X Marks the Spot

Hmm...Thanksgiving Eve. What to do in the sleepy Twin Cities, well, other than take my tryptophan blockers, that is? Maybe see if there are any late tickets available for "The Lion King"? What's playing at the Lagoon?

Maybe trot on down to the Mall of Amer.....what's that? There's a professional ice hockey game tonight? In St. Paul, no less? Really? I wonder why I hadn't heard a thing about it?

Judging by the verbal vomiting the press has been afflicted with since the Canucks finished off their ass-kicking of the Wild last Friday night you'd think the Wild were playing Hitler and the Nazis tonight with a One-Time Only chance to avenge the Holocaust. Sorry to disappoint, but it's only the Vancouver Canucks and their roving band of chickenshit hockey players.

To recap the precipitating events:

1. The Canucks spanked the Wild all over the ice on Friday, ultimately winning 6-2, though it might as well have been 10-0 for as wide a discrepancy as there was between the on-ice performance of the two teams.

2. Towards the end of the game, Gaborik threw a nasty elbow at Ryan Kesler (who had shadowed and shut down Gaby quite effectively all night), Boogey tussled with Willie Mitchell and got tossed, PMB tussled with Alex Burrows, Koivu got his elbow up in Mattias Ohlund's face to which Ohlund responded with a slash that broke a bone in Mikko's leg, and SRV mistook Mike Weaver's melon for a clay pigeon at the final buzzer.

3. Mikko's on crutches and off the ice and Ohlund drew a four-game suspension from the league.

4. Boogaard, Markus Naslund, Kesler, Burrows, PMB and Gaby have all been running their mouths to varying degrees.

5. The Nuks called up AHL goon Mike Brown as an "insurance policy".

6. The league called the respective GMs and told them to keep their players under control.

7. Mick McGeough is all paid up on his Thespian Society dues and is ready to ref the game.

8. Fans on both sides are "putting on the foil" in anticipation of a game that will almost surely NOT match the hype.

So all eyes will be on the X tonight for just a little regular season game in November.

I, for one, think Gaby needs to "drop the purse" (thanks Brent Burns!) with Kesler.

I don't think Boogey will get too much action since he's about six inches taller and 60 points heavier than the average of the Nuks' two "tough guys" (Cowan and Brown). He's also drawn the watchful eye of the League with his incendiary rhetoric (his line about Naslund and the Sedin twins being "Pink and the Brain twins" is classic).

Hopefully the Wild remember that they truly got their collective butt handed to them by the Nuks where it counts the most - on the scoreboard - last game and need to step up and win the game mroe than the physical battle.

A repeat of the first Fowl game this year would be ideal.

Lets get ready to RUUUUMMMMMBLLLLLLEEEEEE!

NiNY