Quick Hits: Brought to you by Blue Moon and Massive Sleep Deprivation

So the Wild win against Calgary (big), Khudobin extends his NINE game losing streak, and Avery grabs Dallas by the nuts and twists. FUN!

I think we've pretty well established here that my boundaries around appropriate behavior are a bit loose at times. I'll never be a politician's wife. Live and let live, I say.

So, I like Aves. And I've missed his delinquency, even if Marty Turco hasn't. You think goalies throw some ear plugs in when they're playing him? Might not hurt, right? Just to dull the din a bit.

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I'm about to say the oldest thing I've ever said:

The coming weather front is making my knees hurt.

AUGH! I should probably go dig my grave while the permafrost is soft, right?

But they do. They hurt. But they're ALL that hurt, other than about 5 spots on my body where I have bruises. So I'm delighted that for the first time ever after a 3-in-3, I have more bruises than aches.

Normally the groins are a little tender, hamstrings or quads a little tight. Nope. Feeling good. Lots of energy in my legs (apart from those cranky knees).

It's weird because I don't feel stronger or anything. I think part of it is getting more efficient, which is something lazy people like me are really good at.

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Have I mentioned I love washing my gear? And I don't even just mean in the new washer (arriving Tuesday!), but I washed out my glove and blocker tonight as they were both getting slimy inside.

It's so cathartic to crank the hot water up and just rinse all that sweat and funk and ick out. And with white gear, you can actually see it washing away. It's just such a concrete, tangible accomplishment and my glove smelled like absolutely nothing when I was done. Yay!

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The cashier at Wing Stop knew me by name tonight. This may explain why my lateral movement is slow.

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If you haven't checked it out yet, here's a really interesting read from Hutch over at In Goal Mag with some opinions from around the goalie universe as to what the most significant development in goaltending has been in the last decade.

I tried really hard to muster an answer but I'm too new to the game. Hit me up in 10 more years and I'll blow your mind. Lowell Devil's hottie goalie Mike McKenna's answer resonated with me the most, but I can't tell if it's because he's so good looking or because it actually really resonated with me. I'm not kidding. Really can't tell. It's actually a little frustrating.

Seriously though, the stuff about the high level of training, and yet the conformity of training, is what stuck with me. I don't hesitate to lament a good but dull goalie. I hope goalie coaches out there will embrace a player's uniqueness as they develop their style. Leave boring goaltending to the Finns.

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Speaking of hot boys, Stoner's hurt again. Groiner. My god, why didn't it occur to me to be an athletic trainer when I grew up? I mean, really.

Alright fine, I'll stop being a dirty cougar and send you to this article about Stoner's situation in Minnesota, but keep going to the end where there's a really touching little bit from his parents. And how lovely is it that his dad got to be there for the Father/Son trip? Very.

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Texas in the National Championship tomorrow night. We're having some folks over to watch. Can any game ever be as good as the last time we won this, though? I'm not all that excited. I think I'll entertain myself by using as many hockey terms as possible just to annoy Mr.C.

"Boy, that was a nice goal by McCoy."
"Alabama's having trouble getting out of the neutral zone."
"Oh a penalty? Yeah! Texas on the power play!"
"That Bama guy totally just crosschecked Shipley!"

This is old but it makes me laugh. I fucking hate Brent Musburger.

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Goodnight.

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More love for Cal from the Pio

Ahhh, I was needing a fresh Cal infusion. Thanks Bruce Brothers!

A little taste:

Lemaire believes Clutterbuck more than makes up for his shortcomings with his attitude.

"You can accept a lot of things," Lemaire said, "because his heart is right there, on the ice, when he plays."

Shortcomings? Cal has shortcomings? Pfft. Old man's talking crazy. ;)

Another thing I've been meaning to mention is the funny mutations of his name that Wild fans have come up with.

I think those of us in Houston are kinda used to his unique name. Sorta like how we don't still put on our best Spicoli voice when we say Stoner's name (and then laugh like we're the first ones who ever thought to do that). Though I will admit, when he's wearing the C, I do still get a chuckle calling him Captain Stoner. Sounds like a bad cartoon from the 70s. You can always tell the Aeros game newbies by: a) how funny they think the name Stoner is and b) how awesome they think John Scott is for being huge and mean looking. I know. I know.

Anyway, the Clutterbuck bastardizations irritated me at first, but it got to be such a sport, it really makes me laugh now and I wish I'd been keeping track of them. They get pretty absurd: Buttertruck, Cluttersnaps, Clutterduster, Clutterbunny, Flutterpuck, Stuttercrutch, Buttercrack... And those are just the ones that go back into mid-December in Russo's blog comments.

Okay, maybe I'm just easily amused.

Okay, there's no maybe about it.

Shut up.

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Their mamas should be proud...

Isiah Carey reports on his blog that some of the guys have been busy on their days off this week helping out with one of the hurricane shelters. Clayton Stoner and Maxim Noreau (don't worry, I already left a comment saying who "the other guy" is) are the do-gooders, which doesn't surprise me in the least. Could this team be any more loveable?

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Prospect Watch 2008: Defensive Wrap-Up

Here's what weird about the Aeros. As a group, we had (and probably will have again) the best defense in the league. Individually, though, when the Wild were in a severe pinch for d-men at the end of last season, Reitz was the only one deemed good enough for a call up.

So it's understandable that the list of defensive prospects is relatively short, but I still think it's wrong. Scott shouldn't be on there, nor do I think Scandella should be on there. I can't really justify the Scandella decision as I haven't seen him play, but as I've said, I'm skeptical.

Who should be there? I think you can make a case for both Brandon Rogers and Clayton Stoner.

Brandon played 4 years in college and has 3 years of AHL hockey under his belt, where this season he had a career year and secured his first NHL contract with the Wild for the next 3 years. Brandon has great hockey sense and I think his 4 goals/24 assists and +17 (the team-leading +/-) speak to his gifts.

He actually reminds me a lot of Nick Schultz, both on the ice and in the room (allegedly). They both play a pretty low key game but are effective and calm and good leaders.

Stoner had a tough year last year, playing only 56 games due to injury after injury, but he obviously also saw some benefit from the new coaching regime as his numbers went up significantly in 9 fewer games than last season. But like many defensemen, numbers don't really tell Stoner's story. His bread and butter is his gritty game. He's like Reitz without the offensive touch and, IMO, more hustle and self-sacrifice. Plus, he just seems like a really nice, earnest guy. What can I say? I've seen enough aloof, selfish players and I think it matters to have guys like this.

Tomorrow: Dimples!

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Prospect Watch 2008: Peter "The Librarian" Olvecky

NHL.com sez:

Peter Olvecky -- In his third full season in Houston, the Wild's third-round selection from 2004 set a career high with 17 goals in 61 games. Regarded as a solid two-way player, Thompson believes Olvecky's late development is partly because the franchise didn't know where he was best suited.

"He's a guy that turned things around," Thompson said. "We didn't know what he was. We didn't know if he was a center or a winger or offensive or defensive. We never really knew. The second half of the year, he played a lot better. Hopefully he'll give some people a run for their money in camp."

Ms. Conduct sez:

Again, a frustratingly vague analysis from TT. He poses all these questions and never answers them. How'd he turn things around? Is he a center, winger, offense, defensive? I sure don't know based on watching Peter play last season (and apparently the prior TWO season, which I don't remember him at all).

And frankly, I can't fill in those blanks. The most I can say for sure about Peter is that he's a solid, even-keeled hockey player who will get you 30 points a year regardless of the system. The thing is, he apparently missed 29 games this season, but I had no idea. That's only 5 more games than Stoner played, but his absence I was keenly aware of.

In fact, if someone took the stats away from me and asked me how many games each guy played, I would have said Stoner played 50 and Olvecky played 70 (and wow, isn't he durable?). I'd be wrong all the way around on that guess, but it just demonstrates that whatever impact Peter has, it's a very, very quiet one. Shhhh!

Also, he had by far the worst plus/minus of the top 5 scorers for the Aeros. Ten below Reitz, who was +5 in 49 games.

I don't dislike Peter, but he's got "warm body" status in my mind. I haven't seen him make any big improvements (though his goals were up a bit this season) in his 3 years here, where some of the previous low key guys made fairly large strides. TT seems to think he has found his mojo, but I until I see evidence, it seems to me he's really just meeting the basic requirements:

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Captain?

Being a Wild fan AND an Aeros fan, I have to say, I really prefer a year-long captaincy that most teams (including the Aeros) have vs. the rotating captaincy that the Wild have. If only to avoid the repeated threads of "Who should be the captain this month?" and the inevitable answer of "Backstrom!" to which 5 people pull out the rule book about how goalies can't be captains and blah blah blah.

But anyway... now that we have the main guys on the team signed and securely back in the fold, I've begun to wonder about who the Aeros captain might be this year. It was Reitz last season, and he's now moved on to Minnesota. The alternates were Kelly and Payer and they're gone. Ward filled in when Kelly went up to Minny, and now he's gone, too.

The thing is, you can tell who is a leader on the ice, but not so much in the locker room.

If I had to guess, I'd say Stoner. He certainly leads by example on the ice, he's been with the team for a while, good team guy, good character guy (it seems).

I'd love to see Clutterbuck get an A. And if he gets called up to Minny and sticks, it's not a big deal to pass the torch to someone else. I'd say I'm not sure it's appropriate for someone with an agitating style like his to be in that role, but he wore the A back in juniors and I think he was even more off the hook back then, so there's at least a precedent for it.

Plus, there's something kind of satisfying about having a guy who opposing teams and fans thinks is a colossal asshole, and yet our team has seen it fit to say, "We like him. He represents us. FU." Hah! Maybe we should just put FU on his chest. Heh.

Not sure about the second A. Might go to one of the new guys. Locke? Lundy? Guess it depends on how the chemistry is shaping up in training camp. Maybe Hamilton or Irmen? Schultz? Remains to be seen, I guess.

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Have I mentioned how awesome Marty Turco is? Watching game 2 of the Anaheim series and I don't know how Giggy isn't down there crying under his mask at his miserable inferiority.

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My gear comes tomorrow. My new stick comes on Thursday. Hopefully it will get here before I go to spinning tomorrow night. I finally did the yoga I was going to do Sunday tonight. Lazy bitch... meh.

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