To all the Ducks fans who were crying about how Derek Boogaard is "unsportsmanlike" for not shaking hands with the Ducks at the end of game 5, I have this from the Star Tribune:

After the game, when both teams lined up to shake hands, Risebrough kept Boogaard from joining, because "I did not trust what they were going to do." Wild coach Jacques Lemaire and his assistants also didn't shake hands with the Ducks coaches, which angered Burke.

"The reason is very simple," Lemaire said. "[Burke] started first to say his team is bigger, tougher, they had more fights and all that [stuff] before the playoffs, and I didn't appreciate it. Then ... what May did, that's the reason I didn't shake."

It wasn't him, it was on General Manager Doug Risebrough's orders. So shut up already. You're the bitterest bunch of whiners with a winning team I've ever heard.

Thanks to the super folks at Center Ice, Thursdays's Wild/Ducks game was blacked out again. We made a mad dash to the Hooters in Oceanside, where the super nice manager put the game up on two screens for us.

Sadly, the game didn't turn out as hoped. There were some strange non-calls, like when Chris Pronger skated by the Wild bench during a stoppage in play, whacked Derek Boogaard over the head with his stick and then smirked at the officials like "Whatcha gonna do about it?"

The answer, of course, was nothing.

If there's any question out there about whether the Ducks are dirty, especially Brad May, this video of Brad May cheap-shotting Kim Johnsson should close the case. I don't know what video Ducks coach Randy Carlyle was watching when he said "the punches were flying," but the only punches I saw flying came from Brad May. May gets no points in my book, because he's the one who put the bounty on the Avs Steve Moore in the infamous Bertuzzi incident that left Moore with a concussion, fractured neck vertebrae and an end to his career.

If you can honestly watch the video and tell me this was a sportsmanlike thing to do, there's something wrong with you.

Anyway, watching the game at Hooters was better than not getting to see it at all, but the waitresses kept coming by about every 5-10 minutes and standing right in front of Bryan to flash their rack. They were standing in front of me, too, and after the first couple of times, I quit even making eye contact because by God, hockey's on, I don't want to look at your boobs, so please don't bug me!

A disappointing end to the series, but I'm still really proud of the Wild players for making it as far as they did, and for playing a great season.

I will be rooting for anyone who is not the Ducks for the remainder of the post season.

The Wild finally showed up for the game last night, with a 4-1 (should have been 5-1) win. Once again we were stuck with the Anaheim feed, but it was better than two and a half hours of black screen.

Derek Boogaard had an assist, and Burns had another fight. Boogie was even the third star of the game!

They're headed back to Anaheim, but with the series at 3-1 in favor of Anaheim, Bryan and I are going to sit this one out. If the Wild win, it would be great to be there, but if they don't, I'm a little worried about how some of the idiots in the crowd will behave. We had a little nastiness from the Anaheim crowd after Game 2, and while I'd be willing to risk their wrath for Game 7, I think I'll be spending game 5 wearing the same Wild sweatshirt I wore tonight and sitting in the exact same spot on the floor I occupied this evening. Just in case it helps.

Okay Wild, it's time to get something started. True, no team since the 1975 something-or-others have come from behind after a 0-3 start in the playoffs, but in order to at least salvage some pride, if not your playoff hopes, it's time to get a kick in the ass and play the way we all know you can play. We've seen you when things are clicking and you can do no wrong. The Ducks are tough, but it's time for you to be tougher. Please, for the love of Pete, be tougher. It would be really embarassing to be swept by the Ducks again.

So we missed last night's Wild game at the X, thanks to the rocket scientists at Center Ice. For some reason, they insist that since we live in San Diego, we are in the LA market for sports broadcasts. This is often true for Kings games, but rarely if ever correct when it comes to Ducks broadcasts. So, the thoughtful folks at Center Ice blacked out the Center Ice broadcast of the game, and since we get Fox Sports West, not Fox Sports Pacific, we had no way to watch the game. We listened to it on NHL.com, but it wasn't the same.

I really, really wish the folks at Center Ice would figure it out. We pay for the package so we can watch all the games, and it would certainly be nice to be able to watch the freakin' playoff games! We'll see if we get the feed tomorrow night, or if it'll be another black screen.

Well, due to a last minute scheduling break, Bryan was able to get special liberty and go to the game with me last night. We had to sit in different sections, since he bought his ticket at the last minute, but we met up at intermissions and had each other for company on the drive. It was probably a good thing that he went with me, since the Wild lost, and there was plenty of smack talked about us and our jerseys as we left the arena.

Anaheim fans are interesting. Most of them don't really seem to know much about hockey, which is a sharp contrast to Minnesota fans. They're all proud of the fact that they've sold out the last twenty-some home games, and the people next to me last night were trying to rub that in.

I patiently explained that the Wild have sold out every single home game they've ever played, a number upwards of two hundred seventy something, and that shut them up.

Once again, some weird penalties. Boogaard got 5 for fighting when he wasn't even fighting. And 5 for jawing at Travis Moen, who's a punk. Burns had a hilarious fight - which was even more hilarious when we watched the game on DVR this morning. Chris Kunitz is a little girly punk, pulling Burnsie's hair during their "fight." He totally started it, and yet Burns got the extra two minutes. Burns totally kicked his butt, and the funny thing you didn't see on the broadcast was that as Burnsie got to the box where Boogaard was sitting (from his last penalty), he had a big old grin on his face and Boogaard tapped him, like "good job." Too funny.

The Anaheim fans also cry any time a penalty is called. It's like they're in total denial that the player might actually deserve the penalty. I don't like it when my team takes penalties, but when Kim Johnsson totally hooked some Duck guy, at least I have the good graces to admit it.

The next two games are at the X in Minnesota, and hopefully they'll have different outcomes. If there's a game 5, it'll be Thursday in Anaheim, and with a little luck, Bryan and I will be at the game again, maybe this time in adjoining seats!

I'm hopeful. The Wild came from behind with a 3-1 game deficit when they played Colorado and Vancouver in 2003, so they have the ability to rally from behind. But I'm concerned that this Ducks team will be tougher to beat than the 2003 Avs or Canucks were.

I have yet another cold. This makes two in the span of about three weeks. Luckily I was mostly healthy while Rosemary, Crystal and Isabelle were visiting, but I spent Sunday, Monday and Tuesday either in bed or on the couch, stuffed up beyond belief. I finally made it back to work today. I'm pretty sick of being sick.

Derek Boogaard almost got a goal last night. If you ask me, he did get it, but the officials credited Kurtis Foster with it. Nothing against Foster, because on the couple of occasions I've run into him, he's been incredibly, exceptionally nice, but I really wanted the goal to be Boogey's.

Several good fights in the past few games...so many that I'm just going to include the link to Ryan's You Tube page and you can check them out for yourself. I still like it better when Boogaard plays rather than fights, but I can't complain, since he's been playing well lately. Even Jacques Lemaire (the Wild head coach) had some nice things to say in the Star Tribune...and Jacques is maybe a little more reticent when it comes to giving players compliments.

Boogaard pleased the crowd with a third-period fight, but he pleased his coach long before that.

"This is what I want him to do," Lemaire said. "He was good in his own zone, better with the puck. This is the hockey I want him to play."

And a funny quote from Michael Russo's blog:

Derek Boogaard was a force tonight, and it had nothing to do with his fight with Zach Stortini: “I think he was trying to give me a kiss or something,” Boogaard said of the very, let’s just say, close in proximity fight.

Stortini's a punk in my book.

Finally, to wrap up tonight's shameless promotion of Derek Boogaard, here's a good article on the Boogeyman.

As of right now, the Wild would face Anaheim in the first round of the playoffs...which might mean a final chance for me to try to get my photo. Anaheim absolutely sucks in terms of being able to get any contact with players (i.e., the buses load in a secured zone), so it would pretty much take an act of God to make it happen, but I'm an eternal optimist. We'll see how the final lineup shakes out for the playoffs.

I'd write more, but I'm tired and cranky and can't breathe. Sudafed really isn't doing much - I seem to have some super-strain of cold. Ugh.