Wild to be tougher this season?

In reading Michael Russo's blog it appears that the Wild have found a decent replacement for their one dimensional stone handed goon Derek Boogaard that took the big money and the bright lights of New York. Reading this makes me happy.

The players got more and more crabbier as the scrimmage went on. Staubitz, taking exception to a hard hit from roster hopeful Justin Falk, dropped the gloves with the big defenseman. Remember, Staubitz, acquired for a draft pick from San Jose on the day of the NHL Awards ceremony (I remember because I was in Vegas), has had 20 fights in 82 NHL games.

Staubitz is a tough, good skating cookie, and he's only played forward for two years after spending his entire junior and minor-league career at defense. The one great strength of the Wild this year should be those third and fourth lines with good skating, hard-working guys like Nystrom, Staubitz, Kyle Brodziak, Cal Clutterbuck, John Madden and as of now Chuck Kobasew.

After further review the Vikings and Favre suck

I know this is a hockey focused blog for the most part but I am not happy with the Vikings play to date this season. In fact I wasted another afternoon watching a listless effort by the guys in purple. I think it's going to be a reoccurring theme this season. Earlier this summer when I looked at the Viking’s schedule I told a co-worker that the Vikings are going to go 5-11 this season. I didn't think they would go out and immediately try to prove me right.

I think the problem with the Vikings is the drama queen Brett Favre, It’s no mystery that Favre is a was a good player during his day but I think that his selfishness is finally catching up with the Vikings. Favre again missed all of the two a day training camp and after the two a day practices were finally over, the Prima Donna decided that he was well enough to practice with the team. I think after watching the past two weeks, I think Favre should have spent more time in Mankato and less on the farm back in Mississippi.

During the first quarter the Vikings had a chance to kick a field goal and take the three points, Favre waved the punting team off and the Vikings went for it. The Vikings didn’t get the fourth down and the ball was turned over on downs, that was a defining moment in the game. I blame Childress for that, because he is the coach and he should have taken the easy three points without even thinking twice.

I would actually take a losing season if we could get rid of Brad Childress. I am sick and tired of athletes getting paid a lot of money to put a poor effort on the field. What do you do? The Vikings have spent millions on a championship caliber defense and offense and they can't beat crappy team like Miami.

Lastly, when you in the Red Zone you can not turn the ball over two to three times, that is unacceptable. Also, when you have you opponent inside their one yard line, you can not allow yourself to give up a 50+ yard run, that's unacceptable, defensively, you pin your ears back and try to get a safety or force a three and out punt.