Nassau Coliseum is better than Madison Square Garden

          In the next game on my hockeysee, I went to Nassau Coliseum to see the Islanders play the Calgary Flames.  I admit, I was expecting this post to be all about how it's a dump, especially compared to the world famous Madison Square Garden.  That, of course, was before the MSG Incident in the last post

The Madison Square Garden Incident

So, Madison Square Garden sucks

Really bad.

Worse than I could have possibly expected from the “World’s Most Famous Arena”.  It was just bad, not fun at all.  To show you all WHY the experience was so bad, here’s our view.

That big thing up there was the concourse.  

Where the Sabres roam...

So, for the next place on my odyssey, or “hockeyssey” (I was originally going to say “hockyssey”, which is what my mother almost demanded I put, but I like how “hockeyssey” looks, even if it is pronounced “hockey-see”), I traveled to Buffalo, New York. The Sabres were playing against the Toronto Maple Leafs, whom I’d already rooted against (and seen lose) at their place.

Masterton Trophy candidates at about a third of the way through the season.

           So it’s that time of the year where every blogger posts their nominees for (x) trophy at the (x) way point of the year, but one trophy I never hear ideas for is the Masterton trophy.  The Bill Masterton trophy, for the unitiated, is awarded to the player who “ best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey” (Source: NHL.com).  In modern times, it has become somewhat of a “comeback player of the year” award.  With that, I want to list a player for each team who, I feel, would be most deserving.

Minnesota here I come!

            Next up is the State of Hockey, Minnesota and its Wild.  On the day after Thanksgiving, I embarked on an epic journey to Minneapolis, to see the resurging Wild play host to the young Oilers (again).  I’ll see Edmonton at least once again before I head to Alberta, but that’s neither here nor there.  The Wild have come from pretty much nowhere to become one of the top teams in the NHL, and I needed to find out why (plus I needed to go, so it was a good fit).

One piece of advice, don’t go to the Mall of America on Black Friday, just don’t.  Stuff was needed, and we figured that by noon the place wouldn’t be as crowded (it was).  However, this did give me an opportunity to gauge the popularity of the Wild in the area.  Of course, the fact that I was in the “State of Hockey” (more on that later) helped facilitate the process.  Between the hockey stores, the sports stores, and Sears, there were plenty to choose fr from.

Minnesota Post will be up shortly

I went to Minnesota last Friday (November 25th), but I've been swamped with homework and other stuff since then, so I'll post it next week when I get that done.

In the meantime, here's a pic I took from outside the building afterwords.