Nice Blackhawks Story, Wild Notes

I know this blog is Wild-focused and not Blackhawks-focused, but just bear with me as I share a Hawks story with you. If you really don't care to read about Chicago's reviving team, then skip past this section to hear more about Wild news.

The other day I received an email from my aunt. It was the latest in a long list of forwarded emails that shared the story I'm about to pass on to you. I got this email a few days ago, but was hesitant to post it because I didn't know about the validity of the story and hadn't heard anything about it from media sources.

But today I came across the same story on Deadspin, the only source I've found to have published the story. They verified the story (or at least the basis of the story) with Sarah Spain, a reporter for Mouthpiece Sports.

Update: More and more news sources are picking this story up. Here's the story told from the players' perspectives. Although they focused more on the funnier side with the McDonalds trip.

Here's the email:

"In the middle of a grueling six game road trip where a very young hockey team is away from home, the third game of the trip ends late on a cold Canadian Saturday night. This is the only break on the trip and the three days between games allow them the only break to get back home in their own beds for a couple of days before going back on the road. A scheduled commercial flight waits for them at Toronto 's International Airport for the short flight home; they could be home by midnight. This plane departs on schedule, but without a single member of the hockey team. Back in the locker room a vote is taken after the game was complete, and a unanimous decision is made by this young team to skip this flight and stay one more day. They make arrangements to check back in the hotel and on a frozen Sunday morning charter two buses that have no heat and begin a journey two hours straight north into a sparsely inhabited Canada, but where hockey is its passion. They arrive at their destination to the surprise of the team's general manager who is there attending his fathers wake. After a few emotional hours, this team boards the buses and head back for a two-hour trip back to Toronto. On the way they ask the drivers to stop in a tiny Canadian town because they are hungry. To the shock of the patrons and workers at this small hockey town McDonald's, a professional team walks out of two rickety buses and into the restaurant, which just happens to have pictures of two members of this team on its wall. The patrons know every single one of these players by sight being fanatic fans of hockey in these parts. One can only imagine their amazement of the locals seeing and entire professional hockey team sit down and have a meal in their tiny little town in the middle of a hockey season. After a while they board the buses and catch their same flight 24 hours later, giving one day to their general manager.

Have I made this up, is this an excerpt from some fictional book? No, this a true story of the Blackhawks last Saturday night and they decided to attend Dale Tallon's father's funeral. Its amazing that such a good story can be found nowhere on the internet, and not even mentioned in the Chicago papers. Had one of the Blackhawks got into a fight and punched some drunken loser in a Toronto bar it would be plastered all over papers and the television.

This being said, its hard to imagine any professional football, basketball, or baseball team doing this, but the members of the Blackhawks claim any "hockey" team would have done this. This is one reason I continue to be a big hockey fan, and another reason I am excited about this Chicago team.

I thought I would share as this story appears to have gone unnoticed."

The addition to this story from Spain, via Deadspin, was that the bus was heated and that the McDonalds the team stopped at was giving out Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews trading cards in the Happy Meals.

Anyway, nice story. I don't know why it hasn't been covered more.

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Marian Gaborik has practiced for the last two days without further damaging himself. He's on the current roadtrip with the team, but it's doubtful that he'll play. It will be interesting to see the kind of reaction he gets when he returns; when they flashed his picture on the big screen during a recent home game, the crowd booed.

New Wild commercial...not as good as the ones from earlier this season, especially with the humor and skill potential when using Brent Burns. But not terrible.

Speaking of Burns, he needs to be moved back to defense, even though the front office said they're hesitant to move him back without trading for a forward.

Wild are at Phoenix Thursday night to take on the Coyotes. The puck drops at 8pm (CT).