3pts
4. #90 Ryan O’Reilly ~ 1G 1A = 2pts
5. #11 Jamie McGinn ~ 1G 1A = 2pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #55 Cody McLeod ~ 12 PIM’s
2. #8 Jan Hejda ~ 6 PIM’s
3. #29 Nathan MacKinnon ~ 2 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #1 Semyon Varlamov (2-0) 2.88GAA .908%SP
Dear National Hockey League,
As a Minnesota Wild fan from the very beginning of the team’s existence, could you please take the time to explain the start times for our playoff games? Now, I’m not talking about the start times in Colorado, as I do understand the concept of time zones and geography and I am well aware that Denver is an hour behind Minnesota. However, I do find the additional delay of a half hour for the start time to be a bit inconsiderate, but at this point that is neither here nor there. After two games though, my sleep pattern is a bit messed up to say the least.
I do take extreme exception to the start times in St. Paul tonight and Thursday night. Tonight, many Wild fans are going to have to take off early from their jobs for the ridiculously early start time of 6:00pm Central Daylight Time. Our games normally start at 7:00pm CDT, which usually gives fans enough time to get off work, maybe change clothes, grab a bite to eat, and find parking by Xcel Energy Center in time for the drop of the puck. That all goes out the window tonight. Heck, even for those of us who watch the games from the comfort of our homes will be effected. Those who have kids in spring sports or adults who coach spring sports will be lucky to be home in time, as most practices last until 6:00pm easily. And if your team has a game or match today, well good luck. You might make it home in time for the start of the second period if you’re lucky. Looking at tonight’s schedule, there’s no real reason for this obscenely early start time (and not that I care about them, but it’s even earlier for Avalanche fans). Sure, the game is being broadcast on NHL Network, but it is the only game today on that particular channel tonight so there’s no conflict there. And as a Wild fan, I’m not going to be actively hoping to watch another game. Sure, I may flip channel to take a peak during intermission, but in my book there’s no other game to watch tonight. And I’m pretty sure most fans of other teams feel the same way. They only care about their team and the games they play.
But it doesn’t stop there. Remember I mentioned Thursday’s game as well? Well that “home” game in St. Paul on Thursday night is another 8:30pm Central Daylight Time start. Why the hell are we playing that late for a home game? What’s even more annoying is that the Boston-Detroit game get “our” start time of 7:00pm while we get bumped back by an hour and a half. Perhaps the officials at the NHL offices need a refresher on their time zones and geography. Last I looked, both of those teams are in the Eastern Time Zone. Once again, the league is catering to East Coast fans, because God forbid, you couldn’t dare have the Montreal-Tampa Bay game played at the same time as the Boston-Detroit game, so let’s stagger them and screw the Minnesota Wild fans. Let’s make them stay up until 11:30pm on a work night, and that’s if the game doesn’t go to overtime.
If you thought that was bad, just take a look at the other teams in the Western Conference playoffs. It is only our series and our fans that are getting the shaft. The St. Louis-Chicago series, have nice, normal Central Time start times. Usually 7:00 or 7:30pm. Heck, they even get 2:00pm weekend matinee games (two of those in fact). Even the Dallas-Anaheim series has some okay start times for Dallas fans. For the games played in Texas, even they get one game that starts at 7:00pm Central Time. Nope, not us. We get 6:00 and 8:30pm. Last I looked, Minnesota finished higher in the standings, yet we’re the ones getting assigned the ridiculous start times for our home games.
Sure, this series isn’t going well for Minnesota. But for the love of hockey, don’t add insult to injury by making us either have to stay up until almost midnight or have to get off work early for games played at home. The first two games have been heartbreakers for Wild fans. With these crazy start times, it doesn’t feel like home ice. With these start times, while the arena may look familiar, the start times are not. Why are the fans being made to shoulder unfair start times simply for your broadcast schedule. 7:00pm Central Daylight Time is the perfect time for a game to start. I don’t care about your national broadcast schedule. I do however care about my sanity and my sleep patterns. Of course those mean nothing to you. All that you care about is the almighty dollar (either American or Canadian). If somehow the Minnesota Wild manage to advance to the second round, you seriously have to reward our fans with normal start times. Or is this some sort of karma thing for the 2003 run or because lowly Minnesota managed to sign both Zach Parise and Ryan Suter when far more “deserving” teams did not?
I think even the Wild offices are a bit annoyed with the start times. However, they’ve opted to go for the humorous route. For the first game last Thursday, they created a “permission slip” for fans to print out and present to their bosses to “allow” them to come to work two hours late on Friday. Today’s “permission slip” is to let us out of work early. So NHL, do you see a problem here? Take off your glasses with the dollar signs covering the lenses, and come live our lives for a bit.
Sincerely,
The (Upset and Sleepy) State of Hockey
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