Black Friday at the X with Lundin
Instead of beating down strollers and carts full of good deals, I decided to catch another south-metro native skate against the Minnesota Wild on Friday.
Last season I made my first-ever trip to the Al Shaver press box to follow Los Angeles defenseman and Rosemount native Tom Preissing. I wrote an update about his things were going in So Cal, a year removed from playing in the Stanley Cup finals with Ottawa.
The experience at the ‘X’ was an eye-opening one, especially since my usual beat included high school gyms, ice rinks and football fields/stadiums. Not wearing a jacket to cover a hockey game was more thrilling than usual and being able to grab a copy of the latest NHL hockey rules book was an added bonus (only the true sports nerd would find it an interesting read).
As I’m writing this the scoreboad reads 31:16, 31:15, 31:14 before they do the “Let’s Play Hockey!” call from the rafters (eye-level with the press box).
Today I’m covering Mike Lundin, a 2003 graduate of Apple Valley H.S. and Mr. Hockey award winner from the same year.
Lundin is in his second NHL season, playing for the Tampa Bay Lightning and has two assists while playing in 20 games so far. He played in all 81 games last season for one of the league’s worst teams.
This season there are plenty of storylines surrounding the team from the hire and fire of Barry Melrose (on Nov. 14, 15 games into the season) to the high-octane roster the ‘Bolts’ put together.
The team is 1-3-1 since losing the former face of hockey on ESPN.
I’ll update this blog during the game, but until then thanks for checking this out.
Here are a couple links to check out about Mike and the Lightning.
