Last night’s 7-5 victory over the Grand Rapids Griffins helped the Wolves clinch the regular season division title, while knocking the Griffins out of a playoff spot. The Griffins have failed to reach the playoffs the last three seasons.
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…so with that in mind, this is what happens when you kick a glass panel with a skate. Years ago I bought a Dell Mini 9 “netbook”. It was possibly one of the smallest laptops you could buy. It ran Windows XP or Linux, had a 16GB solid state hard drive, and a battery that could last nearly all day. I thought it was a great companion as I didn’t need a laptop being around desktops all day long. The keyboard was uncomfortable to type on however, but a later model, the Mini 10, added one inch to the design and made the keyboard much easier to deal with. It also switched to a real laptop hard drive, so storage was no longer an issue. I sold them all on eBay, finally switching to a real laptop after my job posted me full-time at a client. I also own an Apple iPad (first generation.) Great device, but the recent upgrade to iOS 5 was a letdown. The performance has fallen through the floor, and I’m left waiting as the iPad is loading apps or waiting for the keyboard to catch up with my typing. I’ve managed to improve the performance by turning off notifications, but it’s not the tool it once was. It used to be the “go to” device when sitting at home needing to check a web page or e-mail. Now, not so much. I’m sure an iPad 2 would fix everything, but I don’t handle hardware obsolescence in under a year well. Neither does my checkbook. Note that when I upgraded my Mini to Windows 7, it ran faster and did more with the same hardware. I’m starting to miss that Dell Mini. Didn’t Steve Jobs say no one wants netbooks? The Wolves scored twice in the first five minutes of the game to give them a quick 2-0 lead early, and Texas never recovered. Roussel, Polasek, and Connauton scored for Chicago, while netminder Matt Climie made 40 saves for the win. The Wolves return home for a pair of games at Allstate arena versus the Peoria Rivermen Saturday and Sunday. It’s not a game thread or preview. It’s a meandering rant. Yesterday one of the Vancouver Canucks bloggers via Twitter was lamenting the fact that there is so little media coverage of the Wolves in their own home market. There’s been talk that Wolves defenseman and Canucks prospect Sebastian Erixon is unhappy here in Chicago, but the report comes from a news source in his home country of Sweden, relying on “unnamed sources”. Unfortunately, we don’t have anyone in Chicago that cares enough to follow up for confirmation. Certainly with the long list of scratches every night, it’s not surprising some players are getting left out of games, and with the secrecy of hockey injuries, it’s difficult to keep track of who’s a healthy scratch versus a player who’s banged up or worse. Getting back to the media coverage, it’s hard to argue the point. Vancouver’s previous AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, had great coverage. However, unless I’m missing something, the Moose only had to share the Winnipeg media spotlight with a CFL team plus a minor-league baseball team on the same level as the former Schaumburg Flyers. And considering hockey is the top sport in Canada, that gave them some priority in Winnipeg. Meanwhile in Chicago, back in nineties (remember the International Hockey League?) you could pick up the either the Herald, Sun-Times or Daily Southtown, and find some good, original Wolves articles and features. Fast forward to today and coverage seems few and far between, except for articles by someone named “Special”. I did a search on the Daily Herald’s site earlier and found *one* original article a week into the regular season talking about finding the Wolves first win, plus a photo essay a few weeks later. My search was spurred by a tweet from a Daily Herald writer linking an article about Blackhawks prospects from a writer who had previously writtten about the Wolves. Was I surprised? No. The question is why the lack of coverage? I think that’s easy to answer. First off, there is the issue of who the Wolves are affiliated with: it’s a team not named the Blackhawks. Back in the 90s, when the Wolves were an independent team in the AHL, the players came from various NHL clubs, but there used to be ex-Blackhawks on the roster one way or another, either signed by the Wolves or on loan from Madison Street. Back in the present, I can’t imagine too many people, outside of die-hard Wolves fans, having an interest in individual players, since they’re property of another out-of-town NHL club. Second, newspapers have been suffering. Circulation is down, due in part to the Internet, and there are now fewer reporters. The few remaining reporters concentrate on the five major league teams in Chicago. To their credit, the Wolves televise their entire schedule, home and away (save for one “school day” game that started at 9am), and this year select games are available in HD. The Wolves are also extremely active in the community, with programs such as “Read to Succeed”, further increasing their exposure to the public. Is it enough? The Wolves draw well enough to rank them third in the league in attendance. Maybe Vancouver should hire a reporter and put him or her on a two-way contract and assign them to Chicago? Edit: I need to add that there is one writer out there that (if I remember correctly) debuted this season with original Wolves articles, Paul LaTour. His work appears in the Chicago Tribune. While his work is labeled “Special to the Tribune”, the same in other papers usually seems to be just re-prints of Chicago Wolves press releases. I was going to post about the Wolves and Chicago media, but I’m waiting for my editor (aka wife) to proofread it for me. So instead tonight, a bit of fun. Step 1 comes before step 2, Bobby. It’s been said that the Chicago Wolves have an uncanny knack for “shitting the bed” in front of big crowds in key games. Their opponent Saturday night, the San Antonio Rampage, are now in a different division, and their record was less than stellar at 6-9. It’s not exactly the formula for a “key” game, but having started the season around .500, the Wolves need to stock up on wins. In front of a crowd of over ten thousand, the Wolves had issues in the first period, and fell behind 3-0 early. Goaltender Eddie Lack didn’t look bad in net, but the defense was shuffled a bit from Friday’s game in Milwaukee, leaving the captain Nolan Baumgartner out of the lineup as a scratch. Forward Bill Sweatt left warmups with a minor injury, and was replaced at game time by Mike Davies. The Wolves improved their play in the 2nd and 3rd periods, but were only able to notch three goals in the effort, losing to the Rampage 4-3. Wolves winger Anton Rodin, Vancouver’s 2nd round draft pick in the 2009 NHL draft, scored the best looking goal of the night, accelerating through two Rampage players to score on San Antonio netminder Brian Foster. The goal was Rodin’s second of the year. The Wolves travel to Texas to take on Dallas’ farm club on Wednesday night at 7:30pm. I missed the game live, having taken my wife and mother-in-law to dinner at Kampai Friday night. It’s nice to see the Wolves offense come to life after sputtering for the first month of the season. Everyone was saying how good the roster looked going into the season, but that doesn’t always translate into wins. The Wolves have now won their last four games, scoring 18 goals in the stretch. The Wolves return home to Allstate Arena tonight after a three week absence due to the circus taking over. In previous years you can catch a whiff of that “circus funk” in the air inside the arena. Pocket Febreeze anyone? I had read about Fox River Spirits on Beer Advocate, and after seeing a photo of their singles wall earlier this week I made visiting the store a priority. My co-worker and I took the short drive to Wilmot at lunchtime. Well, when you work in Lake Villa, it’s a short drive. From the northwest suburbs of Chicago, it’s quite a trip. It’s located right in the center of Wilmot, across the street from a cafe. I expected a small store, but for the lack of size, they make up in atmosphere and selection. Looks like a hunter’s cabin on the inside. Not alot of wiggle room in the aisles, and half the store is wine. There are a few coolers with six packs, and the selection is good, but not mind blowing. However, most of the store is dedicated to their “singles” wall, where they price out individial bottles for purchase. It allows them to give you the selection of a large liquor store in a nice compact space.  Oh yeah! I actually skipped the singles as I need to pick up a sixer of New Glarus for my wife, and a four pack of Great Lakes Blackout Stout called my name. We were offered a sample of beer, but being on the clock we politely declined. Upon checking out, the proprietor mentioned that they will be adding on to the store, and plan to put in upwards of thirty taps for growler fills. Nice. I can’t wait. |
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