Pucking Sports

Wild vs. Devils

Parise returns home maybe for last time as a Devil?

The Minnesota Wild have been red hot this season, led by first year head coach Mike Yeo. The Wild head into tonight’s at top the Western Conference. This is the latest the Wild have been in first place in the West in franchise history. They will be without forward Cal Clutterbuck who went thigh to knee with Edmonton defenseman Ryan Whitney in the Wild’s 3-2 Shoot-out victory Wednesday night. After tonight the Wild head West for a 5 game roadie.

The New Jersey are having another disappointing season for an organization with such high standards. The Devils are coming off an embarrassing 6-1 loss in Colorado on Wednesday night. Currently they sit in ninth position in the inferior Eastern Conference. Part of the disappointing start to The Devils season has been the struggles of star players Ilya Kovalchuk and Minnesotan Zach Parise. Both carry a plus minus of -8 coming into the game. Kovalchuck is feeling the heat in New Jersey after signing that gaudy contract in 2010. Parise is on the opposite end of the spectrum, he is due to be an  un-restricted free agent this summer. There has been a lot of chatter out of New Jersey that Parise could be on the trading block sooner rather then later. Per Star Ledger and Devils beat reporter Rich Chere. One possible landing destination for Parise could be right here in the state of hockey. His whole family lives in Minnesota and its reported that his fiancé  also would like to settle down in the land of 10,000 lakes. Parise also built a brand new home this past summer in Minnesota. Without a long term contract in place by the February trade deadline Parise will be on the move. Don’t be surprised if he is on the wing with Dany Heatley and Mikko Koivu come the playoff stretch run.

Projected Lines:

1. Heatley, Koivu, Setoguchi
2. Bouchard, Cullen, Wellman
3. Powe, Brodziak, Johnson
4. Gillies, McIntyre, Staubitz

1. Shultz, Lundin
2. Spurgeon, Scandella
3. Stoner, Zanon

Backstrom in nets

Projection: 4-2 Wild

-Jonesy

Ok so heres the deal. For those of you whose fantasy teams ate shit this year (probably Jones), heres your chance at redemption. As soon as the NFL playoff matchups are complete, we will either post or print a bracket to be filled out and sent back to us with your picks. Each bracket will be $10 and you can fill out up to 3 brackets. Because there are only 12 total teams, there is a slight likelihood of a tie, so tiebrakers will be as follows:

Each correctly picked wild card game = 6 points

Each correctly picked Divisional playoff game = 9 points

Each correctly picked Confrence Championship = 12 points

Super Bowl Championship = 15 points

Tiebraker: Over/Under for SuperBowl pick

Payout will be 5-10% of pot to 3rd, 20-25% to 2nd, and 65-70% to 1st

Payment must be received in cash no later than JANUARY 6th (day before Wild Card weekend) NO EXCEPTIONS

We will update the standings after every game and post to this site so you can keep updated on where you are in the standings

E-Mail us at TheWeeklyFix@Yahoo.com

Tweet us @PuckingSports

or comment on this post with your email address if you want to participate

Please include your name and how many brackets you will be filling out

-Kinger

What better way to start off the weekend in the State of Hockey than with a drinking game correlated with our States top two teams, the Wild and the Gophers. This game is for any night that either of these teams are playing. Here are the rules:

Each person participating, i.e., watching the game at your place, picks a player (snake draft style)

Each time a player that has been chosen scores, everyone but the person who’s player scored, takes a shot or chuggs a beer (you have anywhere from :30-1 minute seconds to chugg the beer).

If a player records an assist, everyone except for the person who’s player got the assist, takes half of a shot or chuggs half a beer (again, you have :15-:30 seconds to chugg the beer)

Depending on how high scoring the game is, if you’re also playing other games, or if you’re just tryin to get shit-hammed drunk… you can draft more players before or during the game.

If you’re lucky enough to have both the Wild and Gophers playing on the same night, don’t be a pussy, draft players from both teams and let the fun commence.

You can also add in that you have to take a full or half shot every time the other team scores.

Pretty chill game that is virtually free.