Say cheese(y).
Sadly my friends, that is the new face and voice of the Minnesota Wild on Fox Sports North. This morning, it was made official by the Minnesota Wild and Fox Sports North, that Anthony LaPanta was the new play by play broadcaster. LaPanta has been with been with Fox Sports North in various capacities since 2004, and most recently has been the University of Minnesota mens' hockey team play by play broadcaster. Joining LaPanta during Wild broadcasts will be color analyst, Mike Greenlay.
While the Wild and Fox Sports North appear to be tickled pink about this hiring, there is one large, and very vocal group, who are less than pleased. In fact, irate would be a better word. Earlier in the off-season when it was announced that Dan Terhaar would not have his contract renewed, fans everywhere rejoiced. It was a bit of excitement after a season that was full of ups and downs. Fans were wondering and hoping that a vastly improved play by play broadcaster would be brought in, and we all know we deserved one due to what we've endured over the years. Unlike many owners, it's been known that Wild owner Craig Leipold reads several fan blogs (and I know for a fact that a season ticket holder of our acquaintance has passed the address of this blog on to him) as well as the official message boards. With that in mind, no one within the organization should be able to claim that they were "shocked" by the fan response. However, that is just what they did. They were so shocked by the response of the fans, that they actually pushed back the announcement until this morning because there was clearly a mad scramble of "what do we do now?" Yet, with the backlash on Facebook, Twitter, message boards and the blogosphere, they continued with their decision. Most likely the ink was already dry on the contract.
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The minor leagues. When someone hears that term they think of long bus rides, and crappy locker rooms and motels. For hockey fans, the movie Slap Shot also comes to mind, where you think about an increase in fights, strange promotion attempts (the fashion show scene here), and sparse crowds. For the players its tough because no kid grows up with the hopes of playing in the minor leagues. Yet, the minors are a key place for players to develop and hone their game and not just at the American Hockey League level anymore. A step below the AHL is the East Coast Hockey League, and if the AHL is like 'AAA' than the ECHL is 'AA'. However, more and more players first established themselves in the ECHL before getting that chance to do so again at the AHL level and eventually at the NHL level. NHL players like Washington Capitals' (and Blaine, MN-native) Matt Hendricks, hated Vancouver sniper and pest Alexandre Burrows as well as former Wild forward Andrew Brunette just to name a few all got their start in the ECHL. Every NHL team affiliates themselves with a team from the American Hockey League and most of the league teams carry an affiliation with an ECHL club. The league started in 1988 and included just 5 teams and since then has grown to include 20 teams all across the United States. In fact, the East Coast part of the league's name is a bit deceptive now since almost half of the league are clubs west of the Mississippi River, in cities such as Ontario (California), Bakersfield, Stockton, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Boise, Anchorage, and Windsor (Colorado). The Wild announced Thursday their ECHL affiliation with the Orlando Solar Bears. The affiliation is not just a selection by the Wild but a mutual choice between the two organizations. Solar Bears' Chief Operating Officer Peter Ohrablo was pretty blunt in saying why the Solar Bears wanted to affiliate with the Wild, "We want to win. We strongly believe that affiliating with the Wild organization will provide us with a solid core of players from which we can build a competitive and exciting team for our fans.”
How important is it for the Wild to have an ECHL affiliate?Ohrablo's comments are nothing unexpected. I mean honestly, would any exec who wanted to keep their job say, "we want to lose." Of course not. Yet taking Ohrablo at his word its good to see another organization outside of Minnesota believes the franchise has a bright future on the ice. Perhaps no organization is probably more relieved than the Houston Aeros, the Wild owned-AHL affiliate. Like the Wild were in 2000, the Solar Bears are an expansion team and have yet to play an ECHL team but that fresh start is what Minnesota and Houston are hoping will be the perfect combination as Orlando plays a part in the development of the Wild's and Aeros' future players. 2011-12 was a rough year injury-wise which not only put tremendous strain on the Wild in the sheer amount of call ups (47 different players donned a Wild uniform this last season alone) but also on the Aeros who found themselves raiding various ECHL teams to fill out their roster. The Aeros had to call up 19 different ECHL'ers throughout the course of the 2011-12 season which gives you an idea how the troubles of one club trickles down to the farm team, etc. So why else is it important for the Wild to have an ECHL affiliate?
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Reading between the lines can be a skill that can be both a blessing and a curse. It can make someone be extra perceptive, almost like a lesser version of Spider Man's 'spider-sense' that allows a person to see beyond the obvious and an anticipate future events or find the underlying motive of an action. Or it can make someone immensely paranoid and neurotic where they read far too much into even the slightest moves that causes them to look foolish. If you're good at reading between the lines you're considered to be very perceptive, a trait people usually look upon favorably, but if you're not as good as it you're pushed into a group of conspiracy theorists and wackjobs. I don't mind a good conspiracy theory every now and then, as its often a fresh look at the facts but there is a fine line between a plausible motive and ones that are truly out there and bizarre. Perspectives are what the blogging universe and the rest of the journalist world are all about. Through our own lens of what we believe and do not, we tune out certain writers while others we take a lot of stock in their opinions and perceptions since they often match our own 'gut' feelings. So the news the Wild signed defenseman Clayton Stoner to a 2-year contract that will pay him $1.05 million per season, what underlying message should that give fans across the State of Hockey?
What would Johnny Carson's 'Carnac' say about Stoner's contract extension?Maybe we could use a little help from a medium to know what to expect from this. I am going to date myself a bit, but I remember watching the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and by far my favorite portion was his attempt to predict the contents of an envelope as Carnac the Magnificent. Carson's ability to deadpan as well as his quick mind made the skit hilarious even if sometimes it didn't always make a lot of sense. So without having to read the tea leaves or check my horoscope how should Wild fans read into Clayton Stoner's 2-year extension?
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I think one of the coolest things about the post-season are the faces of the athletes. It really can tell you a lot. From the pale, bearded face of players that look more like members of a World War II U-boat crew. Their pale, wooden yet scraggly appearance is a testament to the stress and journey of their post-season run. From the 1,000-yard stare when you can see a team is struggling or about to lose a hard-fought game, the sigh of relief after huge penalty killing effort or this vicious look of determination of Wild prospect Zack Phillips. The playoffs raise the intensity of emotion and in a single moment a player can be brought from the depths of despair to complete jubilation or go from feeling on easy street to instant depression. The Minnesota Wild haven't gone through this emotional roller coaster of the playoffs in a while, but that doesn't mean for the organization that there is still not meaningful hockey to be played. For a number of players and prospects they are still battling their way through the World Championships or their league tournaments.
Penticton Vees' Mario LuciaFor one Wild prospect, the playoffs seem almost endless as Mario Lucia and the Penticton Vees are finally to the end of the road as they compete in the RBC Cup; which pits the various champions all across the Canadian Jr.A Hockey League. The Vees seem to be the early favorite with its outstanding balance and high powered offense led by Lucia, and St. Cloud State commit Joey Benik. Yet the playoffs match the best against the best and there are always going to be stumbles along the way and in the first game of their series the Vees fell 2-1 to Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League's Soo Thunderbirds. You can follow the RBC Cup here. The Vees' next opponent is the RBC Cup host Humbolt Broncos. Can Lucia and the Vees get it done and win the RBC Cup?
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As a teacher, you become familiar with a non-committal student. A student where you can inform them they are behind in their work, and even provide them opportunity after opportunity to complete that work but nothing gets done. You can try to use proximity to encourage him to finish but they're in no hurry. They may be pleasant and even acknowledge the fact they are behind, but they do not work any faster or with any kind of urgency. You can talk with them, and they'll provide you a series of excuses why they couldn't get to it. They were working, forgot, had other work they needed to complete are just a few of the many reasons they will provide you; none of them all that convincing or worthy of being truly excused. Its often very hard to tell if these kinds of students are just resisting doing the work out of spite or if they just lack the initiative to really get it finished (or in many cases, to even start it). I wonder if the Minnesota Wild are starting to feel that way with top prospect Mikael Granlund. Could Mikael Granlund be on his way to becoming the Minnesota Wild's version of Ricky Rubio? Last year I joked about how then Wild draftee Jonas Brodin wasn't going to be like Rubio after signing a 3-year entry contract a few weeks after being selected, but perhaps I should've said Granlund instead.
Rubio was selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves 5th Overall in 2009. Like Granlund, Rubio was a highly touted youngster who was noted for his terrific creativity and his ability to create offense albeit in different sports. For the next two years since Rubio was drafted he held the Timberwolves in the lerch as he seemed content to ply his trade in his native Spain. The two sides went back and forth; as the Timberwolves rather delicately tried to compel their promising youngster to deliver some immediate help to an organization that had been spinning its wheels for more or less a decade. It was a sad drawn out drama that seemed to be akin to a soap opera. Granlund for the most part has appeared to be pretty content at dominating the Finnish Sm-Liiga. Yet its been two years now since the Wild drafted Granlund 9th Overall in 2010. Two years later, he's yet to be signed. So is the comparison that far off base?
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On Friday, it was announced that the Minnesota Wild's television play-by-play analyst, Dan Terhaar will not have his contract renewed. For seven years, Terhaar has been the Wild's PBP guy, and his last contract was renewed in 2010. The Wild did decide to renew the contracts of Mike Greenlay (television color analyst), Bob Kurtz (radio play-by-play), and Tom Reid (radio color analyst). According to the statement made by the Wild, they will make further determinations about broadcast teams later this spring, including working on finding a new television PBP person. However, with the way the Wild stated things, one could almost wonder if they will somehow go with a television-radio simulcast using Kurtz and Reid and put Greenlay down between the benches, kind of like Pierre McGuire does during nationally broadcast games. Personally, I would kind of like that, however, there are people out there that hated when Reid was on television with Mike Goldberg.
Most likely though, the Wild will not go with the simulcast idea. Expect to see a new television guy brought in. It will be interesting to see who they bring in. The fans however, will be tough on whoever comes in. We have had a string of less than impressive play by play guys since year one. After Mike "Big Drive" Goldberg, we had to suffer through Matt "Lost the Handle" McConnell. Fans vented quite vocally about McConnell, so much so that someone who claimed to be his wife joined the message boards to tell the fans they were mean and wrong. Thankfully, the McConnell years were short. However, with McConnell came Mike Greenlay, who we still will have in the immediate future. Terhaar has been painful for fans to watch/listen to. There are drinking games tied to him for things like when his voice cracks or he mentions when a certain player if from Minnesota (and that is more than once during a game). Now, while fans wait for the entry draft and free agency, we get to play the "who will be the new television guy" game.
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How do you respond to pressure? Does it make you anxious or are you cool, calm and collected? Do you feel your stomach tighten or do you break out in hives? How people handle pressure is a big difference maker of what makes certain individuals successful while others fall short. Professional athletes are no different. Terms like 'poise' and 'calm demeanor' as well as 'doesn't panic' are what you want to hear about future prospects. Yet, the pressure of being a prospect is one thing but the pressure of actually delivering on your supposed potential is another. As we finish up our 'Wild fans speak' article, it is abundantly clear that expectations are going to be extremely high for Mikael Granlund who is thought by many to be one of the best players outside of the NHL. Some fans are even referring to Granlund as Baby Jesus, is he going to be able to deliver on being the team's savior? For the most part Granlund has handled the pressure tremendously, and has already accomplished quite a bit by winning a Sm-Liiga championship with HIFK Helsinki as well as a World Championship before he's turned 20 years old. Yet, could the mounting pressure be catching up to him? Afterall, a guy who has been one of the most dominant players in a tough men's league like the Sm-Liiiga should just dominate at this year's U-20 World Junior Championships right? Well yes and no. Granlund did end up being one of the leading scorers in the tournament but in the most pressure packed moment of the tournament for Team Finland, a shootout chance where he could keep his team's hopes alive just watch what took place.
The five fans we talked to discussed Granlund and many other questions pertaining to the Wild and the franchise's current direction. The first fan is Brian Mills, a classmate and a hockey fanatic like myself. One of these fans are wild.com message board regulars in KISSArmyMan who you may remember chimed in with his two cents about the Wild's performance at the 2011 NHL Entry Draft last summer. Our other two respondents are regulars of the Wild portion of the Hockey's Future message boards. Jarick, a former wild.com regular who along with a few other fans has their own blog called FirstRoundBust.com, and Se7en a California-based Wild fan. I asked each of these fans 8 questions on a variety of Wild related subjects.
This is the second portion of a 2-part fan survey. You can see the first part here which includes the responses about Mikael Granlund. I want to take this opportunity to thank each of these individuals for contributing their views. But I'd like to challenge my readers to share their views as well. Do you agree with these fans' assessments of the direction of this club or what do you see happening? Please share your comments below. Without further adieu here is their responses to the final four questions of the fan survey.
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