FDT WITHOUT INTERNET- BARE WITH ME

Sorry Folks.

I have been without internet for a good two weeks now.  It is pretty painful.  I'm at the library now throwing this excuse together.  I could also use the excuse that even if I did have internet I would be too busy with moving preparations to blog- but that would be a lie because I have mostly been playing hockey, watching hockey, drinking beer, and sleeping in my car during snow storms in uptown.  That and jerking off takes up a lot of time.

Anyway, hopefully I can set up my cable and everything for my new place right away and get rolling on it.  I'll be pretty bored there so I foresee this blog getting a lot more attention. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and Hopefully I see some of you later in the week.

-Dickhead

FDT BACK-WITH A VENGEANCE- LIVE BLOG OF PANTHERS-WILD GAME

Doing it for the fans.  That is what I'm about.  Because truth be told, I would much rather be watching the Lightning-Pens game than the Wild-Panthers match tonight.  But I have neglected the blog for a week now, and I need to show my worth.  We'll call this a beta run, so hang in there with me if you actually might follow along with me tonight- sincerely doubt that but you never know, I know Froda is out lurching somewhere.

I didn't get to catch the Wild's game vs. the Thrashers last night.  That was probably for the best considering it sounded like they really shit the bed all night.  I listened to it on the AM at work and even the announcers there sounded bored-pretty sure they just left in the third period and went across the street to watch the Falcons-Ravens highly entertaining game.

Russo has been tweeting that Falk will most likely be a healthy scratch on defense tonight.  That is too bad.  I like Falk.  Big, Goofy, Canadian.  Honest kid too telling Russo after the loss, "I was terrible. I need to be better."  Conversely, Cam Barker needs to do something soon.  And when I say something I mean ANYTHING.  He has been a lost soul since being traded for last season.  

Fun fact if you were wondering what ever happened to Kim Johnsson, well he isn't even playing hockey anymore.  You would figure that he could at least play overseas somewhere and make a ton of money again but his family apparently settled down quite nicely in Edina and he is very family oriented so he didn't pursue anything.  That is the rumor in cake eater land at least.  I suppose you can settle down pretty nice when you steal as much money from the Wild as he did.

Just realized that the puck doesn't drop until 6:30 tonight.  Sweet, I'll be able to watch a little bit of the Tampa-Pitt game.  Running blog after the jump for the wild game.

A VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FROM FDT!

I thought tomorrow evenings Wild game vs. the Flames was going to be my first live blog/running diary experience-however, it has come to my attention that slacker Chris Williams works directly with Excel Energy Center these days and has readily available tickets for the Flames game.  The team of 18,000 has fastly become the team of "who gives a shit".  I swear more people care about the T-Wolves losing by almost 70 points combined their last two games than a team of certain mediocrity.  BUT HEY PEOPLE...this is the best team in town these days- Go support them!  I will be there supporting them-wearing a Hartford Whalers t-shirt no doubt, but I'll be there.

Join me on Twitter as I'll be undoubtedly drunk, and tweeting the entire nights events
www.twitter.com/firedanterhaar

Until tomorrow night my fellow puck heads

-thoy

DISH NETWORK-FOX REACH DEAL- FDT HAPPY!

Lovely reports that the dispute has finally ended:

"Dish Network Corp. and News Corp. signed an agreement that ends a month-long blackout of 19 sports channels on the satellite television operator and prevents a possible disruption of local Fox broadcast stations starting Monday."

-WSJ

They had to get it done before Monday or they're were putting the fear of god in all of America with NFL games potentially being lost next Sunday.  

This was a nice little surprise to get on a Friday afternoon and now I can watch the Timberwolves, Wild, Gophers, and Twins lose from the comforts of my own home (actually moving within the next couple months but its nice for the time being).

So awesome stuff.  Almost as awesome as Mike Richards fighting Matt Cooke 7 seconds into their game.



Love the jabs Richards gets in the end.  No reason to stay classy when you're fighting king douche of the NHL. 

-thoy

FIRE DAN TERHAAR NOW ON TWITTER!

Exciting stuff coming out of the Fire Dan Terhaar base camp.  I guess that is what happens when you get a day off in the middle of the week and you still get up at 8 AM.

I got pretty bored so I decided to setup a twitter account to correspond with the blog.  You can reach that at:

www.twitter.com/firedanterhaar

Hopefully the blog and the twitter account will help each other out and get me to stay consistent with updates.  It will also allow me to update shit while I'm watching The Wild play outside the comforts of my home which is good seeing that the Dish Network dispute doesn't seem anyway close to reaching a resolution.

So follow me if you have an account and if not I'll keep it public so bookmark it.   Cool.

-thoy

TIME TO STEAL HALLOWEEN COSTUME IDEAS

Absolutely love these costumes.  Simple idea, simple execution, great punch.

At this early point in the Wilds season who would you nominate as their biggest cone defensively?  My nod would have to go to Marek Zidlicky.  Or is it Zidlitsky?  I don't know, the announcers haven't made up their mind ever since he joined the team in 2008.  Zidlicky is clearly an offensive defensemen but in the few games that I have been able to watch this season (once again, thanks dish network, not to mention extended hours at work) he has looked silly on his own side of the blue line.  However, could the Wild create a group costume like these Toronto Maple Leafs fans could for the 07-08 team?  Perhaps.  Who would make the four group party cut?  Zidlicky, yes.  Barker, yes. Burns, yes.  Zanon, probably.  The two rookie defenders for the wild, Clayton Stoner and Justin Falk, surprisingly pair for the teams best plus minus for any of the blue liners.  Obviously their not eating up a ton of minutes or playing in critical situations but I thought that stat line was pretty interesting considering I've seen them playing paired together for portions of the games where they both get to dress.  I hate the plus minus stat in hockey almost as much as keeping track of game winning goals.  However, both stat categories can offer insight if you look at them with a grain of salt.  Something that stood out at me while I was glancing at the Wild's plus minus stats was that John Madden, Eric Nystrom, and Chuck Kobasew combined for a -14.  I was under the impression that these three gentlemen were brought in to play key roles on the 3rd and 4th lines and actually provide some defensive stability to a team that really had none from a year ago.  Pretty alarming when the three also combine for a whopping 2 points on the year (2 goals from Madden).  Something has to give there.

Side bar- Falk came into General Sports yesterday with Nick Schultz, who was buying skates for his three year old son who out grew the skates he bought him last year as a two-year-old (Minnesota is crazy and Canadians in Minnesota are even crazier).  Falk was massive in size, height wise at least.  He soared over Schultz.  Both good dudes.

Back to the Halloween costume idea.  To go as a cone or no?

...I think I'll just dye my beard, cut a shitty mohawk, develop an aggressive attitude and go as Brian Wilson

-thoy

ITS HOCKEY NIGHT ON DISH NETWORK

 

Sigh.

Nothing like watching the wild on a shitty atdhe stream that is most likely giving my computer a virus.

Hey the Wild look good, Bobby Lu not so much.  It's hard to tell in between all of the lags though.

-thoy

ANOTHER REASON THE WILD SUCK

 NO ICE GIRLS!

 The Wild and the Excel Energy Center use dudes who pretend like they have an important job in the NHL.  Um sirs, you're worthless and make me angry when I attend games at my favorite sporting venue.  Your job is not worth value and no one is impressed that you can tie your own skates.

BUT, do you think Minnesota would produce enough good looking females to fulfill this occupation?  I wonder sometimes but I am optimistic considering a good 75% of the population knows how to skate---Completely made up that stat but it's factual.

Would they be able to have the depth of the Dallas Stars ice girls?  I don't think so.  Puck daddy brought a  video of fun in the sun to my attention this morning.  Video after the jump.

KING JAMES, SLOWLY BECOMING ONE OF MY FAVORITES

So how long until this is made into a GIF?  Too long.

Love it.

-thoy

THE NHL IS BACK. ALL IS GOOD- TWINS, DISH NETWORK ARE NOT

Greetings on a lovely Sunday evening in October from beautiful Minnesota (as always).

Apologies for the lack of updates. A lot has happened in the world of hockey directly effecting this blog since I last checked in. The biggest nuisance I have had to deal with is this garbage that my television provider, dish network, has laid on me and the rest of its nations subscribers. We lost FX, National Geographic Channel, and Fox Sports North if you didn't hear about the mess they created. Practically unannounced I might add. I was unaware of these channels contracts ending with Dish until watching an episode of Terriers late when messages from GetWhatIPaidFor.com started scrolling on the bottom of my screen informing me that I was losing these channels in basically 24 hours...Well thats just great. So not only did I lose all Minnesota sporting events not named the Vikings but the awesomeness that is FX dramas and comedies. Total blow to my tv whoring.

This news put a halt on some of the ideas I was working on for the blog. I did a dry run of a running diary during one of the Wild's exhibition games that was televised on channel 45. When I was done I was kind of dejected because I didn't know when I would actually be able to view a game next. A coworker poked fun at me by saying that this is what I wished for, not having to listen to Dan Terhaar anymore. Total cop out. 

There is the bright spot that I have the Center Ice package. Does this mean that I will be able to watch the Wild feeds from their available channels? I have no idea and neither do any of the customer service representatives at Dish Network. So it remains to be seen whether or not I will be able to view Minnesota Wild games. That question will be answered when the Wild resume play on Thursday and have their first Fox Sports North telecast. So I guess I'll just have to wait and see...

End of rant.

Regardless of this shit, the NHL returned to my life this past Thursday and I couldn't be more elated. After watching the Twins do what they do best, lose to the Yankees, my mood wasn't altered Wednesday night because it was NHL season eve. That and my mens league team had yet another dominating win that evening. After hearing about the Twins lose Thursday night (Adult kickball holds priority to watching an intimidated mlb team) I couldn't care less because I had the Wild-Hurricanes game from Finland to watch later. Than the Twins lost again Saturday night and I was as happy as I get because I just had watched the Tampa Bay Lightning look awesome in their opener vs Atlanta. When I got home late Saturday night/Sunday morning I opened up facebook and was welcomed to a mountain of status updates from fed up and angry Twins fans. It made me think that maybe I should be a little upset too. I guess I'm just lucky the start of the NHL season and the Twins losing to the Yankees in the ALDS seem to happen the same week year after year.

AAAhh us Minnesota fans. So tired of mediocre finishes. Here is to hoping the Vikings win Monday night and Randy Moss scores 4 touchdowns and Brett Favre dick pictures don't get mentioned too many times. I wish I could say we have the Wild to look forward to this season but that would be almost as bad as the Twins fans that were lying to themselves before the Yankees series saying "it's different this year, we're going to do it!." The Wild didn't look too hot while in Finland. My biggest concern with the team is that they have been trying to transition to this offensive style of play the past season into this one with a complete lack of team speed and quickness. I watched portions of multiple games over the weekend and bottom feeder teams from a year ago had a jump and get up to them that made Minnesota look like a team from the mid 90's trap oriented NHL. Even our skill players don't have explosiveness to them that allows them to penetrate the neutral zone and create rapid offense. Mikko Koivu is great and can create space but he usually opts to pass or fire a long shot once he gets that space. Havlatt gets the most clear cut chances with his speed but he usually duffs his opportunities as he proved twice in late game situations in their second game in Finland. Not to mention his terrible shootout attempts last year that caused him to start hiding when the Wild were ever involved. Makes me wonder what ever happened to this Martin Havlatt!

The team needs more speed. Which doesn't make sense why they sent Casey Wellman down to the AHL. Michael Russo tries to explain:

"The theory is, why have extra guys eating up salary-cap space if there's no games or they're not playing? As for Wellman, he's not going to be sticking on the Wild if he's only going to be getting nine shifts like he did Friday or scratched like he was Thursday. I think he could help, personally, but the Wild wants him to play and play a lot -- in key situations."

http://www.startribune.com/sports/wild/blogs/104649324.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUBP7h_47cQiU47cQU17cQ_bDaEP7U

This makes sense considering that since the '07-'08 season they have had an example of why playing young inexperienced players on 4th lines on a inconsistent basis doesn't work so well in the NHL. cough...James Sheppard...cough. dud. However, with no speed or quickness on the roster for the immediate future must only mean one thing- when Pierre Marc Bouchard returns to the lineup within the next couple weeks we will learn that he has missed two years because he was undergoing some Tony Stark like engineered surgery where he is super fast, super creative, super strong, and super indestructible. Looking forward to it.

MORE FUN AND EXCITING STUFF AFTER THE JUMP

NEW* LOCAL CELEBRITY SITING

John Madden strolled into General Sports this evening. I wasn't aware of his identity until an employee informed me that it was indeed him. I quickly darted to a computer to do a google image search to truly confirm it. I pulled this picture off the web so I asked him if he would take his shirt off so I could really make sure it was him*. He declined to do so.

He seemed to be in a pretty glum mood. I couldn't figure out why though at the time. It was when I got home and read Michael Russo's blog when I finally realized why he was so despondent. Russo posted the line-up for Wednesday's first preseason exhibition game where Madden would be centering a line of Chuck Kobasew and Cal Clutterbuck. Anyone would be bummed if they went from a Stanley Cup winning team flooded with talent from their first line all the way to their scratches for the night to having to center a career underachiever and an ass clown. Don't worry though, it's just preseason, these aren't the actual lines for the season, right Mr. Russo?

"Proving that he will indeed go a different route than his first training camp, coach Todd Richards released Wednesday's preseason lineup for Minnesota's exhibition opener against St. Louis, and it doesn't look a whole lot different than we can expect in the regular season."

http://www.startribune.com/sports/wild/blogs/103471909.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUBP7h_47cQiU47cQUU

Well fuck.

I apologize to you, John Madden, for being perplexed by your attitude. At least I didn't make any wise cracks about that other John Madden towards you...I'm thinking of something along the lines of, "So professional hockey player John Madden, do you want to fuck Brett Favre like that ex Coach/Broadcaster John Madden always did?"

Welcome to Minnesota!

-thoy

*Untrue story

For a cool story on how great John Madden actually is, hit up Kent Youngblood's (Really? Your name is Youngblood and you're writing about hockey...shocking) article at Star Tribune here. Good looks to Sean for that one.

'The Return of the Whale' Umm...Yes Please

Puckdaddy is my go to website when it comes to hockey news/rumors/findings. They do a great job over there and are a nice model for what this blog could maybe come to some day. That all comes down to whether or not I can stop procrastinating for the first time in my life. Keep following for further details on that...

Anyway, Greg Wyshynski blogged this morning about the Hartford Wolf Pack (New York Rangers AHL affiliate) changing their name mid-season this upcoming year to the Connecticut Whale...

'But his most aggressive move was reported by the Harford Courant on Monday: According to its sources, Baldwin and Whalers Sports & Entertainment are assuming control of the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack, the New York Rangers' top affiliate, and will rechristen the team "the Connecticut Whale."'

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Remember-the-Whale-Reports-says-Hartford-will-a?urn=nhl-270953

This is as lovely news as one could hope for Hartford and the history of the Whalers franchise. Obviously the ultimate high mark would be for an NHL franchise to move back to the Connecticut capital, but that could be considered a pipe dream. Also, if that were to happen it would be hard to believe they would adopt their old moniker, considering the franchise is still relevant having relocated to Carolina. It would be a travesty for Hartford to have to introduce a new team name, logo, and culture. Everything about The Whalers was absolutely perfect, minus their season ticket plans. Best logo, best nickname, best team song; I still find myself randomly humming the brass bonanza from time to time. It would be like what Minnesota went through, not being able to have their iconic North Stars logo back. Who knows, Hartford could pick something as stupid as the 'Wild'. How devastating would that be?

So I welcome this new 'Connecticut Whale' name. I don't care that it's not plural. I like the ring of it. I don't think Brody would mind either....



"Breakfast? Breakfast schremkfast. Look at the score for god sake. I'm only in the middle of the second and I'm winning 12 to 2. Breakfasts come and go, Rene. Now, Hartford, the Whale? Hey they only beat Vancouver once, maybe twice in a lifetime."

-thoy

FIRE DAN TERHAAR RE-LAUNCH

I come here today to officially relaunch my brain child for this upcoming year. It took me two hours to remember my password, I originally set this blog up after a few drinks late one night, but alas I figured it out. You can't hold me down. A proper mission statement is in the near future still but I just wanted to unlock the door and vent in some air for the time being.

My absence can be explained by the notion that I thought that maybe the Wild organization would do something sensible; like fire their entire television broadcasting crew this summer. However, a simple google news search shut those hopes down:

"All Minnesota Wild telecasts will feature play-by-play announcer Dan Terhaar and color analyst Mike Greenlay. A majority of Wild games will be telecast in high-definition this season. A comprehensive high-definition Wild television schedule will be announced at a later date"

http://wild.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=536509

So have no fear Wild nation, you will get to endure the same mind numbing telecasts for your favorite team that you have been since the 2003-2004 season. Awesome.

This is the early stage in what I hope will become something special this upcoming NHL season. Do I feel bad wishing the termination of ones career in a rough economy? Absolutely not. The NHL is an important element in my life and can directly effect my happiness and mood. So it goes without saying that if I did not have the center ice package the previous two years I would be more agitated than I normally am.

So lets get this party started and join me in creating the one bandwagon in town you're not ashamed to be riding on.

-Thoy