Thirsty But Strong

Today is the 8th day of my Martin Havlat Beer Strike. To date, he hasn't scored a goal this season and I will continue to abstain from beer until he scores.

I'm not sure if this is coincidence, but via his agent, Havlat is complaining of a lack of playing time. In this blogger's opinion, Havat's playing time has been reduced because (a) he just isn't playing at a $5.0 million level and (b) the Wild have been shorthanded for a ridiculously long time and Havlat doesn't (nor should he) play on the PK.

Another theory that's been offered as to his goal scoring drought: he now wears Derek Boogaard's #24 and Boogey hasn't scored since 2007.

It Begins Tonight...

The new back-up gets his first start in the most overrated city in North America.

Same Old Roberto

Enough has been said about the incident with the fan last night, so I won't go into that. What I really wanted to write about today was Roberto Luongo. Look at these numbers: 39 minutes played, 18 shots faced, 12 saves, while making $6.7 million this season and locked up for several more.

It's a good thing they took his captaincy away from him so he could better focus on stopping the puck.

On an unrelated note, no Havlat goals last night, so my beer strike enters Day #2.

The Martin Havlat Beer Strike

How much do I want this team to make the playoffs? Enough to sacrifice, my friends. Enough to give up the one thing that makes me happy, good beer. In an effort to motivate the supremely-talented but often scoreless Martin Havlat, I am staging a beer strike. Until Havlat scores I will not consume a single beer. Hopefully this will happen sooner rather than later.

On a side note, Vancouver's in town and all indications are that the Sedin twins are staying in the honeymoon suite at the Saint Paul Hotel. They like to make their trips to Minnesota into romantic getaways.

Miettinen's Problem Solved

The Koivu-Brunette-Miettinen line has been together for a few years now and I think I've finally realized the problem. What usually happens is Koivu skates down the ice brilliantly, curls into the corner, passes the puck to Andrew "Big Ass" Brunette behind the net who then dishes it out front to Miettinen for the open shot. At this point, Antti fires the puck wide by about 6 inches.

I used to think that he was used to playing with bigger nets in Finland, but now that we've seen the Wild play in Helsinki we know that's not the case. Instead of breaking up this line and pairing Koivu with someone who can hit the net on a regular basis, the Wild should focus their efforts on getting the NHL to make the nets bigger. It's very simple: with a bigger net, Miettinen becomes Ovechkin.

Here Comes the Oil

Home opener Thursday night against the upstart Edmonton Oilers. While most hockey experts had both the Wild and the Oilers missing the playoffs this season, almost all of them had the Wild finishing ahead of Edmonton. But I ask you this, Wild fans, as of today whose roster would you rather have? Minnesota's based around Mikko Koivu and a bunch of question marks or Edmonton's youth talent led by Taylor Hall and Jordan "Don't Call Me Lady" Eberle?