Minnesota Wild: Gaining Fans Through Adversity
By Frank Walker
As we head into the home stretch of the NHL regular season I realize two things, I’m looking for the Blue Jackets to get healthy for next year, and I’m rooting for the Minnesota Wild. I didn’t pick the Wild at the beginning of the year as a team that I wanted to follow, but the stories that have swirled around that team this year have started to draw me in.
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First it was the soap opera of their goaltending situation. The year started out with Josh Harding having insult added to injury. He was suspended after causing his own injury that kept him out for of the lineup for two to three months after kicking a wall. Then there was the possibility that the Wild were going to grace the league with the return of Ilya Bryzgalov, who would have added more to the post game press scrums then the games themselves but I would have immensely enjoyed it.
These events set the stage for what can only be described as the triumphant return of Devan Dubnyk. This is a goalie
When the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs start I will miss chanting “C-B-J!” and wearing a “We Are the 5th Line” t-shirt, but a small part of me is looking forward to joining in on tv with “Let’s play hockey!”
who was kicked out of Edmonton and then spent time bouncing around wondering if he would ever have another job in the league. Now he is even being mentioned on the periphery of some Hart Trophy conversations.
Then there was the Mike Yeo yelling incident. Not that I think it was the best motivational technique he had available but it sure made for a lot of fun and discussion.
I’m also rooting for the Minnesota Wild because that team and state lost it’s hockey godfather this year in J.P. Parise. I’m not trying to overlook or sound calloused towards his son Zach, but how his passing affected the greater hockey community of Minnesota connects stronger with me. Minnesota is unique in the United States in that the whole state is hockey mad from mini-mite to the professional level and it is a state that at one time had one favorite player, J.P. Parise. He did a lot to grow hockey at all levels throughout that state a state that serves as a model for how hockey can work in the U.S.
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Finally I’m rooting for the Wild because I see a lot of my fan experience in theirs. As an Ohioan I know how it feels when your team is ripped away (the Browns) and then when you suffer through years of teams not winning championships (see all professional Ohio teams). I know what it is to pour heart and soul into a team just to watch it blow up or sizzle out into irrelevance.
When the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs start I will miss chanting “C-B-J!” and wearing a “We Are the 5th Line” t-shirt, but a small part of me is looking forward to joining in on tv with “Let’s play hockey!”