The needs of the many...

I must admit. I sat here pondering why I should take time out of my hectic day of skipping class and playing outside to blog. But the answer comes from a great man's dying words: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

And so it is my duty to contribute to the wellbeing of manliness, as it is under constant assault from political correctness and technology. Without the guidance of our crack team of men and the honorary man, our world could spiral into a dystopia of sugar and spice and everything nice rather than the frogs and snails and Rottweiler tails it is meant to be.

However, I'm a pretty self centered person, so right now my needs are to write about the Wild as a form of closure to a promising season cut short by injuries, biased officiating, and bad breaks. Sure, that may sound biased itself, but what kind of a fan would I be if it wasn't?

The Wild's motto this post-season was "Fight Til the End," which if you ask me, sounds kinda like we expected it to end sooner rater than later. Maybe some of the players felt the same way, and it got to them. How else could a team that played good fundamental hockey most of the regular season fall so hard in the first series with the higher seed and home-ice advantage for the first time in the team's history? I guess some praise should go to the Avalanche net minder. Theodore played some excellent hockey, even though he got almost as much help from the posts as his blocker.

Also, you would think the "article" by Denver Post "journalist" Mark Kiszla would have fired up the team wanting to prove they weren't a goon squad as accused. However, the very next game after the article came out, the Wild played exactly like how they were portrayed, even though it was extremely out of character for them. The problem as I see it was that no one stepped up to stop the gooning and cheap shots. Where was the captain to calm these guys down? Where was the coach? Game 4 wasn't over after being down 3-0 after one period. But the Wild sure played like it was. And although, from my point of view, the refs belonged in the WCHA, you have to play on. Speaking of the captain not doing anything, Gaborik had no points until Game 6. I realize players go on hot and cold streaks, but a player of Gaborik's caliber shouldn't be -3 going into Game 6 of any playoff series.

As much bad as there was in this series, there was just as much good. The Wild dominated many of the games with good passing, offense, and pressure. There was just too much skill and luck between the Avalanche pipes. Hockey is a lot of luck, anybody will tell you that, and the Wild just weren't getting lucky breaks. The prime example was when the Wild hit 2 posts within 15 seconds of each other.

No matter what the reason is, the Wild season is over. There might still be a couple of good games in the playoffs to watch, but they won't carry nearly as much weight. Which might actually be ok. I might get some actual work done now...Yeah right. The Twins are on.